The love found within
My intellect wrestled with this question in search of answers, but it wasn’t until I finally completely quieted my mind and found a thought-free experience that I discovered that it was actually filled with warmth and bliss and an abundant amount of love pouring out of it. It turns out that the empty state of mind is not empty at all, but is actually full of radiant love.
In the ancient Indian Vedic scriptures, our true self is described as Satchitananda, which roughly translates as pure being, consciousness and bliss. In Buddhism, the true self comes closest to Buddha nature, namely a luminous consciousness filled with unconditional love and wisdom.
So the empty space of consciousness is actually pure love. Love is in the inner space. The Dalai Lama said that love is the absence of judgment. When you can be with someone without judging them, you allow the deepest kind of love to arise. This is what I’m getting at: If you can bring the mind into such a subtle state, there is always naturally occurring love.
This is not the kind of romantic love between two people. It is the essence or heart of ourselves that radiates into the world. When you touch the essence of your own being, you touch the essence of all beings. Unity, without separation. Without the dualistic mind covering it, the essence is free to shine unhindered.
Just as the expression Namaste means – ‘the divine essence in me recognizes and honors the divine essence in you’, what I am explaining is that the divine essence is the one essence, they are not two different things, it is the one universal essence of being. .
As Zen masters have said, you can only be filled when you are completely empty. When the mind is empty, it can love any living being without holding back. The space to accept others, whoever they are, with all their imperfections. This is letting go of all concepts that do not seek to evoke love or create kindness, but rest in complete openness; a non-conceptual form of love that requires no effort and has the ability to radiate to every being. Just like Rumi said:
“Your job is not to look for love, but only to look for and find all the barriers within yourself that you have erected against it.”
The goal of any meditation training is to touch this source of ever-present inner love. To find the true Self; the unconditioned consciousness in which the world is not seen through beliefs, but instead is seen clearly by not seeing differences. By not judging or trying to explain the situation, but instead having some level of trust that things are perfect as they are. You are not first separated and then have to unite with everyone simply by not dividing and judging things. Unity is naturally present. You are already united with everyone from your core and love is exactly what happens.
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.