What is Love? (And What isn't Love)

In celebration of the day of pink and red and chocolates and L-O-V-E I am reposting one of my very first blog posts. The information in the post was inspired by a journal entry I had made while listening to a talk at the Yoga Farm. Swami Sita held an entire weekend course around the subject of love. I was living there at this time last year and I made pink vegan cupcakes. They were topped with a cashew cream frosting and made pink with fresh-squeezed beet juice. So good. I'll see what I can whip up today...

We all have an innate desire to feel loved all of the time, forever and ever...and this totally valid! (And possible!). I think it's the very basic desire the makes us tick, to get out of bed each morning. There is a knowledge deep within each of us that love is very real and that it is truly "all you need" and that it will make you happy forever and ever...and this is true! So why don't we all feel happy and loved all of the time? It is in our methonds of "finding love" (hint: it's within and all around us all of the time-we never need to look) that we fall short and instead find pain and suffering. It is in our ignorance that we find difficulty in seperating love and desire, love and attachment, love and lust...

So here is what to know about the best subject EVER:

LOVE is:

1. Different than attachment. Attachment always brings its friend fear because we think there is something to lose when we are attached. Attachment can indeed turn in to love-once the fear is removed. If there is fear, there is no true love. Period.
2. Pure and Selfless. Love is to give and not to get.
3. Different than desire. Desire is insatiable. It can never truly be fulfilled. Desire implies it is something you don't already have (quite different from love which is in us all) and that you must look externally for it. This search leads to suffering.
4. Infinite. It is never damaged and it never dries up. Love has no beginning and no end. It is our natural state. It is our birthright.
5. Creative. It has the power to redeem, renew, transform. Once we open to love, anything and everything is possible.
6. Present in all conditions. It is the greatest wealth, the greatest peace, and it's yours NOW and forever.

I love you. Om shanti.