Page 139 - Microsoft Word - SPIRIT AND THE MIND.doc

Sai Love
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE ANSWER to suffering is love. Unfortunately, in its everyday usage, this concept has become oversimplified. What exactly is love? Can we understand it—can we grasp it? Here is precisely where spirituality teaches a profound lesson to psychology, because the love of which spiritual systems speak extends beyond the
concepts of Western psychology.
The psychological self says, “I want to survive; I want to master, to
be successful; I want pleasure, I don’t want pain—I want, I want!” The spiritual self says, “What is this mysterious game—this incessant movement between up and down, sadness and joy, pleasure and pain? What is there beyond this constantly changing world, this transient fleeting moment that is soon forgotten? Is there anything beyond it?”
Yes. Love is constant, unchanging, selfless—transcending separation and duality, revealing the oneness underlying and unifying all things. It is a state of consciousness in which giving needs no reward. Love reaches out to and encompasses the other. It is the source of our intuition, our creativity, our empathy. It is the most
123