Page 31 - WhoAreWe...

What is Love, Exactly?

I have described Love as the life-blood of the soul. It is
probably the most important single aspect of what makes us
human — and hopefully worthy of our creation.

We like to use the word Love to describe our romantic
feelings for the person we have chosen to live our life with.
Also, for members of our family. It is good evidence of our
credibility as humans that we seem to automatically love
our family members. It is nothing short of miraculous —
and perhaps proof that we are universally important — that
we can find romantic love in the far corners of the world.

But as nice and as true and these things may be, I believe
that there is so much more to love. I believe that there are
multiple levels of love and each one has validation and
deep meaning. It is the manifestation of all levels of love
that can and will contribute to everyone's spiritual growth.

So we have mentioned the common definitions for love —
but what about all these levels? How are they important?
Here I must defer to Scott Peck's definition of love, which I
found nothing short of a revelation. I had always suspected
such a thing but could not quite put my finger on it until I
read his book.

Scott's definition of love was simple, elegant, and clear.
Love occurs any time one person willfully participates in
another person's spiritual growth. Nice, right? Now, the
beauty of this is that any person — any person can show
love for any other person in so many simple and complex
ways, and you don't have to marry or even know someone
to love them and share spiritual growth with them! There is
so much pure truth to this concept that it bring tears just to
think of it. Something as simple as just opening the door for

28