Love is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in human experience.
We often reduce it to specific relationships, romantic love, familial love, or affection for a select group of people, friend and of course our deloved pets.
We choose who to love and who to exclude, making love seem conditional, something earned or lost. But what if love is something far greater, something that transcends our narrow definitions?
Romantic love dominates our cultural narrative, especially around Valentine’s Day.
We see love in movies, books, and songs as an intense emotion, a connection between two people bound by passion and devotion.
Familial love, on the other hand, is seen as something natural and instinctive, our love for children, parents, or siblings, shaped by bonds of blood and experience.
Yet, at times, familial love can also manifest as frustration or even resentment.
In both cases, love is confined to a select few, a privileged circle of people we allow ourselves to cherish.
But if love is so selective, can it truly be love?
Rarely is the concept of love expanded to include all existence. Even when God is brought into the conversation, it is often within the framework of religious doctrine, where love is conditional, granted to the faithful and denied to the unworthy.
But divine love, true love, does not operate on conditions. As Krishna told Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, everything in existence is a manifestation of the divine.
Love, then, is not an act we perform but a state of being, a fundamental connection with all that is.
Why is it so difficult to understand love in this way? Because we are conditioned to seek love outside ourselves, to find validation in another person’s affection.
This expectation leads to suffering, especially around occasions like Valentine’s Day, when people are reminded of what they lack rather than what they inherently possess.
But what if love is not something to be attained, but something to be realized?
Love could simply be presence, the ability to be fully immersed in the moment, to breathe, to feel the pulse of life moving through us.
What is more magical than life itself? The miracle of our senses, the gift of perception, the beauty of creation unfolding before us.
Love is not just for a partner, a child, or a friend—it is for the sky, the trees, the wind on our skin, the rhythm of our breath. It is the silent awe of existence, the profound gratitude for being here at all.
This Valentine’s Day, rather than measuring love by the presence or absence of a romantic partner, let’s honor the simple fact of existence.
Let’s treat ourselves with the same compassion we so often reserve for others.
Love is not something we must chase; it is already within and around us. It is in every sunrise, every heartbeat, every fleeting moment of awareness. And in recognizing this, we open ourselves to the purest form of love, a love that is infinite, unconditional, and always present.
May you celebrate love in its truest form, not as something to seek, but as something to live.
.
.
.
コメント