Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
“You owe me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.
—Hafiz, paraphrased by Daniel Ladinsky
The Kabbalists say God is the will to bestow, and the human being is the will to receive. We are the Kli or vessels whose purpose is to receive the love of God. They believe the only way we can be loving is to be filled with God’s love and then overflow. The sacrifice required of us is to let God remove all obstacles to the love of God.
What if love requires an upgraded consciousness? What if what we call love is an egoic calculation that if I give you ________, I will get ________? The prediction is that if I sacrifice materially for you, give of my time, and work to meet your expectations, you will value me, provide me with attention, and keep me safe. What if “normal” is a purely self-based existence that functions to build an egoic container focused on self-preservation? The ancient traditions all agree that we are much more than the base ego container most of us come to identify with as self.
What is it that blocks us from experiencing the whole love of God? Fear, shame, and the attachments we create distract us from what we think is a fragile, empty container, but in reality, it is the very energy of life. Love is embracing our entire experience and letting go of fear.