LOVE IS MY RELIGION
By: Nicole Petroff
Yes I declared myself a worshiper of LOVE. Love is my religion.
When thinking about the concept of having love as a religion, I realized it shouldn’t be like any other organized religion. This religion has no rules, no specific places to worship, no specific god or people involved. It encompasses everyone, every being, every god, every faith, every practice, every action, every thought and energy.
The goal is simply to become self realized of what Love truly is and to become LOVE.
How does one do such a thing? Below is the wisdom I have developed through experiences, reading and self reflection.
There are many practices to choose from that you can use on this learning process and a combination of them is very helpful. I chose the practice of yoga or to yoke meaning union connection and relationship to our true self, Love.
Why do we need such practices to help us to know what love truly is and who we
truly are?
The senses, mind and intellect, and the vacillating nature of the mind creates a constant distraction and identification of exterior self prevents us from seeing. Also the lower emotions (such as anger, hatred, greed, lust, jealousy, envy, fear etc ) prevent us from shining our true nature and seeing what Love truly is. This is sometimes called veil, ego or mya or illusion. Practices such as yoga tai chi, qi gong, zen and many other practices and faiths etc help to purify the mind, emotions so the veil can be lifted.
When the veil is over our eyes, we may see LOVE as a cause of pain, and may discriminate who we love which creates dualism and more suffering. What we call “falling in love” sometimes can be an intensification of the veil and has intense wanting, needing and attachment. The word attachment means a tie or a bond but it can have deep emotional roots and cause scars on our soul or core issues to come to surface for a chance to heal. The feeling of “falling in love” can also be a great lesson looking back at us in the mirror the other is holding. It can be a lesson of seeing true self divine love in the mirror or of ego/veil the other is holding. What is to be seen in the mirror seems to be dependent on, if you are at peace within yourself. The more the ego/veil has been lifted the more at peace and your true nature you become. When we have attachments we create resistance of abundance instead allowing divine energy, abundance, manifestations, happiness, joy, bliss and true love to come into our lives.
This illusion of what Love is, seems to be the result of having that veil covering our eyes and also projecting your thoughts and energy into the future by having expectations or attachments to certain outcomes, which seems to be causes all sorts of suffering. We sometimes do this in relationships by labeling the relationship and putting it into a box of what society or culture says how that relationship with that label should be. When the relationship is in a box, it is confined to those certain behaviors expectations of that label, which bring attachments, and a lot of emotional suffering because you unconsciously placed conditions on how to Love eachother. If we detach from the label or not have any labels we are letting the relationship be free to be whatever it needs to be, with ease, and un-conditional Love.
Attachments and expectations seem to cause suffering and are hard to avoid and is all part of the learning process of awakening to who you truly are. Realizing attachment when it occurs and coming back into the present moment we can let go of it, and see its changes in energy, vibration or dimension as just what it is, a changed in energy and vibration. Learning to detach from those vibrational energy shifts by letting go of control, having faith that everything is happening for a reason/lesson we can avoid and overcome suffering.
When the veil is lifted it is easier to not allow those expectations, detach and love un-conditionally and are accepting the person or thing for what they really are, no matter what the do. They are Love, Vibration, Energy, and a reflection of yourself.
When the veil is lifted we can see and feel love as this beautiful feeling of warmth in everyone, everything, everywhere, it cannot be gained or lost, it is found within, and we begin to vibrate this love to the world, you become LOVE. The feeling of becoming Love that is so great, it is totally beyond words, beyond all capacity of the ego mind to describe it or to evaluate, but rather, it is like great waves of ecstasy and feeling and the absolute certainty that Love, True Love, Devine Love is the truth of it all.
Once the veil is lifted the work is not over. It takes constant practice, learning about self, and consistency with connecting to your higher self and the present moment. The more you do, the more love you will feel from everyone and everything. Then, you become more aware of what things disconnect you, like things that you consume or the people you associate with. Right diet and right association that will sustain your peace of mind is and your connection to Divine Love. If you don’t have consistent practice or continue to look externally for answers chances are the veil will go back on covering your eyes and suffering will continue.
Therefore if you practice Love as a religion, by lifting the veil, loving all beings un-conditionally, you start to love yourself and become more self realized and you start BEING LOVE
LOVE is a state of being. Love is not outside, it is deep within. We can never lose it and it cannot leave. It is not dependent on some other person or external form.
WE ARE LOVE! YOU ARE LOVE!
AND I LOVE YOU!
