Unconditional love is usually regarded as a higher kind of love, and somewhat difficult to achieve.

It’s true, it certainly is a higher kind of love, certainly a lot higher than the kind of love where we “love this, love that, love this and that too” but it isn’t difficult to achieve.

 

 

There is one place, and one place only, from which you can authentically access unconditional love, and I mean authentically, with no conditions whatsoever and without any doubt that it’s unconditional and pure love.

That place is within you and is your soul.

Your soul is spiritual, and is connected directly to the highest level of existence we can conceive of. Your soul is created by that highest level of existence, call it God or however you conceive of the source of all life, and thus is fundamentally divine.

The qualities of your soul come from that highest level of existence, and when you ask whether unconditional love is a quality of your soul, and THE quality of love that is present within your soul, you have to ask whether unconditional love is a quality essential within, fundamental to, inherent in and intrinsic to, the life itself that emanates from that highest level of existence; you can answer yourself by seeing that:

* love is a quality as fundamental as, or even more fundamental than, creativity, because in a universe like ours, you can see that love exists and therefore was present when creation began.

* you’re aware there are religious teachings about “the love of God” and other spiritual teachings about love being present at the source of life.

* love has the capacity to uphold, to nurture, to hold together, as we can see in human life, in nature and even at a cosmic scale where gravity, the cosmic cycles and the evolution of solar and planetary systems are all contributing towards, overall, a process of progress, and advancement; whilst even the processes of maintenance and of dissolution and destruction are part of the evolution of life.

 

All of this love has the quality of unconditionality, nothing is not loved even though it may be seen to be imperfect; all is perfect at all times, in all places, when seen from the level of cosmic evolution; even when humanity, or other advanced life-forms (should they exist), seem to be making a mess of things, they are actually learning from their mistakes, learning how to become creators in their own right.

So your soul, being created by and forever connected to the source of life, contains the quality of unconditional love; and therefore your soul is the one place where you can access unconditional love and you can do so authentically, without any doubt that it is yours to access and that it is, in effect and I would say in reality, the love of God working its way into this world.

Now, where is your soul, and how can you access its unconditional love?

Most of us think of the soul, if we ever ask ourselves about it, as something remote from ourselves, located somewhere within the spiritual realms of heavenly existence which we cannot access, not even in our dreams meaningfully, because it’s too deep within or too remote from our subconscious or unconscious mind.

Clearly, I think we’d all agree, our soul is somewhere beyond our normal, everyday conscious mind. But it is not remote in the sense of being far from us; it is here within us; part of our soul enters into the conception of the human baby at the time of its conception, according to the revered Indian sage Paramhansa Yogananda. It exists within us as our spiritual life force, and it introduces into our embodiment the state of consciousness to which it has evolved over countless incarnations, in order that it may experience a physical incarnation once again, and learn and grow spiritually through its experiences in this incarnation, at this time, in this place.

So you can be sure that your soul, with its unconditional love, is present within you.

It is at the level of our soul that we can authentically say, “We are all One”, as many people say. Many people say “We are all One at the level of consciousness”, that consciousness is what the whole of creation consists of; but to say “We are all One at the level of our soul” is to recognise not only our part in the wholeness of life, of consciousness, but also that we as an individual, with our soul’s unique history and state of being, is a discrete, indivisible part of that cosmic consciousness, and that we are NOT merely part of an undifferentiated, amorphous consciousness in which we are not an individual.

So, as an individual soul, here in an individual body, you can express unconditional love authentically in the knowledge that you are drawing on the cosmic, infinite unconditional love and you are expressing it as your own unconditional love; and you recognise that everyone else is also an individual, evolving soul who is part of that same cosmic consciousness of which you are a part.

More, when you identify yourself as your soul, which is your true self, as you should, rather than as your body which is not your self, you can be unconditionally loving towards everyone and everything, which is the appropriate way of relating to everyone and everything. Other races of people, even other species, are all equally ensouled parts of the cosmic whole, and each should correctly be related to through unconditional love.

Unfortunately, when it comes to wanting to be loved, most people don’t want to be loved unconditionally; almost everyone wants to be loved for a reason; and that’s not unconditional, it’s conditional love; “I love you on condition that you are such-and-such, that you act in such-and-such ways.” When those such-and-such things change, so does the love. Unconditional love doesn’t do that, it remains the way it is: infinite, eternal and divine.

However, you might observe that older people, particularly, especially married couples, seem to have mastered unconditional love; they love the other for all sorts of reasons and no reason other than that they’re a constant presence in their lives; as if two souls are living together as souls, with a love that genuinely will be “until death do us part” – and beyond.

The whole world could be like that; we could all relate to each other as souls, infinite, eternal cosmic, divine souls who are living imperfect, but forgivable, instructive and spiritually developing lives in their embodiments here on Earth. The world could be populated by communities, societies, countries, living in enduring peace, respect, forgiveness, gratitude, appreciation, understanding and all the many aspects of love that could be expressed in their fullness and purity.

All it needs, I feel, is for us to identify ourselves primarily, first and foremost, eternally, as infinite, cosmic, divine souls here on an embodied mission of spiritual self-development, the primary basis of which is unconditional love and loving service to others.

And if we say that it should be that way….so it will be.