The essence of all is Love

I am dipping my toes in the thought pool of non-dualism and it is an interesting experience so far.

To fully describe what non-dualism is goes beyond the scope of this article and - truth be told - I really don’t know if I am even capable of doing so, even if I wanted to... 😉

Exploring non-dualistic concepts using words is a strange thing for me.  First of all I have not completely thought these concepts through. And second I am not even sure if our minds can actually grasp the concepts in its fullness. Thirdly, naming things is hard. Putting another layer of complexity by giving it words that actually describe the essence of what it is I would like to say about it... Thinking about this alone, dazzles me already. And I have not even yet begun to write about this.

In short non-dualism means ‘no dualities’, or in the positive variant: unity (of all), oneness. 

Key thought is that all is one and hence separation does not exist. So all things that seem to be separate, it isn't really so. That is a mere illusion of our (collective) minds. 

If I understand correctly, the essence of this oneness in the non-dualistic viewpoint, is named Love. The essence of all is Love. Unconditional Love. Peace, love and joy are the essence of the oneness that is.

To digest some of these non-dualistic viewpoints, I plan to write a few blog posts. In these I want to take a look at a few common, real life situations, and see what it would mean if we approach them from a non-dualistic viewpoint.

Let that sink in for a moment: everything is an expression of love. 

Think back to the last time you were in a situation and you got triggered. Not the best things came out of you in that situation. Most likely the other(s) involved also showed some of lesser nice behaviour. Maybe you lashed out or said some un-nice things and felt frustrated. How is that (an expression of) love? 

Let’s break this down and start with frustration. What if frustration is the negative story of an underlying desire? “I am frustrated that he didn’t listen to me” becomes “I have a desire to be seen and understood, I have a desire to experience love”. Then it is obvious this is an expression of love for ourselves (which is a wonderful thing I think 😉).

But you lashed out. You called the other names, you were angry. That cannot be love! 

Maybe. But what it you lashed out because some old pain got triggered? And that pain brought your body in survival mode. And in that you lost control and lashed out... Could it be that your body tries to process the old stored pain? And can it be that your body wants to let go of that because it hurts? Wouldn't that then be love as well?

In one of the books¹ I am reading it writes: everything is either an expression of love or a cry for love.

And at the core a cry for love is love as well.

My mind cannot comprehend these concepts at all. Even though I’ve been thinking about this for a while, the implications are vast. So vast that a lot of stories in my mind show resistance to this perspective and its implications.

But what if... what if truly Love is all there really is?

What if Love is all and all is Love?

That might just be flipping awesome!

With ❤️,

Henjo