Most people are not aware that there are two kinds of love: conditional and unconditional. The foregoing statement is not correct because in reality there is only one kind of love and that is unconditional. Conditional love is counterfeit, fraudulent, and even if called "love" by many is not love at all but a business relationship based on the principle of "give to get."
Unconditional love is a rare and beautiful thing when a person, already complete, satisfied, and fulfilled within him/herself loves just because (s)he wants to extend what they have.
Ben was asked by his friend, Jacob, if he would get married again. Ben replied that he would if he could meet someone who was happy with herself. And then Ben said, "Are there any?" Jacob laughed and said, "They are a rare creature. You are serving up a tall order."
Ben said, "Well, like Diogenes looking for an honest person, I am roaming the world looking for a woman who is happy with herself."
"How about you," asked Jacob? "Are you a happy man? Can you love someone unconditionally without expecting anything in return?"
"I aspire to that," said Ben. "Like everyone I know, I have my baggage, my fears, my frustrations, my depressions, but I am getting there. I have learned that you get what you give, you enhance what you extend, you learn what you teach."
Jacob, with a smile, said "Dominus vobiscum."
Ben laughed and replied as he did in his altar boy days, "Et cum spiritu tuo."
The idea of the Perennial Philosophy of Aldous Huxley leads one to the idea that God is too big for any one religion. How is it that sometimes people outgrow their religion of childhood? James Fowler, among others, has mapped out a model of spiritual development. Osho says that a person cannot enter into a spiritual life until he/she rebels against childish religious beliefs. Notes On A Spiritual Life intends to explore deeper understandings of an authentic spiritual life.
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