The Absolute Everything
BY MARY O’MALLEY
When you rediscover the spaciousness of being open again to the great flow of life—when you allow energy to move through you rather than trying to control it—you begin to recognize that the word that best describes this movement of light is Love. There is great truth in the song title “Love Makes the World Go ’Round.” It not only makes it go around, it permeates absolutely everything.
In Greek, there are four words for love: eros (romantic love), philia (the love of friendship), storge (the love of family), and agape (universal or unconditional love). In English, we are hampered by having only one word for love, so I am capitalizing the word Love to point to the truth that Love (agape) is the essence of life.
Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon and author of the best-selling book Proof of Heaven, wrote about what happened while he was in a seven-day coma from spinal meningitis. When asked what the core of what he experienced was while he was out of his body, he said, “Love is, without a doubt, the basis of everything. . . . This is the reality of realities, the incomprehensibly glorious truth of truths that lives and breathes at the core of everything that exists or will ever exist, and no remotely accurate understanding of who and what we are can be achieved by anyone who does not know it, and embody it in all of their actions.”
Brian Swimme, an author and evolutionary cosmologist, calls this essence at the heart of life “allurement.” This force of attraction can be seen from the very beginning of our universe. The “stuff” that arose out of the Big Bang followed the call of attraction and came together into communities we call atoms. Then these atoms were drawn together into communities called molecules. Then the molecules were so attracted to one another they came together into communities called cells, and then cells followed the call of allurement and became multicellular beings.
This attracting force at the heart of life then showed up in the mating dance of insects and animals, and in their daily lives as well. In Charles Darwin’s book The Descent of Man, he mentions “survival of the fittest” only twice, but he mentions “love” 95 times when referring to the behavior of the creatures he was observing. He also talks about conciliation and cooperation being the most significant mode of behavior among them all.
This urge to connect at the heart of life is all about Love. The great mystics of the world have all agreed that when you come out of the clouds in your mind, what you recognize and fully become is Love. And it is this Love, this allurement, this urge to connect, that brings together all things, whether it is subatomic particles or human beings or solar systems.
Every cell in your being is filled with this Love, and it fuels almost everything you do. But you have been conditioned to search for it outside of yourself, leading inevitably to the often endless, and mostly unsatisfying, search for somebody to love you. What would happen if you recognized that Love is right here, right now? What would happen if you realized that Love is not something you need to find, but who you already are?
Love is what constitutes absolutely everything. The more your heart opens, the more you can feel the energy of Love that animates everything: trees, rocks, birds, clouds, your dog, and even the sun. Hafiz, who was truly awake to this Love that is at the heart of life, speaks to this truth in his poem “The Sun Never Says,” translated by Daniel Ladinsky in his book The Gift:
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.
Even the sun is an expression of the Love at the heart of life, endlessly giving forth its light. In the sun’s giving, the entire earth thrives. In learning how to live from your heart, you become as lit up as the sun, giving forth the warm, radiant energy of Love as you move through your day. Just as atoms, molecules, and cells were drawn together into greater communities, you will draw others into the community of the heart. It is the heart that recognizes we are all unique expressions of the Love that is the essence of life, and it is the heart that will wake us up to the truth that we are all in this together, floating on a tiny, blue-green jewel of a planet that is dancing through vast oceans of space.
In the early 1970s, a powerful awakening led Mary O’Malley to begin changing her relationship with her challenges, freeing her from a lifelong struggle with darkness, and she has been helping others heal their inner wars ever since. MaryOMalley.com