Love is in the air

Love is in the Air

"Love is in the air"...literally, you can feel it wafting about, trying to decide where to land on this lover's day. Of course, love's latches are various: latching onto your dear friends, family, even your pets (who stretch the latches more than one could imagine, becoming a member of the family.)

Love is all about bonding, feeling that connection, and sometimes suffering when it's missing.It's about those ties that we create with the surrounding world which support us in the bad and good. In the end, it's that net we rely on, or that safeguard that makes us feel secure. And if in some way it has been subtracted–toxic, not there, or losing it through death or divorce–we find ourselves on a rocky shore unsure of our footing.

Recently I attended a Buddhism seminar to find out the Buddhist take on love because Buddhism is based on compassion (yet another type of love). Yoga had led me there and I was curious to know more. I agree with many aspects of Buddhism–meditation leading to mindfulness, helping others (and ourselves) overcome suffering, not harming any living thing, and the idea that what we see (or think is important) is an illusion that keeps us stuck and not on the path we are meant to be on. 

The idea that piqued my interest  the most at the seminar was letting ideas and people go: not becoming attached to anything. While it's true that this allows you not to suffer because you're not attached to anyone (or any animal), my question is: does it really let you love? Can you love in a detached way, not truly investing in it? I had always been under the assumption that unless you are fully into it, you'll never fully feel love or give it.

Yet, the Buddhists feel for everyone, wishing away suffering for every living being. It's an unconditional love that spreads to everyone and makes no distinction between friend and foe. They love humanity as a whole, not as an individual, as far as I can understand. But, I wonder...do they ever love a friend (or their mother) in a "special", more profound way?

I try to treat everyone with as much compassion as possible, but I have to admit not at the same scope of a Buddhist. I'm not sure if it's possible for me (in this lifetime), because I want to feel all types of love and give as many as I can (not just as much as I can).

That said, I wish you love. I wish when you reflect on love today that it comes from a source of trust and peace. So often it has been distorted into a kind of destructive force (through passions gone wild and unhealthy beliefs.) I hope you are able to close your eyes and feel that light ... 

Photo: Armiche Bolaños Quesada

 Text: Kristen Mastromarchi