When it comes to love, the more we give, the more we have. By Maria Porsfelt
I
n any spiritual practice the power of
love is an essential ingredient. In yoga,
we cultivate love and kindness towards
ourselves and all of creation as a path
to the experience of complete unity. It
is a beautiful thought: to be filled with love
and living from the heart. It is an attitude
worth meditating on and to hold as an ideal
of human nature. But is it more than that?
Love is described as a path unto itself,
a path that brings us happiness, harmony,
a sense of being connected and ultimately
brings us closer to ourselves. However, it
might be hard to see how love as we usually
think of it can represent both a path and aspiritual practice.
It is easy to send a loving thought to
all of humanity at the end of your yoga
practice, but love as a path means much
more than that. We need to become genuine
practitioners of an active and radiant love.Active love
It is said in tantra that we can know the
immortality of our soul through the practice
of active love towards other human
beings. This underlines that love has to be
expressed and shown, and is not just a lofty,
fleeting thought given from a distance.
Often our relationship to love is a ratherTHE PATH
OF LOVE
passive one. We long for it and fear it at
the same time. In fear of rejection, we wait
for someone to express love before we
dare to offer it and then we even carefully
measure it out. Or we think it through very
carefully before manifesting the love that
is in our hearts. Continuing like this, we
quickly become stronger in thinking than in
loving. Then we think we love, sending loving
thoughts – but we forget the loving act.
When loving actively, we do not just send
a loving thought to all of humankind – we
actively aim to love every human being
individually. That love manifests concretely
in actions, gestures and attitudes. ActionsLOVE YOGA&