unconditional

love that is.

I had an a-ha moment today, not related to or caused by anything that I was particularly aware of. And no, I don't go around all day thinking about "LOVE". But this thought just emerged fully formed and awake in my mind.

Today in fact I was teaching, an introductory workshop in the fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine. Which is something I both love and love to do, but that was not the catalyst.
I don't know what the impetus was, I just know a truth when I hear or feel  it.

Love, as it is offered to us in its many forms and colours, means absolutely dick if it is not unconditional.

Unconditional being the way your dog loves you (not your cat, that is totally conditional upon the quality of your servitude), or the way a new mother falls passionately and hopelessly into unconditional love with her newly born infant - even if it looks like Yoda. Unconditional.

You don't have to love me back, you don't even have to like me, you don't have to do anything for me that you don't want to. Nada. Here it is, my love, on a plate, all you can eat, knock yourself out. No expectation. No obligation.

Hard isn't it.

One time at a teaching with His Holiness Dalai Lama, he was talking about this very thing, but in his perfect, compassionate and enlightened way. At the time he was speaking about our propensity to judge others. And he told us we should be like the sun which shines upon the earth, regardless of what it shines upon.

Regardless. No distinction. Offer it up to all and sundry, whoever and whatever is in your world. The sun shines on the slums of Calcutta and the penthouses of Manhattan in the same way.

This was a breathtaker. I sat up and really took that one on, and have shared it with many people since.

And today's penny drop was like that, it really just has to go out without fear or favour or agenda or expectation. Love that is.

But also that is the way it should come in! Don't be all altruistic and love everyone but allow conditional love in your own life.

NO.

Because your unconditional love has to include yourself.

I suspect this takes courage, at first anyway, but is worth pondering.
Am I deserving of unconditional love?
Well if you have to deserve it, its not unconditional is it?
The question might go more like, do I want this love that is being offered to me, and what do I need to put in the collection plate in return? If the answer is nothing, you have found the endless all-you-can-eat buffet you, and I, deserve.

Have seconds.

Because that makes it so much easier to keep refilling the all-you-can-eat plate of love that you are offering, unconditionally, yes?