Love – Evolution and how to Save the World (part 1)

Some time ago I found myself asking a question humankind has pondered since the dawn of the creative mind; what is love? But as I thought about it I realized that this question is somewhat incomplete and that there is another angle that needs to be explored in order to gain greater understanding of love; why do we love? Before I go into this I feel I need to provide you with a little background as to how I came to my conclusions on love.

The universe, I have discovered, is made up of one basic force; energy, and it comes in two forms; positive and negative (we’ll ignore neutral energies for now). All ‘living’ things in this universe are governed by and use energy to exist, and we are no exception. Now, regardless of your thoughts on the evolution of man, there are a few things that science generally agrees upon. At an early stage of our development we were essentially herbivorous creatures, who most likely moved about on all fours as the great apes of the world still do today. At some point in our evolution our diet changed to include meat, raw obviously. This simple change of diet altered the chemical make-up of our brains drastically in that it provided us with protein and other nutrients sufficient enough to facilitate an evolution of sorts. With this new energy we eventually began to walk upright on two legs and gained a significant advantage over our fellow creatures of the world. Essentially, our hands became free to use tools, our speed and agility increased and the ability to think creatively was boosted. Now, without going into the details of the following few hundred thousand years I’ll skip forward to today.

Today, mankind appears to be at the threshold of a crisis that could possibly see the end of our very existence on this planet. Essentially, and without delving into the political or religious arena too deeply to explain, we have become extremely fearful and destructive creatures. We go about our days feeling isolated, alone, and terrified of pretty much everything imaginable, including ourselves. We are afraid to look in the mirror most days in case we find a grey hair or blemish, we are afraid to walk down the street, eat food, drink water, talk to other humans, even to think outside the limited spectrum of acceptable thoughts we have been indoctrinated to believe. The list is endless and growing every day. But, there is hope. At the other end of the emotional spectrum, the positive to fears’ negative, is love.

At the simplest level we could argue that love exists as a means to assist us in finding a mate for the purpose of breeding in order to maintain the species. But why have love beyond conception? Well the answer might be so that we are bonded enough with our mate to share the efforts of rearing and guiding our children at least to the point of them being self reliant. This may very well be a part of the reasons of love, but does not answer other questions such as why we love our parents, our friends, why we stay with our mates (ideally) until death etc. Again, all this could be placed under the vague reasoning that we do all of this in order to survive. In essence we need the cooperation of others to survive effectively and ensure the future of our DNA. The survival of our DNA (even in its generational variations) is a form of immortality if you will, something we all instinctively desire.

But there must be more to love than merely survival. After all, all kinds of animals and plants manage to survive, far longer than we have in most cases too. And if love is needed for survival then one could logically argue that a plant feels love? Plants have existed on this planet far longer than any animal, ever. In a spiritual, other-worldly sense I suppose it could be possible, but without the cognitive power to process such an emotion this is a relatively null argument. So, again, what is love and why do we feel it? The answer seems pretty simple, yet some may say highly idealistic. But fear is the only part of us that judges anything to be idealistic, and we are talking about love.

Like I said before, the universe is governed by one almighty force; energy. This is the force spoken of in the religions of the worlds. Some call this force God, Allah, Kali, Chi etc. We feel that energy flowing through us and around us all day, every day. In the upper, more noticeable levels, our energy, and its varying types, has its’ sources in many places. We are highly capable of intuitively feeling another persons’ energy simply by walking in the room. Notice when somebody nearby is sad, we feel heavier and slower as we too tap into their energy level. Or when we are in a room filled with laughter we find ourselves brighten up and start smiling. Energy is a shared force. We do not own it yet we are a part of it. It can control us, but we too can control it. We have the ability to choose whether or not a situation will have a negative affect on us, even if you have yet to tap into it. We can not only gain energy from the people around us, but from the trees, water, air, animals, and at the highest level we generate our own energy from our very minds.

This energy, as I mentioned before, has a positive and a negative force to it. In the struggle to feed our own energy levels we often ‘steal’ it from other people. We do this every time we belittle somebody, embarrass, ridicule, threaten etc. The result may be that we attain a higher level of physical energy, but our mental energies vibrate with negativity, even if we aren’t consciously aware of it. This is the essential function of the ego; to act as a generator of energy. Unfortunately it is a weak substitute for the much more powerful generators we have within us all. But in order to consciously operate those higher energy generators we must first kill the ego. Not an easy task.

So to tackle the first question (finally) we can explore what love really is. Love is the greatest source of positive energy available in the known universe. Not Lust, not obligation or responsibility as love can often be confused for, but love. If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to experience intimate love for another human, usually a partner or child, then you will know how it can make you feel. Love can raise you into the stratosphere emotionally and spiritually. You feel indestructible and deliriously happy when love enters your life. You have more energy and your compassion towards others increases ten-fold, especially in the early stages of a new love. But for the most part we only ever experience a portion of loves true power in our lifetime. There is a much higher state of love, that of true, limitless and unconditional love. The sort of love written about in scripture. The love of ‘God’. The truth be known, however, ‘God’ is love. Part two of this truth is that we are in no way separate from this love… from ‘God’. We are all one force and entirely capable of experiencing and, in actuality, becoming true love. There are a few who glimpse love in its’ truest and most powerful form, but most of us never come close. That is not to say we are incapable of it but rather we are misdirected by our numerous layers of fear and the ever-present ego. But the love I speak of is of the sort it is possible to feel for even the most feared and hated things of our existence. True unconditional love would have us forgive and embrace such people as Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler and even George W Bush. The sort of love that we are capable of giving even to someone who may have raped you as a young girl or slaughtered your family in cold blood.

You may at this point be thinking this to be complete insanity or delusion. After all, how can you feel love for somebody who performs such atrocities as to murder a child or bring down the world trade centres in New York? How could you forgive and embrace the murderer of a loved one? Well, perhaps you should ask Jesus Christ these questions. If we look at the life of Christ (regardless of your religious stance) we see a man who lived in the very spirit of love to which I am referring. Even whilst hanging on the cross we are told he wished no ill to his executioners. Throughout his entire life, Jesus experienced full and unconditional love for all things. Now, I am essentially an atheist, which is to say I do not follow the doctrines of the organized religions of the world, yet I can see an ultimate truth to the stories being told in the various religions of both the east and west (as misguided as they may or may not have become)… love. But let me be clear here, unconditional love does not mean rolling over and being stomped into the ground by an aggressor while singing ‘The Hills Are Alive’ and weeping with compassion for this person. No, judgement must still play a part in it all, but it is your attachment to the outcomes of life that make the difference. We may wish for a ‘perfect’ world, but to be attached to the outcome is the same as ‘fearing’ that this perfect world will never come. That is not true love.