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In the valley of love, the seeker reaches the central message of all religion, a powerful inner light that beckons to us all from the core of our beings:
There is a Spirit that is mind and life, light and truth, and vast spaces. He contains all works and desires and perfumes and all tastes. He enfolds the whole universe, and in silence is loving to all. – The Upanishads.
Love is the beginning and end of the Torah. – The Torah.
Through love of man, through service and through truth raise thou our souls into the realms of light. -The Gathas.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God. For God is love. – The Dhammapada
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. – The New Testament
Cling, all, to the strong rope of Love Divine–Love for each other, and of the One God–and do not think of separation ever. – The Qur’an
Love is the greatest law in this vast universe of God! Love is the cause of unfoldment to a searching mind, of the secrets deposited in the universe by the Infinite! – The Baha’i Writings
Can you love in a unified, universal way? Do you feel love for everyone who crosses your path?
The ability to love and to be lovable makes for remarkable changes not only in the true seeker, but in everyone nearby. When you begin to become a mirror that reflects the love of the Creator, your soul starts to shine with delight and joy.
Everybody knows at least one person like that, who has a loving, open soul, someone who consistently evinces joy and happiness. And, of course, all of us want to be near that person, because their joy feels so compelling, so attractive, so captivating. These qualities exemplify those who have journeyed into the valley of love: radiance, enthusiasm, genuineness, an internally-generated happiness that cannot be faked, real and lasting concern and care for others. When you meet such a soul, you are uplifted, happier, more alive.
If you develop those qualities yourself, and begin generating that selfless love, you will profoundly influence others. A ray of such powerful reflected love, when it strikes the heart of another person, can have a powerful effect. This generative, creative and real love builds connection and forges strong bonds that lead to grace, wholeness and unity.
The gradual opening of the emotions in the valley of love makes for greater acceptance and tolerance, allows for mutual respect, and widens both your vision and the vision of those whose lives you touch. When you reach this stage in the seeker’s path, you have begun to discover a profound truth, the mighty principle of authentic love that directs the real cause of change in all human affairs.
The opening of the emotions to others also drives your progress through the valley of love:
The heart is the organ of opening up to somebody else. That’s the human quality as opposed to the animal qualities, which have to do with self-interest. – Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, p. 189.
Opening the heart takes courage, spiritual awareness, a commitment to embrace the future, a dedication to the new, an intent to learn, and trust that the power of the universe will ultimately treat you well. In short, it takes faith. Faith, then, becomes the foundational substructure of love, the essential ingredient in accepting the ultimate unity of creation and its Creator:
Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking. – Buckminster Fuller.
In the valley of love, the true seeker transcends the rational and falls in love with all creation. Here the awakened soul itself murmurs to your consciousness, and you open your perceptions to a world larger than language or science or reason can fathom. You sense a new dimension to your reality, a purely spiritual dimension, where your heart and mind and emotions enter a massive space they’ve never imagined before, a space with room for you as a part of an organic oneness:
Likewise, looking deep within the mind, in the very most interior part of the self, when the mind becomes very, very quiet, and one listens very carefully, in that infinite silence, the soul begins to whisper, and its feather-soft voice takes one far beyond what the mind could ever imagine, beyond anything rationality could possibly tolerate, beyond anything logic can endure. In its gentle whisperings, there are the faintest hints of infinite love, glimmers of a life that time forgot, flashes of a bliss that must not be mentioned, an infinite intersection where the mysteries of eternity breathe life into mortal time, where suffering and pain have forgotten how to pronounce their own names, this secret quiet intersection of time and the very timeless, an intersection called the soul. – Ken Wilber, Integral Psychology, p. 106.
In the valley of love, the soul allows the heart to open not just to another person, but to that person’s inner essence–which we all recognize instantly, because we all share the same essence. In the valley of love faith welcomes an unknown future, trusting destiny. Eventually, faith transforms the true seeker, singular and alone, into the open, engaging, loving human being we all deeply want to become.
David Langness writes and edits for BahaiTeachings.org and is a journalist and literary critic for Paste Magazine. He and his wife Teresa live in the Sierra foothills in Northern California.
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