Objective Love

Objective love is not easy to come by. I’m not talking about other people’s love of me. I’m talking about the feeling of love awakening in my own breast, unattached to an object.

When Mr. Bennett introduced us to the Lateif, it was the beginning of a new horizon for me.

Up to that point emotion was the reaction I had when something pleasant or unpleasant happened. Like being excited over an unopened gift, upset when my cat got hurt, or angry when I didn’t get my way.

When something demonstrative wasn’t going on, there weren’t any feelings involved, right?

My parents did not believe in exhibiting emotion. Love was a given and abject demonstrations of such were considered insincere.

Putting Love in the Picture

The Latifa exercise opened me to objective feelings as opposed to subjective reactions. This has begun to develop in me an awareness of an inner body of feeling. To put it in perspective, after years of working with sensation, I have come to an acute awareness of having a “sensation body”. Now I am experiencing that extended work with the feeling center is developing a “feeling body” in a similar way.

What used to seem like a dead zone in the center of my chest (when things were calm) has become alive with nuance. Almost like a harp whose strings resonate with any vibration. The finer the instrument, the more easily a note sounds. A feeling, love, arises in the breast when the right alignment occurs.

Love in Politics

Here’s a for-instance:

Coming into the kitchen the morning after the midterms, I found Jack listening to clips of the previous night’s victory speeches. He cued me into listening to a newly elected senator from Texas.

This guy was giving a different victory speech than any I had ever heard. He began by making no bones about his belief in God. Then he spoke about the rightness of loving one’s neighbor as oneself, no matter the religion, ethnicity, party, or personal preferences someone has.

As he spoke, my feeling center responded to his sincerity. He convinced me that his campaign won on a ticket of love. A love that radiated from him and activated a like feeling in me.

Love That is Not Easy to Come By

Just because my feeling center has become more open and responsive, does not mean I have automatic access to objective love. Maybe I’ve tasted something of what it feels like.

As I work with digesting finer energies and transforming negative emotions, I hope to fine-tune my emotional center. I don’t believe objective love is something I can learn or manufacture. I believe it is something that occurs as my ability to open space for it grows.