To the individual self, unconditional love usually means that we will be loved no matter what. We’ll be loved even when we’re sick and poor. We’ll be loved even as we become old and useless. It may even be thought of as being loved when we treat others with unkindness. It means to be loved without conditions.
But then the problem is that love is so poorly defined. What is love? (Baby, don’t hurt me.) As far as I can tell, most people seem to think of love as a kind of positive regard. In its most tangible form, love becomes a verb: to love is to show it. For example, I might spontaneously cuddle my wife.
My wife likes being cuddled, so she takes my cuddles to signify that I love her, whatever that means. The cuddling probably causes a release of oxytocin that feels good. In reality, I like cuddling her, and I like that she likes being cuddled. Ultimately all action is essentially driven by conditioned preferences, so there’s not really any space left for either love or unconditional love.
Or is there? There is something that is unconditional love, but it’s not what you might think. If you are anything, then you are everything, and there’s an impersonal quality to everything that could be seen as unconditionally loving.
Notice everything that seems to be happening for you right now; the sights, the sounds, the thoughts…
