You could say, love freezes time. When time freezes, whatever was fickle and changes, disappears.
But now, when we look at love as we experience it, it’s not like that. What we call love, is not really love. By way of argument, real love that this quality of love that makes time stand still. It’s that kind of love that devotes itself forever to the beloved – whether the beloved is the being himself/herself, or another. Real love has a timeless quality to it – “I will love you forever, I will love you until all time disappears. If it takes a million years, I love you, if it takes a billion years, I will love you a billion years.”
What love is saying, is time is not relevant. And when time is not relevant, then neither are circumstances, or situations.
Start with yourself. Love yourself like that. Absolute, radical love. No matter what the issue, the concern, the problem, the hangup, the neurosis, the addiction. No matter what. When success comes, “I love you.” When failure comes, “I love you.” Love does not care about failure or success. Failure and success are just words we were given by our cultural conditioning. Love holds all. Love holds all of the happiness and the sadness, and judges neither. Love does this because it is timeless.
Love, therefore, is not a feeling, a duty, nor any achievement. It’s neither easy nor hard. It’s a state of being. We are that love. We suffer if we fail to see this. Then we try to secure love through actions and behaviors and conditions. We are free when we see who we are. Then we can rest because then we see we are already home.
If we limit love by any condition, we limit it in time. It then is no longer absolute. At best it is a mere shadow. When we the non-judging nature of real love, we see it is always patient, always open. It holds everything, everyone, always. In this way we say love forgives seventy times seven – which is to say infinitely. In this way we say love is unchanging, no matter how long or how short, no matter how hard or how easy, it just loves. Not because its “good” or “virtuous.” Because its love!
Difficulty and pain, happiness and sadness remain in our perceiving of the world, but love says, “You are held always and forever.” Like a loving parent holds a scared child.
Love is a fire that burns down the whole house of sorrow. What else can?