Excerpted from The Art of Freedom by Michael Damian.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What do you make of being saved by your love? Can you share a personal story of a time your love saved you? What helps you know yourself as you have always been?
When I stop thinking (no future, no past), and 'being' in the present, I reach within, where there is no pain, no sorrow! Only peace and joy. Only Love, which has no opposite. It is your true self, the Atma. Love is one of the portals through which this liberation is possible.
In my experience, it is from my deepest moments of despair that I have been lifted to a pure feeling of true love. I think this is why many claim that guardian angels are with us. God, or whatever your word for this love may be, is present at these potent moments as well as in the joyful experiences of bliss for me. Sudden loss of a young friend, end of a long marriage because of addiction and mental illness, unexpected loss of a life I thought I was living.... Through all of my ups and downs the certainty of connectedness becomes my compass for life. Love is more and more present between myself and all sentient beings. We all suffer, we all can tap into love and heal. My fear of the worst that might happen here on earth is substituted for confidence that with love we will all rally and be there for our neighbours and kin in potent love and compassion. Shared suffering is maybe the most potent love of all.
Love is oneness. In experiencing and realizing oneness with all that is, living and not living, I experience love. In love I am saved from disconnection, isolation, and fear that accompany lack of love. Each of us is a unique individual, which we begin to learn at a young age. It is when we realize that we also are simultaneously part of every other and part of all that is that we experience the oneness that is love. My love saved me since I came to realize this, and it is a realization and love that keeps deepening. Becoming experientially married, which happened for me slowly and long after getting legally married, helped me realize oneness that includes individuality, which is love that saves me. Love or oneness helps me shed surface layers like image, ego, and false self, and get to know my real self that has always been.