Ever since I heard this phrase (if you're familiar with Byron Katie's The Work, you'll hear her talking about this a lot) I notice that I move between 'getting it' in a way that's a felt sense of being at peace in myself whatever the circumstances and then wanting to think about it as a concept and becoming confused eg how can I love when I see a parent scream at their child, hear about animals becoming extinct or love it when someone pushes past my mum to get to a seat when she's standing there with crutches? Today I got an understanding in me that I feel moved to share and if anyone connects with this I would really enjoy hearing from you and also if you don't because that's all equally important for me.
So I'm listening to the radio and I hear a story of the dog who attacked his owner on Hogmany (that's new years eve in Scotland) mauling his face with the results that the man died. As far as I know the man had the dog for 6 years so long enough for them to know each other in my opinion. Curious to understand, I keep listening for more information. The reader says that the owner was having an epileptic seizure at the time. I then imagined that the dog might have been frightened when he saw the owner in this state, went into his fight response and attacked him. I noticed that I went straight to a place of love in myself and connected with tears (these tears are an expression of love) and in me I felt connected to loving this situation and all involved. The dog was put to sleep and the man is dead. When I don't argue with reality I can see what is and experience love. I get what the difference is now, a state of love is not about enjoying something or having an experience of pleasure or some kind of romantic state; it's pure, innocent and deeply moving and from a state of groundedness.
Of course I could think a number of things about the situation and go into wanting to gather information, justify, have a right or wrong standpoint. When I have the capacity to go to empathy I do not suffer and that's enough for me. When I'm in a state of clarity I can have access to my energy to support others who are suffering. Who want's more suffering in the world?
In my opinion we have become so confused as to what love is. This doesn't mean that I think I'm enlightened and going to stop saying things like 'oh I love that' or 'I love you', it's still an expression I enjoy. Now I have an experience of the true essence of love, it's a state of grace. I think it's our truer nature. How can I know that? Well, when I experience it there's a sense of knowing in me, clarity, and being awake. It's when I go into judging and evaluating challenging situations I suffer. Then the work begins again....