Robert Wolfe - Awakening to Infinite Presence, 2016

The Meaning of Love Because it is so much at the very root of spirituality, an entire book could be written on how love is perceived by an enlightened being. As a pastor, you are asking how love is expressed in the context of nonduality.

By the way you framed the question, I think we can agree that we are not considering love in its common conception as mere affection and attachment toward another person or object; benevolent concern for other animate beings; romantic or sexual attraction; or worship and devotion toward an idol or supernatural image. All of these are relationships which reflect a dualistic perception. As Ramana Maharshi has said of this, “When you talk of ‘love’, there is duality, is there not: the person who loves and the entity…who is loved.”

In the transcendence of the dualistic perception is the profound love which the nondual sages refer to. The Sanskrit term ananda is often translated into English as “bliss,” but the bliss is the consequence of experiencing unconditional love: the word unconditional is defined as “absolute.” This is love for all that exists: that means the “good,” the “bad,” and whatever is in between. It means a love that inclusively makes no distinction between what is manifested, from moment to moment, and the omnipresent Totality which manifests it.

Ramana uses various words to indicate the ever-present actuality, such as God or Self, that to which all things owe their be-ing. So he says, “expansion of love and affection would be a [proper] term for a true devotee of God,” or the sublime Presence. But he emphasizes that this infinite Presence “is not ‘somewhere else’, but is inside [as well as 79