It’s a question that almost anyone with a self-reflective impulse has probably asked themself, perhaps repeatedly: what am I here for? The question can seem like it demands a long, complicated answer, or that it might take a long time to figure out. There’s a simpler way to look at it.
The answer I’m about to give is simplicity itself. The truth often hides in simple answers, but we tend to prefer more complicated answers. They seem to have so much more substance, but complicated answers can make us feel more confused than when we asked the question.
Here’s the simple answer to what seems like a difficult question. This answer cuts to the heart of the matter, with no extra complications. You are a river of love, and you are here to let that love flow in all directions.
That’s the entire, perfect answer. Like anything that’s already perfect, it needs nothing else. Add anything to it, and it becomes heavier and more complicated, and more confusing than it needs to be. That’s the problem with complicated answers- they don’t clarify the situation and will likely make it seem more confusing and complicated.
The love that you, and I, and everyone is made of knows no conditions, and when we add conditions to love, we dilute its unlimited power.
That’s what happens when we “conditionalize” the love that wants to flow from us by deciding to withhold it if a person or a situation displeases us.
I’ve noticed that anytime I withhold the love that I, just like you, am made of, it costs me. It gives me a tight, unpleasant feeling in my body, and does the same to my mood. The funny thing is, when we have that unpleasant thinking and the unpleasant feeling that springs from it, we’re likely to believe the feeling is coming to us through a situation or from another person. Those things aren’t the source of that feeling because those things don’t have that power.
The source of the bad feeling is the withholding of love itself. Because when I withhold love, which is my essence, I’m withholding the very thing I’m made of.
Think about a flowing river. Notice the smoothness and constancy of the flowing water. Think of the volume and speed of the river. Now think what would happen if you tried to hold that water back, or tried to let less water flow than the river was holding. You’d be upsetting the nature of the river, whose nature is to flow.
When you constrict the flow of the love you’re made of, you’re upsetting nature. That’s why it feels so bad.
If the purpose of your life is clean, in other words, if it arises from love, your life will feel good, peaceful, and settled. If the purpose of your life is something other than loved-based, you’ll have a bad feeling most of the time, though you may look to circumstances as the cause.
The important thing to remember is that when you withhold hold from someone, without knowing you’re doing it, you’re withholding love from yourself. That’s another reason it feels so bad to withhold love. The nature of love is to flow in all directions.
Would you like your life to feel good more of the time? The way to experience that is simply to let the river of love flow the way it wants to flow- freely, and in all directions.
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