What is love?

In King Yoga we say that a true spiritual path is not just a theory – it is a way of life that can change the world.

If there is anything that will change the world, it is love!

Not the love we typically experience, but true, unconditional love.

Selfless prayer is one of the most magnificent expressions of unconditional love, and it is something that every one of us can do.

This post is the fourth in a series from a book called Prayer Energy, written by international bestselling author Richard Lawrence with Mark Bennett. You can find links to the other parts at the end of this post.

In this fourth post is a deeper and more complete description of unconditional love – one that we can study, contemplate upon and integrate into our practice and our everyday lives.

Wouldn’t that be a way to change the world!

“Love” is a word used in many different ways. It can refer to the relationship between parent and child, friends, husband and wife, owner and pet. It can refer to sex. It can even refer to the relationship someone has with an object, as in: “I really love my car.”

But real love is not limited to any of these things.

Love between people is complex – much of it is good, but not all. For example, the love that spurs the protective instinct a mother feels for her baby can be wonderful, but the kind of love that leads to jealousy and possessiveness can be destructive. Any kind of love that depends on selfish desire isn’t love at all – not really love, in its higher sense. The love that we should strive to manifest in prayer couldn’t be more different from selfish desire.

Real love is not a measure of emotion, but something much greater. Being able to channel the extraordinary power of love brings freedom from hate and from a host of other ills. Love can even bring freedom from war, disease, and our own basic selves. Rather than thinking of it as a state of mind, think of it as a state of whole being.

When it says in the Bible: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44), it doesn’t, in my view, mean that we necessarily have to like our enemies, or people who curse us, hate us, despitefully use us or persecute us. It doesn’t mean we have to socialize with them, or buy them Christmas presents. It’s not that kind of love at all but rather, an impersonal love in the sense of desiring the highest good for them, ultimately their enlightenment.

After all, if they were enlightened, they wouldn’t curse us, hate us, despitefully use us or persecute us. One of the ways of putting this love into practical action is by praying that they be inspired to become the people they could be.

Think of hate as fire, and of love as water. Just as you can’t successfully fight fire with fire, nor can you successfully fight hate with hate. The water of love can extinguish the fire of hate – nothing else. Your prayers can be the fountain from which that water flows.

This may sound like wishful thinking, but it really is true – with experience you will discover this for yourself. But love is much more than a way to extinguish hate. It is a force for healing, inspiration, and transmutation. Just as life as we know it on Earth could not exist without water, nothing in the universe could exist without love.

All this may seem like a pipe-dream. If the true nature of something all-pervasive is so wonderful, how come everything here on Earth isn’t also wonderful? Well, it could be wonderful but it’s up to us to make it so, to realize the potential and manifest perfection, by using love in its higher aspects.

Don’t miss the other posts in this series on prayer:

What to pray for

How to pray

Say it with feeling

This extract has been taken from the book Prayer Energy. Exploring a wealth of traditions and outlining Master of Yoga Dr George King’s brilliant technique of dynamic prayer, this beautifully illustrated new hardback, by international bestselling author Richard Lawrence co-written with Mark Bennett, reveals a profound connection between positive thought and powerful change. Anyone purchasing this book will also receive a free copy of A Book of Sacred Prayers.

About the authors

Richard Lawrence is the Executive Secretary of The Aetherius Society for Europe and a Bishop in The Aetherius Churches. He has devoted his life to the work of his Master and personal friend, Dr. George King (1919-1997), who founded the Society. He is also an international bestselling author of more than 10 books.

Mark Bennett is the co-author of two books, both of which he wrote with international bestselling author Richard Lawrence, namely Prayer Energy and Gods, Guides and Guardian Angels, which was voted “best book on spirituality 2007” by readers of Kindred Spirit magazine. He is the youngest International Director of The Aetherius Society, whose teachings he chose as his spiritual path at an early age.