Can we unconditionally love anyone, if we can’t unconditionally love everyone? We are trying to play a limitless game within a framework of limits. It's like the zen koan of the modern psyche: having a kind of love that is greater than our own mental limits and the different roles we play in everyday life. It's about a love that goes beyond what we usually think and how we act in public. But, paradoxically, as we paint our aspirations of this limitless love, the brush strokes inadvertently reveal the very roles we wish to transcend: the husband, the wife, the loyal friend.
The duality of human nature is poetic, yet deeply troubling. In our yearning to love without chains, we often end up forging the very links of those chains, whispering words of affection, only to follow it with a silent caveat, "but only if you reflect my desires." To genuinely embark on the path of unconditional love, it's imperative to reconcile these contradictions. It requires a harmony, where real love meets with the intrinsic human labyrinth of desires and fears.
So, indeed, we ought to grapple with the existential query: “Can we unconditionally love anyone, if we can't unconditionally love everyone?” If we peel back the layers of this question, it becomes evident that, by its very essence, unless our hearts are as vast as the cosmos itself, can they truly be open to just one, in an unconditioned manner?
However, the journey towards such expansive love begins inwardly. Alan Watts once said, “You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.” So why, then, do we tether our own hearts with chains of self-doubt and self-critique? It’s paramount to realize that to offer love unconditionally to another, we must first cultivate an environment of self-compassion, letting our own hearts bloom. It's bewildering, yet profoundly common, to hear souls confess their undying love for another, while they remain ensnared in the struggle of self-contempt.
Thus, to tread the path of unconditioned love might be to engage in the dance of loving myself first. But I guess I have to ask again. Can I truly love anyone unconditionally, if I can’t love everyone unconditionally. Including myself.
