Unexpected Freedom

When We Fall in LoveThere is no fear if the heart is uncontaminatedand the mind is free from ill-will.Seeing beyond good and evil, one is awake.Dhammapada verse 39I have been asked to talk about falling in love. I want toapproach this topic from a consideration of love as thatwhich happens in our heart when all fear falls away. Perfectlove is the absence of the heart-contraction experienced asfear. Now, can we contemplate this absence as presence?Love as Undivided AttentionWhat does it feel like to be loved? What does it feel like to beloving – as it is happening? To receive love from another is toreceive somebody’s undivided attention. They’re notpreoccupied with anybody or anything else; they haveforgotten themselves and are wholeheartedly attending to us.There’s a tremendous beauty, richness and fullness in soreceiving the heart of another.If we were to consider the experience of our ownundivided attention directed inwards, we would come upon‘one-pointedness’, the essence of formal meditation.Cultivating this one-pointedness is our samadhi practice. Insamadhi we experience a sense of profound beauty and53