The secret of meditation is love.
The secret of love is meditation.
Meditation and love are inseparable. It is through love that we meditate most effectively, and through meditation that we access ever deeper, vaster and sweeter love.
If you need any quality in life, then start by loving that quality and, like a magnet, your love will draw that quality towards you and into your life.
When forced to do something we don’t like – even a simple task – we soon become tired. When engaged in something we love – even a strenuous activity – we will happily continue all day.
If we love an activity we will naturally apply ourselves to it more eagerly and wholeheartedly than otherwise. We tend to do much better at school in subjects we like, and not so well in subjects we dislike. If you want or need to do well at any task, simply find it in yourself to love that task and you will automatically do much better at it. This is not always easy, but is always effective.
The more you love your meditation, the more sincerely and determinedly you will practise and the sooner you will derive positive benefits from meditation – and the more you will have access to the heart’s limitless ocean of love.
This is how love is the secret of meditation: if we approach meditation as a chore, as a dry discipline then it will be very difficult for us to apply ourselves and make progress. If however we approach the task with love, then eagerness, enthusiasm and joy are automatically there. All the qualities we need to succeed in meditation – discipline, determination, patience – come to us much more readily when guided by the power of love.
In meditation, as in everything else in life, love conquers.