Aug 8, 2009
In Episode 12, I suggest a definition of spiritual love.
There is no such thing as 'spirituality' singular, where all
religions say the same thing. For example, Judaism,
Christianity and Islam each have their unique approach to
spirituality. And within each of these religions there are
variety of approaches to spirituality. Yet it is also
inaccurate to say the many religions have nothing in common
regarding spirituality. I try to take a middle of the road
approach, explaining the specific tradition from which I am
writing, but giving an open ended definition of spiritual love that
leaves room for common ground between religions.
At the heart of spiritual love is the
transformation of what mystics call the 'false self.' I
explain what is the false self, how it arises, and most of all what
problems it causes. Each of us suffers from the false self to
some extent, but most people are completely unaware of
it. According to the mystics, most of the bad
things people do to one another-crime, wars, poverty- are caused by
the false self. The great and crucial task of spiritual love
is to unravel and neutralize the false self in each of us.
In episode 13 I will discuss just how the
false self is unraveled, which is the main purpose of spiritual
love.
This podcast series is based on my book The Six Faces
of Love which can be viewed at craigowen.net