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Unconditional Love: A Personal Journey

Channeled by DAVID GREGG

Dedicated to my parents
Spirituality

Unconditional love comes from a heart that is open, not judgmental, intolerant or desirous of a particular outcome. Unconditional love means that the love is given freely with no expectation of receiving love in return. In this energetic embrace, every soul -- without question -- is deserving of love, compassion and kindness. There are no conditions.

Some people argue that unconditional love cannot exist, that it must be earned, that it must be won, but unconditional love recognizes that the divine spark burns in each soul we encounter, and with that spark we are all united. To judge or hate another is then to judge or hate one's self. The concept is simple yet powerful.

A generosity of spirit drives unconditional love, where the intentions of the heart are pure and without ulterior motives. Loving-kindness can only exist in a pure form, and true expressions of unconditional love can only exist when the intention is to create joy or ease the suffering of another. The expression of this love is its OWN reward. Reciprocity is never needed. Unconditional love is simply a natural expression of the divine light that exists in all souls.

In this brief article about loving unconditionally, I include both my own experiences and snippets of channeling from the Michael entity. For ease in reading, all Michael's channeling is contained in block quotes.

What is Unconditional Love? The Core Elements

Eastern religions have beautifully explored the pillars of unconditional love and I thought it would be helpful to examine the four most common elements often ascribed to true love. In other words, what does it mean to love someone unconditionally, and what are the necessary components.

1) Friendship & Understanding - The core of true friendship is built on a deep UNDERSTANDING of the other. The intention in any friendship is to share joy and happiness, but if an understanding of how the friend feels joy is not acquired, there can be no true love. When we understand another fully and without reservation, it is easy to love them.

2) Compassion - True love cannot exist if there is no desire to lessen or transform the suffering of the loved one. Compassion can come as a kind word, a loving gesture, or a benevolent action, but the intent to lift the suffering of another is a mark of true love.

3) Joy - People in love rejoice in their presence together. A communion of peace and gratitude exists between a loving couple that finds each other on a planet of over 7 billion souls. Love that does not bring mutual crescendos of joy is not true love.

4) Non-Attachment - Love placed in a vacuum would quickly die, but that is what happens to a loved one if the affection becomes possessive or clingy. True love is not indifference, either. Non-Attachment simply means the loved shared is not conditional or subject to discrimination or prejudice. True love should never be a prison sentence.

Michael's Comments on the Four Elements of Love

Understanding

To understand another, to truly understand the multiple facets of what makes another soul who they are, bestows the greatest honor on a soul. With understanding comes a deep appreciation for the values and underlying life force that drives a soul, both in the choices made and the things cherished. To understand another is then to KNOW them, and the extent that you know another exponentially increases your capacity to love them.

Understanding also creates a bridge to better understand yourself. The gaps between people of diverse background and culture suddenly don't seem so far when you see that the commonalities you share and the dreams and struggles you both aspire and contend with are the same. Understanding then increases the sense of oneness among all men.

Compassion

When we teach about compassion we always remind our students that all compassion first begins with the self. When love and acceptance is freely distributed throughout every part of the soul -- the parts most admired, the parts most maligned -- the well of compassion within is now full enough to quench the thirst of those in most need of your compassion.

Compassion, when offered as love, is the bandage over a fresh wound that prevents infection, allowing the wound to heal. This may seem simplistic on the surface, but compassion is not complex. Compassion is the simplest way to heal the heart and transform a life.

Joy

Joy, as it pertains to unconditional love, is the excitement and pleasure of why you are unconditionally loving in the first place-- it feels joyful. The joy of loving someone is an internalization of all the joyous pleasures in the world, refined into a feeling that surges throughout the body. The first bite into a fresh apple, that is joy. The autumnal colors in a local park, that is joy. Seeing your reflection in the adoring eyes of a loved one, that is joy.

Joy is the natural state of being alive, a state of mind, however, easily distracted by the random minutia of life. Love then acts as a reminder of what life should feel like, the way it was always meant to be. Love is life itself.

Non-Attachment

Being non-attached to a loved one allows them the space to exist in your life without the confinements of conditions and expectations. Most examples of conditional love occur when the love is withdrawn if personal demands are not met. Non-attachment allows a loved one the freedom to co-exist in a relationship without narrowly defining how their love may evolve. Trusting the love to be what it chooses to be and allowing it to go where it wants to go, is the greatest gift of non-attachment.

For Those Who Had Unloving Parents

Throughout this work Michael refers to the archetypes of the mother and father. There will always be unloving mothers and fathers, unfortunately -- some souls, for a variety of reasons, are simply unconscious -- but that doesn't negate the beauty of the archetype when expressed in its purest form. The archetype of the mother and father are very real in cultures around the world. The energy may also be expressed in a surrogate sense, perhaps through a step-mom or step-dad, or even in an older friend or teacher that has supported or mentored you with that energy. Unconditional love can come in many guises but it's always helpful to recognize the archetypes involved, even if personal relationships with your own parents have been less than ideal.

Michael's Comments on Unconditional Love

Any discussion about unconditional love inevitably involves the symbolism of the mother. Unconditional love is perhaps best understood as the undying warmth and affection that emanates from the mother's heart to that of her child. This is a universal archetype that overrides everything, even for those that did not receive unconditional love from a mother or father.

Unconditional love from a mother is an eternal flow of energy, like a babbling brook along a forest trail, gently eroding impeding rocks and debris in the water, smoothing the sharp edges and clearing the waterway for more love to flow. Like the brook, so tranquil and continuous, unconditional love collects the most abrasive impurities in the human heart and carries them away in a current of love and serenity.

That unconditional love is not more pervasive in society -- after all, everyone has a mother -- speaks to the plenitude of hardened hearts in the world that have erected a fortress around their heart to prevent this flow of love. The hardened heart has become a epidemic in society, leading to life threatening disease and a complete blockade against the healing that unconditional love provides.

The obvious remedy for the hardened heart is unconditional love and the only remedy for removing blockades around the heart is more unconditional love, flowing in and around the defenses and battlements till the barricades are worn down to nothing. How this may be accomplished is explored in the following passages.

Unconditional Love As a Mother

Not everyone receives unconditional love from their parents, but I was fortunate enough to enjoy a life graced by someone who I will always consider the great love of my life, my mother.

In my eyes, my mother was the most beautiful being a little boy could ever imagine. She was both angel and ally, the physical embodiment of a caring and undying love that permeated every aspect of my existence. My mother's love knew no boundaries where I was concerned. For me her love could reach beyond the borders of visible light in the Universe.

If I know anything about love today it was taught to me by the unwavering love that illuminated my childhood and adult life until the day that my mother died. She never required that I earn her love, it was simply there, constant and unshakable, like the air I breathe or the perpetual cycles of sunrise and sunset.

My mother's love was the one thing in life that was free, that was unconditional, with no strings attached or confusing legalese to read. The only binding contract was that she was my mom, and my mom was love.

The memories are perhaps too numerous and bittersweet to portray, but when I think about my mom I still remember that my birthday and holidays were lavish affairs, with great attention to the decorations I loved and all the foods and special treats I loved to eat. Consequently I was a chubby child and commercial t-shirts were always snug. My mom solved the problem by sewing all my shirts throughout my school years so that they fit just right. When I developed a passion for music, my mom worked a second job so she could afford to buy the professional model saxophone I needed to start a career. She would attend the many performances I gave, always showing her support, always my greatest advocate in life. She was the one person I could count on to take my side -- even when I was wrong, even when the whole world was against me.

In later years, now bound to a wheelchair, she could no longer care for the garden in her yard that she dearly loved. I took care of the garden for her, the rose bed in particular, with the same devotion and love that she had given to me -- watering each plant, tilling the soil, encouraging the buds to grow. Now that she is gone, I envision the memory of my mom as a single rose from that garden, dazzling in beauty and splendid in color, that till the day I die, will forever bloom in my heart.

Michael's Comments on Unconditional Love as a Mother

When we speak of unconditional love as a mother, we see a love unfettered by the boundaries of demands and conditions. Unconditional love from a mother is unimpeded by any obstruction. The love flows freely, an unending current of energy that if directed at more than one family, would heal multitudes of souls in a single embrace.

The flow of unconditional love from a mother not only nurtures and heals the soul, it plants tiny seeds of love that bloom one day when conditions are favorable for the child to express love to others. Imagine the soul as a parched field, with patches of weeds, lonely wildflowers, and scattered debris. Unconditional love is the spring shower that replenishes the field and activates the dormant seeds left in the soil. It brings to mind the universal maxim that all expressions of love create more expressions of the same, and this could continue to infinity.

From the heart of a mother enormous healing can occur, with healing of every conceivable kind possible in the name of unconditional love. Mothers have lifted two-ton vehicles off the bodies of their children using the power of adrenaline fueled by unconditional love. The love of a mother must never be under estimated. Unconditional love as a mother is the most divine expression of love in the Universe, one both immensely creative in its ability to breathe life into a child, and one that lays a foundation for the life lived by that child.

A father figure is equally important but the unconditional love of the mother is the life force that helps set the circuitry in motion for the soul of the child, energizing the Chakras, keeping the auric field healthy and starting the progression of the internal monads. Without unconditional love from the mother, the child may seem like a restless drifter, forever searching for a mother figure to nurture a seemingly unquenchable thirst for their love.

Unconditional Love As a Father

My recollections of my father are just as vivid as those of my mom.

My dad was a family man, that was his priority. He took the job seriously. He also knew the value of not embracing life through theory alone, and took pride in having meaningful family experiences. He spent his weekends taking me to museums, going to movies with me, finding nature trails to explore, and any other life enriching pursuits that he felt a growing boy should absorb.

These shared experiences, even those that seemed trivial on the surface, later became deeply meaningful to me as cherished memories, because there came a time when they were ALL THAT I HAD. I now love hearing about the little things parents do with their children. It takes me back to those days when I lived as a little boy with my own mom and dad. A lesson to be learned here by all family members, both parents and children, would be the following: TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED.

When you are helping your son with his Lego set, or comforting your daughter when she's feeling under the weather, these small acts of shared experience and love are bigger than you can ever imagine. They are LIFE itself. And the irony in this is rich. We always expect our real life to happen sometime in the future -- when we get beyond that pile of work still left unfinished or when we finally get that raise in pay -- where in reality, life is happening RIGHT NOW. All the little things we experience, those seemingly insignificant events that transpire during a lifetime, may one day turn out to be enormously significant. They may -- and take this last part as if your life depended on it -- turn out to be WHY WE WERE LIVING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

As a tribute to my father and the unconditional love that he shared so freely, I offer the following words:

The love I hold for my father begins with RESPECT and ends with GRATITUDE.

A respect for the life he gave to me, and gratitude for the life shared with him.

A respect for the values he instilled, and gratitude for those values that shaped my life.

A respect for the laughter he created, and gratitude for so many memories of smiles.

A respect for the love of his family, and gratitude for what that love taught me.

A respect for the man that he was, and gratitude for the man forever remembered in my heart.

Michael's Comments on Unconditional Love as a Father

When speaking of the father we should address how the father completes the yin/yang component in a parental relationship. This is not to suggest that a single parent is not an adequate conveyor of unconditional love, only that when the energy of unconditional love flows through both parents, the love is unified in a more concentrated focus that maximizes the benefits received by a child.

Unconditional love as a father nurtures in ways that differ from the mother.

1) The love from the father expresses a more masculine energy that empowers the child to face the world with greater confidence and courage.

2) The love from the father helps the child embrace how masculine and feminine energies of love our complimentary expressions that balance the soul and teach the child how to express love to both genders.

3) The love from the father grounds the child more solidly in the physicality of life, whereas the love from the mother is more emotionally grounding.

Unconditional love as a father also teaches the child, either male or female, to share love with others in a more demonstrable way that serves as a model for how the developing child eventually expresses love to their own children and loved ones. The unconditional love from the mother serves a similar purpose, but the mother nurtures the child while the father guides through support and encouragement.

Understand that this love already exists in every soul, but the parental influence works as an activator. The parents germinate the seeds of love that were previously dormant.

Unconditional Love As a Mate

Because personal relationships are such incredible incubators of spiritual growth, we all find ourselves pursuing love at one time or another. Finding that perfect mate, however, is a fool's game and one that ultimately fails. For one, perfection would be boring. Imperfections are actually where the riches are revealed. In the flaws in our relationships our greatest lessons are often learned; in the flaws in our mates the greatest beauty is often unveiled.

I still recall, for example, how I loved to count the uneven patch of freckles on the nose of a mate, or how I once found the crookedness of a tooth in another, both cute and endearing. It's all a part of unconditional love. When we release our expectations and love another person for who they are and not how we want them to be, it is like a curtain has been raised and our actions toward one another are more compassionate and kind.

Perhaps the greatest gift we can give to a mate is to help them become the highest version of themselves. Unconditional love lies dormant as seeds in the souls of all, but the seeds of anger, ignorance and other negative manifestations also exist. To cultivate the most loving garden in a mate, only water those seeds that sprout flowers of love and joy. Try not to water seeds that grow into weeds, which are nurtured through arguing, complaining and belittling. When you nurture only the most loving flowers to bloom, you encourage more unconditional love in the garden of your mate, which becomes your own garden as well.

Michael's Comments on Unconditional Love as a Mate

Considering the divorce rate in your country, love with a mate is very often conditional. Achieving unconditional love in a relationship at a level once felt from a parent is not as easily attained, but unconditional love shared between two mates can also be extraordinarily beautiful and life changing.

Unconditional love as a mate can bridge two people together in ways that expand the abilities of their souls to reach higher levels of spiritual development as human beings, as well as individual souls. Two souls expressing unconditional love are more capable of transcending the limitations of a dualistic world and can freely share their life journey to increase self-awareness, the awareness of each other, and their awareness of the people around them. Unconditional love between two souls is a gift that opens a door to more joy, more spiritual growth, and more appreciation for what life has to offer.

Barriers to unconditional love between two mates occur when excessive emphasis is placed on physical attraction. Lust is rarely a good indicator of true attraction, and when the initial spark fades -- and it eventually does -- the dynamics of the relationship are almost always conditional again. True love, love that is unconditional, is the acceptance of another soul without a list of prerequisites, such as superficial attributes like "she just isn't my type." To say that you prefer a particular body type as your standard of beauty only poses serious limitations on the availability of potential mates, and also imposes conditions that later act as an obstacle to unconditional love.

Unconditional love accepts another soul without judgment and loves that soul without creating a checklist of physical flaws to tally. Certain commonalities and practicalities may indeed be a factor in the suitability of a potential mate -- choice is still the final arbiter -- but unconditional love ultimately sees the imperfections of another as the unique qualities that make a particular soul beautiful. True love always begins with recognizing the beauty of a soul.

Unconditional Love in the World

The world is your mirror and a reflection of your own mind. If hatred and injustice is what you believe exists in the world, that is the reflection that greets you everyday. The hatred and injustice you rally against becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is all you have allowed yourself to see.

Just as an enlightened person knows that lasting peace can never be attained through war, attempts to meet hatred and injustice with only more hatred (even if well intentioned) results in a stalemate, and no change can occur. Only when hatred and injustice is met with love and compassion does change have a chance. You are now modeling the behavior you would like to see in others. You offer a contrast to the duality of hate, and although hate may seem more evocative to some, love ultimately FEELS better.

The cruel irony is that when you lower yourself to the level of your adversary or despised ideology, you become a vibrational match to that which you hate. Anger matched with anger only creates more energetic vibrations of the same. To quote the Carl Yung aphorism, what you resist, persists.

To change the reflection you see in the world, change the way you view the world with your own thoughts. If your thoughts are loving, the world will reflect the loving state of your mind and you will see more love in the world.

This doesn't end the hatred and injustice that still remains, but with your decision to be loving, now one less person in the world hates. The exponential power of one person inspiring another person (and then another person) should never be underestimated.

Since we already know that fighting anger with anger just creates more of the same, wouldn't love be a more positive behavior to multiply?

Using Unconditional Love to Heal The Soul

Unconditional love is a natural restorative agent for the soul, a spiritual elixir, if you will, that when dispensed in generous amounts can turn around the life perspective of even the most jaded soul. The power of unconditional love to heal is a gift of such life changing proportions that if conveyed on a mass level could be world changing.

When love is not conditional, when love is allowed to flow around the darkest, most painful areas of the soul, without judgment or intolerance, the effect can be instant and dramatic. Even the most forgotten spirit, annihilated by life and unable to make significant change in previous lifetimes, can undergo a dramatic shift in awakening through the unconditional love of just one person.

That souls may be healed through unconditional love is a given, that rejuvenated souls can heal multitudes due to the unconditional love of the single soul that started the chain reaction, is the true power of how unconditional love is a profoundly impactful and life changing. Under the right conditions, unconditional love is contagious, a viral agent that spreads its contagion in ways that could begin the evolution of a society.

Using Unconditional Love to Heal Society

Unconditional love en masse, often inspired by the healing words of a spiritual leader or other visionary, can have a ground breaking impact on a society if the message is bolstered and reinforced with a continuous message that carries the energy of the original. It's not the message itself that does the healing but the ability of the message to awake the unconditional love that lies dormant in others, and create the effect of a chain reaction.

Coordinated bursts of unconditional love, delivered in strategic patterns over a period of time, can have a tremendous impact on elevating the mindset and hearts of multitudes of people. The mass of incarnating souls on your planet, many of them living unconscious lives, are desperately seeking to awaken from their somnolence of ego-driven beliefs and delusions. Many of them are waiting to be led.

Once a society begins to awaken, the message of unconditional love grows exponentially at a rate that would shock even the most hardened cynic. The ability of unconditional love to transform a society is possible. The only obstacle is not believing it can be done.

Using Unconditional Love to Evolve a Species

The entire evolution of a species, at least on a spiritual level, can also transpire from a collective effort en masse to make unconditional love an integral part of the psyche and emotional DNA. The emotional DNA of a species is derived from the undercurrent of emotions that predominantly reverberate in the consciousness of a species. When unconditional love is used as an emotional vehicle to drive the life force of a species, the vibrational level of the species begins to accelerate at a collective level, a global convergence that sets the vibrations of the physical body at a higher frequency than before. This ascension of spirit creates a metamorphosis in the physicality and spirituality of the species as a whole. Now vibrating at a higher rate and more spiritually awake on a conscious level, the species evolves.

Many species in the physical universe never reach this level of evolution, often obliterating themselves through global warfare or through technological blunders that destroy their civilization. Evolving through unconditional love is a major turning point in the life cycle of a species and one that is prized and lauded across the Universe.

My parents, Don and Juanita

About David Gregg

David is the webmaster of MichaelTeachings.com and also moderates the Michael teachings discussion list at Yahoogroups. He has been a Michael student since 1996 and began channeling as a tool for spiritual enrichment. He is also a professional musician and plays the saxophone, clarinet, and flute, with a lifetime love for jazz and classical music. He enjoys literature and book collecting, and writes short stories in his spare time.

He occasionally writes reviews and profiles of jazz musicians at his jazz blog, Jazz Reader.