Volume
Vol. 11, Mysticism in Life
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11. Love
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Adoration
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Vol. 11, Mysticism in Life
11. Love
Adoration
And then there is the love of one's beloved mate, a beloved in whom one can see the beauty of God and hear the voice of God; one can long for that beloved, one can yearn all the time to attain to the presence of that beloved. When there is someone to long for, to think about, then one begins to realize the truth of the saying that pain is preferable to pleasure. When one begins to feel the thought of one's beloved, to feel the feelings of one's beloved, to overlook all the wrong that the beloved may have done, when one begins to see that all is right and beautiful and good in one's beloved, then one is raised to experience the paradise of which the legends speak.
Rumi says, "Whether you have loved man or whether you have loved God, if you have really loved you are brought in the end before the throne of love."
All the different aspects of love and devotion in their beginning may appear wrong or right, but if there is real love and devotion one arrives in the end at that stage which sages and masters have experienced; for love is purifying, love is strengthening, love is uplifting, and love gives life.
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