Pure Awareness and Unconditional Love are One and the Same | H. Breton

SELF-love is the unconditional acceptance of one’s SELF. That SELF is pure awareness. Hence, when you have unconditionally accepted yourself, you embrace mental silence which is simply being aware of everything with the absence of thoughts. It is the acceptance of life as it is for it is you. That is also called Unconditional Love. In it, there is no judgement, reaction, discrimination, nor preference. Unconditonal Love can only be felt. Any attempt to describe unconditional love will fall short from what it truly is for it is only felt when there is no mind. It is given to all forms/expressions/personalities for all consist of a manifestation of Pure Awareness within itself. Therefore, there is no distinguishing in Pure Awareness/ Unconditional Love for with what mind does it distinguish and what is there that is separate from it? It judges none for it is the ALL. Thus, Unconditional Love is Pure Awareness and Pure Awareness is Unconditional Love. Since you are always aware, unconditional love is always ever flowing. It is eternally existent but is only embodied when you realize that you have always been in union with the entirety of creation and thus, remain as Pure Awareness alone. The one who embodies unconditional love emanates unconditional love resulting in the upliftment in vibration of everyone who is in the vicinity. One cannot help but be enveloped and overpowered by that supreme, unbiased love. Why do you think a sage like Sri Ramana Maharshi had thousands of people come to see him even though he always remained in the vicinity of Arunachala? Such was the intensity of his unconditional love. It attracted people all around the world like flies to light.

On the other hand, the love of the ego (“I am the body” identity) is called conditional love. It is limited, stagnant, constrained, bounded and exists only in separation. It accepts life as it is if and only if certain conditions are met. It rejects certain aspects of life according to how it perceives life should be. It always strives to be the controller, the manipulator, the overseer… If it is not 100% of the time in control, it suffers. Why does it suffer? Because it limits itself to the body due to its strong belief in separation. It believes, “I am the body, and these are my surroundings”. Hence, it thrives in duality for it wants to have a life of its own. It cannot stand being in union with all that is for it cannot exist when one abides as pure awareness. This is precisely why it rides the rollercoaster of emotions that is propelled by the momentum of separation, never bothering to look within to abide as that one who is forever thoughtless and still. That one has all along been the witness of the ego’s internal and external struggles, but unaffected by it all and uninvolved. Instead, the ego, feeling quite overwhelmed by misery, says, “what did I ever do to deserve this?” Imagine you being all of creation but limiting yourself solely to one particle of creation namely, the body. That is the ego for you. Quite powerless and immensely limited!

When one is progressing in the practice of self-enquiry, the ego is then faced with an existential crisis, resulting in the upspring of countless thoughts in the mind of the practitioner. The ego is hopeful that the practitioner identifies with anyone of the thoughts so that it can survive from being obliterated by abidance of pure awareness. However, if the practitioner knows these thoughts, being ever-changing and transient, are all illusions, she/he speedily reaches the goal: sahaja samadhi (permanent and natural/effortless abidance as pure awareness). In that state, you are no longer a practitioner for the seeds of vasanas (habits of mind) have been incinerated, never to return. Rather, you have become a jivanmukta (one that is liberated while alive), immersed in eternal Bliss, Peace, and Unconditional Love. Afterwards, there remains nothing else to learn in this life for you have attained the goal, never again to be subjected to the wheel of life, death, and rebirth.

Submitted to Voyages of Light by H. Breton