BARRY McGUINNESS

Sunday, 2nd October, 1994

 Right after running an Enlightenment Intensive, Emma and I have just returned home. We are sitting in the living room, quietly reflecting while listening to Gorecki's 3rd Symphony (‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’).

I suddenly feel tearful. I am in touch with an impersonal pain, our collective suffering.

We as human beings suffer, and there is such dignity in that. Pain is somehow purposeful and noble. But how?

I sense that there is something of truth in there, but I can’t seem to get it. So I just relax and surrender to all the energy that is emerging.

And now I get it…

What am I?

 I am the power of love.

As we all are.

In fact, life itself - with all its pain and suffering - is love. We are here to remember how to love one another. Pain is simply the cutting edge of love. We suffer in life in order to seek love. Our pain helps others to find their own love.

Love is our natural state. There is nothing in us that is not ultimately love-based. The hate and hostility we sometimes express or experience are just signs that we are unaware of this truth. 

Our purpose in life is to help one another experience love – which in itself is an act of love. Our lives are a service to each other: we live only to help one another become conscious of our power to love. This is what life is: a process of remembering our true nature.

But that love which we are seeking isn’t lost or missing. It’s already right here, all the time, the very essence of our coexistence. We simply choose to express it our not.

The truth is so simple: The meaning of life is love. Our true nature is love.

But my mind cannot see such simple truths. That’s because my mind is addicted to being busy and complicated. Like a vast hall of mirrors, it’s constantly reflecting back me its collection of undesirable experiences, past, present and future.

But now it is clear: Everything we do is an attempt to become love-conscious. Everything we do is love in action.