In the Sufi creation story, the Universe existed as One, Divine, Totality of Energy at the beginning of time. While there was a fullness in this completion, there was also a paradoxical lack, as there was no "Other" in existence to gaze upon the One with love, awe, and devotion. So the Oneness of God existed at the beginning of time feeling a sort of Divine sadness - a deep longing to be seen, known, and loved by an Other.
This was motivation for the Oneness to divide itself into the multi-faceted, myriad forms of all living beings. It was only then that it could experience the journey of re-uniting back into fullness, through the process of being seen, known, and loved by the Beloved.
In a way, when we experience being seen, known, and loved by our own Beloved, we are experiencing pure, Divine communion - the purpose of existence itself. We are re-uniting with God, as God, through our sacred union.
Ram Das spoke of this sacred relationship as a sort of triangle. “One in which there are the two partners and a third force. This third force is that which emerges out of the interaction of these two partners. It is the shared awareness that lies behind the two of them. They are in this yoga of a relationship and have come together as one, in order to find the shared awareness that exists behind them, allowing them to then dance as two so that the twoness brings them into one and the oneness dances as two. That is the kind of vibrating relationship between the one and the two, so that people are both separate and yet they are not separate. But often, we come into a relationship very much identified with our needs at some level or other, and it really only gets extraordinarily beautiful when it becomes ‘us’ and then goes behind the ‘us’ and becomes ‘one.’”
I refer to this third force – the 'one' that is created between two people in a sacred relationship – as “The Big Heart,” and I believe that everything we do while in a sacred relationship should be dedicated, in some way, to nurturing The Big Heart. At the very least, neither partners' actions, thoughts, or motivations should be harmful to The Big Heart. But ideally, all actions, thoughts, and motivations should be aligned in service to that that extraordinary third entity.
Another way to look at this is to perceive the relationship as a sacred ceremony - a continual, glorious, powerful, transformative ceremony. Whenever you and your partner are in each other’s presence, each of you holds the awareness that you are now in a holy space - as if you've just entered a church, temple, mosque, or other sacred space of God. This mindset allows both of you to always be in each other's presence in an elevated state of consciousness - in the same reverent, heightened state of consciousness that you would bring to a sacred ritual or prayer. It's important that you practice this all the time. This is what I mean when I say, “the relationship itself is the spiritual practice.” If you can maintain a meditative, non-reactive, compassionate, peaceful, aware, ego-less, high-vibrational presence every moment when encountering your Beloved – you have certainly mastered something! But as I said, it’s a practice. An art. Like any spiritual path, it involves a constant becoming, ever deeper awareness, subtle refinements, and a constant revealing of the true self while annihilating all that's false inside you.
This might sound much more challenging than an average, status-quo relationship...but it's worth it! The fruits that a relationship bares when it's treated as holy are the most nourishing fruits - infinitely more nourishing than fruits from a relationship treated as anything less than Divine. As well, the initial challenge of continual, full & present, loving awareness eventually subsides as the practice becomes natural and effortless, leading to a partnership in which both lovers simply bask in the love & depth they've cultivated together.
I once gave a speech at a wedding for a couple who embody conscious union. Cheryl & Rico understand that marriage, in its purest sense, is a promise to help each other evolve, support each other’s most magnificent dreams, and cultivate the greatest love possible between two human beings - a love that encourages each person to experience communion with the Divine.
Cheryl & Rico's shared values on love are one of the many reasons they are a great match for each other, but they share a lot of common interests, too. One of their shared obsessions is with outer space . In fact, the theme of their wedding was Cosmic Exploration, and on each of the guest tables (adorned with models of planetary systems & stars) was a quote about space, embossed in gold, on a small stand at the center of the table. My table housed a quote from the famous astronomer Carl Sagan:
"F​or small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."​
Cheryl & Rico have experienced that vastness - and so much of what exists inside it. Not just the joys & the ecstasies; they’ve experienced the challenges, the uncertainties, the unanswered questions, the impermanence of being. Yet even during those moments of extreme stress, tragedy, loss, and fear, they continued along, side by side, with compassion and maturity beyond their years. I was honored to be a part of their wedding ceremony, and this little portion of my website is a shout-out to their love.
As well, their story is here to act as a transition to some final thoughts on love. For those of you who don't consider yourselves spiritual (and are perhaps turned off by all this talk of Divinity in relationships), read on to hear a beautiful, scientific love story between two, brilliant, atheist minds: Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan.
An Interstellar Love Story
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Carl Sagan and his beloved fiancée, Ann Druyan, were part of a team of scientists in the 1970’s that sent an unmanned spaceship from Earth to the far reaches of the galaxy. Ann wrote about how difficult it was to decide exactly what to put on the golden record attached to the side of that spaceship. That one record was meant to contain valuable information about all of life on Earth - the entire human experience! - which would someday, maybe, be deciphered by other-worldly intelligences, should they ever come in contact with the ship.
When the project was complete, the spaceship blasted off containing music, photographs, greetings in 55 languages, a mixture of Earthly sounds, a salutation from the United Nations, and…an EEG containing the brain waves of a young woman thinking about the man she loved.
It was Ann herself, madly in love with Carl, who volunteered to have her most intimate, love-filled thoughts archived for non-human entities to someday find and interpret, so that they might catch a glimpse of what is surely one of the most precious & extraordinary experiences in the entire Universe: to love as a human being.
What kind of romantic relationship are you cultivating? Is it one you'd deem worthy of blasting to furthest corners of the Universe!?