We start with human love and may end with divine love.
We are all a little different from each other. Our face is unique, our fingerprints, our mind. But most adults are not particularly unique or original. We somehow end up being a little bit of ourselves and a lot of imitation. Mostly from other people. Both parts – ourselves and imitation – are mixed together. And that is what we think of as ourselves. We imitate as we grow up. We hear someone talk a certain way and gravitate towards speaking like that. Or see a certain haircut, and think it will be good to have the same. We start imitating other people’s attitudes.
It seems to us we must adopt or imitate something from another person to improve ourselves. We are not good enough as we are. At some point, though, we forget we are imitating and the imitated act becomes a habit. One just follows along with the choices that came along as one grew up.
However, there are many people in the history of mankind that were original and unique. We can learn something about being original from studying such lives. A few very clear examples can illustrate the point. For example, Johann Sebastian Bach created music of a kind never heard before. Rembrandt created paintings that were completely new and modern at that time. Walt Whitman created a new kind of poetry that was very different from poetry of the past. Martin Luther King was a quiet young man that suddenly one day began to speak his mind. Bob Dylan wrote songs that were original that other people started imitating.
Considering the examples above, one can argue that there is a difference between an original work (something new and never seen before) and the person who made it. That is of course true. But an original work or act must come from an original source. Such as a person that is not mostly made up through imitation.
This is also relevant for love.
Love from a person whose acts are mostly imitated is still good. Yet as people mature and become more themselves, they embody less imitation. Their love would be more sincere.
It is not about striving to become an original and unique person. It is more about discovering and letting go of all the imitation that one has picked up in one’s life. If taken far enough, one can discover the Self one was born to be–and experience the limitlessness of divine love.
Bo Kristensen is from Denmark, and has studied the Fourth Way for many decades.