The human experience of love is a closeness and togetherness. It's a warm feeling of being so close to someone that it brings happiness and joy to be around them. But what is love really, and why is it so important?

Love is Oneness, Completeness, Wholeness. When we feel love from the human perspective we tap into this oneness and completeness. To understand this, it helps to understand the human condition. Humanity has evolved in a world of competition and survival of the fittest. Through this competitive world humans have developed a deeply ingrained sense of separation. The general human experience is one of feeling separate from others, at odds with others, and getting along with some humans but not others. Through this experience of separation we encounter love and hate. Well, I call it the Continuum of Love.

The Continuum of Love is the range of love from the highest selfless love for others, through feelings of love for those close, through feelings of friendship, through feelings of indifference, to dislike, and to hate at the far end of the Continuum of Love. It's a whole range of the experience of love. Kind of. It's not the whole complete Love, which is not a love for others, but rather Love In Itself. Not love of these or those. Just Love, without the sense of separation. Love is Oneness.

You see, the sense of separation is key to understanding love. The sense of separation isn't accurate. Truly, no matter how many there seem to be, there is only ever One, an Infinite One. It is this Oneness that is Pure Love. Oneness is Complete and Whole. It is the natural state of Being. When humans feel love, it is a temporary dropping of the ingrained sense of separation, which allows the natural, true state of Love to come through. The closeness of human love is felt when there is a reduction in this sense of separation.

Most humans prefer love and unity to hate and separation, but some get so caught up in the sense of separation that the hate dominates. It is the sense of separation from others that gives rise to these feelings of closeness and distance. The closer people are to Oneness, the greater the feeling of love. When seemingly further away from Oneness, the feelings of distance, separation and difference can lead to hostility, competition and hate. But even in the physical sense there is a drive towards unity. Humans seek to have sexual relationships, where there is a physical union of sorts. The higher seeking is to have an emotional union with another, which we call "in love". And there is a higher love still, with the love and compassion for all humans and all creatures. This is a love that is closer to Pure Love.

Pure Love is that natural state of Oneness, without the sense of separation from others. We can call it Love, Joy, Peace, Wholeness, Oneness, Being, or God. It is the same One. It is the same One that all spiritual seekers seek. But it is right here. It is no distance. What prevents the natural state from being evident in the human experience is the ingrained notion of separation. So the theory is that all we need do is drop the notion of separation, and Love will be permanently experienced.

This is Enlightenment. There are numerous ways to 'reach' Oneness, though, of course, it cannot be reached, because we are already no distance from it. We are Oneness. But the notion of separation needs to be dropped for it to be revealed in the human experience. So in the human experience we can practice Oneness, by letting go of feelings of hate and dislike. If we aim for love and kindness to others, then it brings the human closer to Oneness. Then the leap from being close to being One seems a shorter leap. Ultimately the sense of 'others' needs to be dropped. There are no others. There is no separation. The separation is only in the human mind. But the mind can be 'untrained' so that the sense of separation is released.

So, even at a simple level, bringing love and kindness into the daily life can lead each human experience closer to revealing the true nature of Oneness that is right here. Then ultimately the sense of being separate must be dissolved in the Oneness of Love.