I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before and have maybe even contemplated it. What does it mean to say there is only love? When you say something like this to others it can spark different emotions. I’ve noticed some get quiet and contemplative while others get angry, annoyed and even defensive. If seems to some that it is some airy fairy super idealistic and simplistic view of things that has no basis in reality. Others are certain that this is just a trite spiritual cliché.

I can only tell you what it means to me as I have given it some thought. At the moment of death or contemplating the moment of death it seems that all the extraneous stuff falls away. Beliefs, proclamations, judgements, grudges, our ideas about how life should be and even our bodies fall away. It is the biggest letting go of our lives. We are letting go of absolutely everything because as we know we can take nothing with us. If we are lucky when everything else falls away it leaves nothing but love and the focus on loved ones.

I can only tell you what it means to me as I have given it some thought. At the moment of death or contemplating the moment of death it seems that all the extraneous stuff falls away. Beliefs, proclamations, judgements, grudges, our ideas about how life should be and even our bodies fall away. It is the biggest letting go of our lives. We are letting go of absolutely everything because as we know we can take nothing with us. If we are lucky when everything else falls away it leaves nothing but love and the focus on loved ones.

Many master teachers and gurus point us to the moments before death as a powerful contemplation. My teacher Mooji would often say, “die before you die.” Meaning die to everything false, unimportant and temporary while you are still alive. What remains is only love. On your death bed you will most likely not be concerned with politics or the final score of the ball game. You will only want those that you love to be around you and you will want them to know you love them.

Western cultures tend to ignore the fact that death is actually a part of life, everyone’s life. In fact we die mini deaths throughout our lives. We shift, grow, change and transform in an ongoing process of letting go and surrendering. While still very much alive we die to old ways of being that have become outmoded or restrictive. We are vulnerable and stripped down to the core as we begin anew only to begin another cycle of birth and death and birth again in gradual dress rehearsal for the main event – our physical death and release of the body.

In the end there is only love because it is timeless and transcends even death as it is carried forward through our loved ones.