Growing up I was a big fan of the long running comic strip series Peanuts by Charles M. Schultz. I remember in one of the series Lucy was reading a book to her younger brother Linus. She was in a hurry and didn’t really want to read to him at all so she skips over most of the book and just sums it by saying “Once upon a time they lived happily ever after.” Linus then picks up the book and says, “What are all those other pages, advertising?”
I think what this comic strip points to, is our age old belief or hope that there is such a thing as happily ever after. Think about that phrase for a moment. Living in a state of happiness that is so complete that it becomes permanent; the interesting thing here is that this is the ending for many love stories.
My question, is that by telling these stories with these fairy-tail endings are we intuitively reaching into ourselves for some kind of love that in fact could bring about that state of life, the state of perpetual happiness where we would live forever?
In reality the only thing that will bring that kind of perpetual happiness is when you are living in truly enlightened state. So the question then becomes, what is that special form of love that helps bring this about this state of awareness?
It’s called devotion. It doesn’t really matter who or what you are devoted to, what’s important is that the state, or the act or the process of devotion itself. The object of devotion is important because it has to be something or someone you connect with.
For example, many people have hobbies such as, collecting stamps, coins, sports cards or models, etc. As you’re collecting different objects for you hobby the details and characteristics of everything you collect become more and more important. As you find rare items the more precious and enhanced your perceptions of them become and in turn the more enhanced your appreciation becomes as well.
As you see greater levels of charm in the object of devotion, you begin to see more in it. You open up to it more and appreciate it more. As you love it more you become more focused on it and you see things in everything you collect that other people won’t see.
These mechanics are the same things we see in love relationships. If you’re lucky enough to be in a love relationship that is intensely devoted what you find out is that eventually you go beyond those characteristics that first attracted you. Something that initially attracted you to the other person is there but you start to look deeper, to see more and more in the other person that others who are not in love don’t see. As you see more and more you fall deeper in love. If you continue that process something really wonderful happens; devotion.
This is also true with spirituality. The object may be different but mechanics are the same. If we look closely enough at people and things and learn to notice but not judge we will see that everything has infinite existence and the more closely we pay attention to, the more we will fall in love with it.
Devotion is also the key to all great spiritual traditions. Some people because of their backgrounds may be devoted to Jesus, the Virgin Mary, to Krishna, Buddha, or the Islamic Profit Muhammad. Who it is doesn’t have to matter to everyone just you. That is what’s important.
This is where you have to learn to differentiate your heart from your intellect. The heart will say this is the only one for me whereas the mind says this is the only one period. This is why religious wars break out. This ego based intellectual thinking is what causes terrible violence and deep rooted hatred.
Devotion is like a doorway, you should show gratitude, appreciation and value to whomever or whatever you are devoted to but understand that it is simply a learning process on your soul’s journey. It is a conduit to the infinite.
