Cosmic Consciousness -- Love

Hi,

You know, ever since I read Richard Bucke's classic,
Cosmic Consciousnes (1901), back in the 1970s, I've been
intrigued and fascinated with the concept. Bucke was
a Canadian psychiatrist who practiced in Hamilton, Ontario.

Bucke believed that human consciousness was evolving
and that as time passed, more people would realize a
greater connectedness to all things, including each other,
and to the divine forces of life. This would include a
quickening of the senses, and a realization of oneness
or cosmic consciousness.

Richard Bucke was a friend of Walt Whitman's, and
believed that Whitman had glimpsed this wonderful cosmic
realization of life. He believed that it influenced Whitman,
when he wrote his epic work, Leaves of Grass. This is
an amazing piece of writing, and certainly casts Whitman
as a man of remarkable sensitivity.

The writings of Whitman, Emerson and Bucke, all served
to help shape the closeness I feel to nature and the natural
world, today. It also helped to shape my concept of love,
because if we strive to experience this oneness of life, we
should be prepared to exercise a great deal of love toward
all things.

This is incredibly difficult, and one will certainly experience
many setbacks. I'm not talking about selfishness that often
passes as love, or about jealousy that can also pass as
love, but about unconditional love. Indeed, sometimes I
wonder whether it's possible to sustain unconditional love
over long periods of time? I like to think so, and I like to
think that even if we come close to unconditional love, we
should give ourselves and other people a pat on the back,
for the effort!

When I was in high school, I was infatuated with a girl
who lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We would write long
letters to each other on a weekly basis. Wow! I was so
excited when her letters arrived in my mail box! Anyhow,
we had long discussions about love, divine love, and I'm
sure that I wrote the word, "love," at least two dozen
times in each letter.

To this day, I'm happy that we exchanged those letters,
and shared that experience together. I'm sure that many
of you who read this blog, have had similar experiences.
Well, don't forget to think about them occasionally, and
how special they are to your life. Those are the things
that make life worth living.

I want to say more about unconditional love, in future
posts, unless, as Ol' Coyote, I decide to cope out and
write about something else. You never know when the
Coyote fragment of my personality will take over, and go
off in a totally new direction! :)

Bye for now,
LaurieC