I just arrived home in the wee hours this morning from a wonderfully uplifting trip: a week in Nepal, a week in Bhutan – populated by some of the gentlest and most gracious people on the planet - followed by an amazing and transformational week of retreat in Southern California, led by Master Chunyi Lin, originator of Spring Forest QiGong.
We talked briefly during the retreat about an inspiring letter, written by Albert Einstein to his daughter on the subject of love. As I researched a bit more, I discovered that Einstein likely did not author this piece. Darn.
However, I still find it beautiful and want to share it with you – one more installment in a series of writings on love.
“Einstein” on Love
“...There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.
This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force.
Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it.
Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others.
Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness.
Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die. Love is God and God is Love.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.
To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation. If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.
After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…
If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.
Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet.
However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released.
When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.”
As I let these words digest within me, I’m struck, once again, by the paradoxical nature of love - its incredible power and its exquisite gentleness. All genuine power is rooted in love.
