Love

"With love, even the rocks will open."
-- Hazrat Inayat Khan*

When I was in college I read a short story (and have unsuccessfully tried to find it ever since) about a group of men sitting around a campfire in the mountains talking. One of them says that the Bible could be reduced to a single word: love. That struck a chord and has stayed with me since then. As my journey led me through a series of churches, it seemed to me that all of them complicated and diluted that simple and beautiful message until it was thin and weak.

Now I am in the midst of a studying "New Science" and my head is full of new concepts such as ... zero point field, string theory, multiverses, epigenetics, uncertainty principle, non-locality, and the non-linearity of time. It is fascinating to watch "New Science" referring back to ancient mystics and mystic traditions in a process of rediscovery of what was apparently known eons ago. But suddenly this morning I wonder if all of this, too, could be reduced to a single word: love.

And, what would we do differently if we truly understood that word and lived it?

About the Quote:
Hazrat Inayat Khan, (July 5, 1882 – February 5, 1927) was an exemplar of Universal Sufism and founder of the Sufi Order International and set forth ten thoughts that form the foundational principles of Universal Sufism[4]:

1. There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; None exists save He.
2. There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, Who constantly leads all followers toward the Light.
3. There is One Holy Book, the Sacred Manuscript of Nature, the only Scripture that can enlighten the reader.
4. There is One Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction toward the Ideal, which fulfills the life's purpose of every soul.
5. There is One Law, the Law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience, together with a sense of awakened justice.
6. There is One Brotherhood, the human brotherhood which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the fatherhood of God. ... (later adapted by followers) There is one Family, the Human Family, which unites the Children of Earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God.
7. There is One Moral, the Love which springs forth from self-denial and blooms in deeds of beneficence. ... (alternative, source unknown) There is one Moral Principle, the Love which springs forth from a willing heart, surrendered in service to God and Humanity, and which blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8. There is One Object of Praise, the Beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9. There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of Wisdom.
10. There is One Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, in which resides all perfection. ... (alternative, source unknown) There is One Path, the effacement of the limited self in the Unlimited, which raises the mortal to immortality, in which resides all Perfection.