According to The Ladder of Love, which is the classification system for love which was channeled to me over the last fifteen years, Agape love and Cosmic Consciousness represent the Tenth Rung of Love. This Rung of Love is not concerned with our romantic love affairs, but rather it deals with our personal love affair with the entire universe. (In this post I will be discussing the concept of Agape love. In another post I will tackle the concept of Cosmic Consciousness.)
In a nutshell, Tenth Rung Love represents altrusitic, unconditional love for all God’s creation.
The following writings on Agape love are excerpts from Grant Me a Higher Love, used with permission of the author. (LOL)
Agape (pronounced “ah-gah-pay”) is unconditional love for humankind and for all God’s creations.
Agape gives reverence to all things. Agape love is the type of love that’s most often spoken of in the traditional religious texts. Agape love is kind, patient, tolerant, and nonjudgmental.
To love this way one has to relax the body, expand the mind to access higher consciousness, open up the heart, and delve deep into the recesses of the soul.
The kind of love God has for us is also Agape love. God waits. God is patient with our Errors in Thinking. God allows us time to reconsider these errors and to correct them. God doesn’t judge us, but rather instructs us. God is filled with unconditional love and affection for all the cosmos. So in practicing Agape, you’ll become more and more Godlike in your behavior.
Agape asks — not, “What you can do for me?” but “What can I do for you?”
Characteristics of Agape Love
Agape love is selfless.
Agape love is characterized by deep humility.
Agape love is overflowing with heartfelt compassion and understanding.
Agape love is given freely without asking, “What’s in it for me?” In other words, one loves simply for love’s sake without fear or worry related to outcome.
Agape love is kind.
Agape love is tolerant.
Agape love is compassionate.
Agape love waits, for it is infinitely patient.
Agape love is truthful.
Agape love is nonjudgmental.
Agape love is endlessly forgiving.
Agape love is unconditional and all-encompassing.
Agape is the way of peace. When humankind evolves to understand Agape love, and puts this understanding into practice, we’ll see a blissful world without war.
Agape is a very egalitarian way of loving, for we’re not supposed to find some people more lovable and worthy than others. For example: in our Judeo-Christian culture, it seems perfectly acceptable to find Muslims unlovable. In practicing Agape, we come to realize that the external differences are inconsequential. All paths lead to God. We come to love all human beings regardless of race, color, or creed. Therefore, Agape can be seen as the noblest kind of love.
You experience Agape love when you willingly help unknown victims of a natural or manmade disaster. There’s nothing in this charitable act for you personally, but your heart, soul, body, and God consciousness tell you to do it all the same.
Agape love fills us with inner warmth, an elevated feeling, an inner knowing that we’ve acted the way God would have wished us to. It’s the mindset of, “What would Jesus, Buddha, Moses, or Mohammed do?”
Since Agape love asks that we love all humanity, this implies that we must love our enemies as well. Agape love is patient, so patient that it waits to win over our opponents, and it allows us to be tolerant, kind, nonjudgmental, merciful, and forgiving in the meantime.
Agape understands that love waits. Agape love is always optimistic. Agape love believes it has the power to alter the world for the better. This kind of love isn’t easily discouraged because, by its very nature, it’s patient and enduring.
Agape is love filled with devotion for all humanity. Agape love embodies hope, trust, and faith.
In 1979, when Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she asked not to have a banquet in her honor, which was the usual protocol for laureates; instead, she requested that the money set aside for the banquet be given to the poor in Calcutta. Upon receiving the award, Mother Teresa was asked what each of us could do to promote world peace. She answered, “Go home and love your family.”
Have you been loving to your family today?