Coda: There is Only Love

When We Pray II by Damon Powell

When I began to download the initial inspiration for When We Pray, I had no idea that a series would follow. The initial inspiration came forth just as many others have: during my daily practice of prayer and meditation. I was sitting quietly, peacefully, feeling the warm and then cool pattern of my breath when I became of aware of a very distinct sense of presence surrounding me. It was not a sudden awareness but a slow, steady building that seemed to reveal itself progressively as it became increasingly more distinct all around me. I’m not sure how long the process took, but it was a slow and deliberate revelation that became increasingly more palpable. I felt no fear, only an ever more confident sense of comfort, ease, and genuine care and concern for the issues I was offering up for divine assistance. I somehow instinctively knew that my inner voice was heard, that spirit was listening and was also compassionately concerned. As I poured forth my concerns, there was a gentle but firm sense of being held, or of being wrapped by divine hands and arms—that I was being stroked and soothed as a slumbering child would be by their mother. At the same time, I felt as if I was shielded and supported. Then it suddenly dawned on me that I was in God’s hands and that this was the place I had occupied every time I prayed, but I had only now become aware of it. This realization of being enveloped in the hands of the divine resulted in the initial image of the series. As the weeks and months passed, signs came for another, and another…until I was confident that this transmission had run its course, shortly after completing the seventh image. 

Approximately eight months after completing the series, I was compelled to create yet another image. I am an iconophile and have a love and thirst for imagery. During one of my afternoons in the studio, I began my fairly consistent practice of pulling up Google Images in my search engine and just typing in a random topic to see what kinds of images appear. I can’t recall what the topic was, but my eyes were drawn to a picture of someone’s hands forming the shape of a heart, and I experienced a sudden overflow of heat and love. “Knowing” is the only word to describe these numinous feelings—knowing and assurance that I was loved. That I was protected, cared for, kept, safe, home. And from that knowing, I was sure that this symbol of love must be made manifest through an image. As I began working on initial sketches for the work, my only thought was love. During the image’s creation, I continued to receive this message of love. “There is only love.” 

When We Pray III by Damon Powell

There is only love. Love is all there is, all there has been, and there ever shall be. It sounds so cliché, but this simple truth is pregnant with potency and meaning. From an aesthetic standpoint, one could say that our senses stay tuned to the frequency of love. I say this because love must be experienced. Love is felt. Love is relational, and it is these qualities that also render it aesthetic. Love is an “I” whose existence necessitates a “Thou.” This “I-Thou” relationship is an aesthetic orientation that encourages relation, rapport, empathy, identification, and engagement with that which is “it” or “other.” In the process of engagement, the “it” transforms into a “Thou.” (Earle J. Coleman. “Beauty and the ‘I’ of Buber’s Beholder” Religious Education, vol. 84, no. 1, Winter (1989), 140.) Authentic love requires that we exercise a relational response to life that is open, intuitive, imaginative, and empathic. There is no place in love for division. For authentic love, disconnection is never an option. This truth is not just a spiritual reality but a physical one as well. Quantum physics confirms this concept by reminding us that once two entities have interacted, they continue to influence one another no matter how far they may drift apart. (Barbara Holmes, Race and the Cosmos: An Invitation to View the World Differently (Harrisburg Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International, 2002), 148-149.)

The transcendental triad of aesthetics lies at the heart of love. The Good, the True, and the Beautiful are all subsumed in love, for love is the essence of goodness. There can be no authentic love in the absence of honesty and truth. Most assuredly above all else, love is supremely beautiful. This triad is relational, as the three mutually affect and support one another. You cannot experience one without to some degree also experiencing the others. The structure of their relationship ensures that the contrasting aspects of each support and enrich one another. This relationship of mutual enrichment permits each one to contribute to the value and richness of the other in a manner which enhances the strength of each individually—and so it is with love. Love is also anagogic in that it, too, lifts us. As we are lifted up by love we also lift and are lifted by others. This active web of relations lies at the heart of love and forces us to confront humanity’s dominant conceptualization of love. We conceptualize love as a noun, but love is and ever shall be a verb. Because love, like creativity, requires manifestation. Love must be made visible, or it is not authentic love. All our conceptualizing and imaginings about love are simply much ado about nothing unless they become expressed in the form of concrete actions expressed in daily life. These expressions undergird our need to make love, fall in love, give love, welcome love, and actively experience it in all the myriad ways it can be given and received. As we engage in acts of love, we encounter the transcendentals. 

When We Pray VI by Damon Powell

Love is and has a vibration. It moves and radiates outward from the divine, showering itself upon all of creation. But just as with any other vibration we must tune in to receive it. Prayer and meditation allow us to perceive and receive the frequency of love. 528 Hertz is the dominant frequency in creation and has been dubbed the “Love Frequency” by scientists and spiritual practitioners. This frequency of love has been proven to heal and restore damaged strands of DNA and is the prevailing answer when musicians are asked to identify the frequency they find most pleasing. The frequency of creation is the frequency of love because love is all there is. When we open ourselves to spirit through meditation and prayer, we are attuning ourselves to love. The more we can receive, the greater our capacity to give. Staying within the flow of giving and receiving is one of the reasons why maintaining a daily practice of prayer and meditation is vitally important. The act of prayer is the most important initial step we can take to resolve any issue or problem. The Maharishi effect bears this out. The daily presence of people gathered in meditation has been proven to reduce violent crime, relieve feelings of stress and provide a host of other benefits to the surrounding communities where the groups were gathered for daily practice in transcendental meditation. Prayer does change people and situations. But it does not relieve us from the responsibility of also taking concrete action. 

From a metaphysical perspective, love never ends. But it is often born, dies, and is resurrected within the context of our material human experience. If we would simply take the time to look within, listen to our souls, and set free the love already within us, we would surprisingly find more of it everywhere we look. But we often travel through life crippled and completely lacking the very thing we crave so desperately. Love is free for the taking if we would just open ourselves to receive it. So, let love flow to you and through you. Love has no beginning or end because love is all there is.

Excerpt from the final chapter of “When We Pray: 8 Meditations on the Aesthetics of Prayer and the Spiritual Life” by Damon A. Powell, PhD.