Written by Rebecca D'Onofrio

The title of this article is attributed to the third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, and whenever I read it, it gives me chills. The Buddhist view holds that there is no solid, separate, permanent self and when we experience a pure moment of love, our ego, which clings to this false sense of self, completely dissolves into naked awareness.

Love itself is a path to full awakening, to enlightenment, because it is unobstructed from the delusional thinking that perpetuates the ego. When this occurs, it reveals the true nature of mind, and of reality itself. It’s similar to the warm dawning sun evaporating the dense cold fog that accumulates in the darkness of night.

How does love accomplish this? Love cannot exist in isolation, it can only manifest in our connection with other beings. Love (along with empathy and compassion) is a natural byproduct of our interconnected nature, which the self-clinging ego ignores and turns away from out of fear of “losing” track of itself; the opposite of this is beautifully illustrated through the Christian saying of Jesus, “He lost himself in love.”

Love frees our mind from dualistic fixation, of a “me” and a “them,” and illuminates our interdependence. What we experience as our own happiness and wellbeing is intricately and irrevocably interwoven with the happiness and wellbeing of others. This is how and why compassion arises in us. It is born out of love.

When we experience love, we also experience egolessness, or the empty nature of things as they are. And when we experience egolessness, we also experience love. They are two sides of the same coin.

In the moment of love, we are naturally moved to restore the happiness and wellbeing of others in the form of compassionate action. This is why all the buddhas are depicted as compassionate beings.

While the capacity to be awake, loving, and compassionate is inherent to all beings, this capacity lies dormant as the ego takes up the majority of our attention. It takes effort to gradually loosen our ego’s grip in order to reveal the truth of reality, the truth of love.

Practices like metta (loving-kindness) meditation are designed to turn our mind away from ego fixation and open our hearts to our interconnection. The more we do this, the more we experience our natural capacity for love and compassion — and the more we experience our natural capacity for love and compassion, the more the nature of emptiness dawns nakedly.