An exerpt from The Pilgrimage by Paul Coelho:
“Agape is total love, the love that devours those that experience it. Whoever knows and experiences Agape sees that nothing else in this world is of any importance, only loving. This was the love that Jesus felt for humanity, and it was so great that it shook the stars and changed the course of man’s history.”
“During the millennia of the history of civilization, many people have been smitten by this Love that Devours. They had so much to give – and the world demanded so little – that they were obliged to seek out the deserts and isolated places because love was so great that it transfigured them. They became the hermit saints that we know today.”
“For me and you who have experienced another form of Agape, this life here may seem hard and terrible. Yet the Love that Devours makes everything lose its importance: these men live only to be consumed by their love.”
He took a pause.
“Agape is the Love that Devours,” he repeated once more, as if this was the phrase that best defined that strange type of love. “Luther King once said that when Christ spoke of loving our enemies he was referring to Agape. Because according to him, it was impossible to like our enemies, those who do us harm and try to make our daily suffering all the worse.”
“But Agape is a lot more than liking. It is a sentiment that invades everything, fills all the cracks and makes any attempt at aggression turn to dust.”
“There are two forms of Agape. One is isolation, life dedicated only to contemplation. The other is precisely the opposite: contact with other human beings, and enthusiasm, the sacred sense of work. Enthusiasm means trance, ecstasy, connecting with God. Enthusiasm is Agape directed at some idea, something.”
“When we love and believe in something from the bottom of our soul, we feel stronger than the world and we are imbued with a serenity that comes from the certainty that nothing can conquer our faith. This strange force makes us always make the right decisions at the right time, and we are surprised at our own capacity when we fulfill our objective.”
“Enthusiasm usually manifests itself in all its power in the early years of our life. We still have a strong tie with the divinity and we give ourselves with such zeal to our toys that dolls take on a life of their own and little tin soldiers manage to march. When Jesus said that the kingdom of Heaven belonged to the children, he was referring to Agape in the form of Enthusiasm. The children reached him without paying any attention to his miracles, his wisdom, the Pharisees and the apostles. They came happily, driven by Enthusiasm.”
“May you never lose your enthusiasm at any moment for the rest of your life: it’s your greatest strength, intent on the final victory. You cannot let it slip through your fingers just because as time passes we have to face some small and necessary defeats.”
Those words really resonated with me the first time I read them, because it is that sense of Agape—also described as Enthusiasm and the Love that Devours—that I aim to tap into and describe when I’m writing this newsletter. State of the Art is very much about that sense of “Love that Devours”—that Enthusiasm that—despite all our suffering, daily challenges, sadness, grief—is there around us and within us; but it is on us to be open to channeling that energy.
Accessing our individual states of “The Art”—the Art of our Souls—is a way of tapping into Agape, the “Love that Devours.”
Devours—I love that word, as it suggests that this is a love that would be there no matter what is going on around us; like it will always be there tapping on our shoulder.
I think we could always do with more of the type of love that we can only experience within ourselves, too. Our western culture has attached the concept of love to romance, attachment and commitment; but Agape is there within us already, as it has been since we were children.
It’s a love that comes out when we engage with hobbies and activities, either alone or with others, that allows us to feel that higher sense of Enthusiasm. What a gift that is. How dull would life be without that spark?
How do you experience Agape? What triggers a sense of “Enthusiasm” for you?
I hope you are unapologetically enthusiastic in your pursuits. I hope you allow yourself to revel in the Love that Devours.
Thank you for joining me here ❤️
If you enjoyed this, please subscribe and share with your friends! I’ll write again next week with more insights on accessing the state of the art.
Beautiful. Makes me dive deeper into my mind.