Ack, i missed the renewed activity in this thread and Shanti's wonderful posting.
This is GREAT, Shanti, you did indeed break through on this, and it's fantastic to hear (also good you still sound grounded...some folks get a bit woo-woo). It's funny...when you're ready to "get" something, ANYTHING can set you off. A book, a song, a flower. Since love is everywhere, there's unending prodding going on wherever you go!
Flex this new muscle often, it's definitely a use-it-or-lose-it thing (though, again, meditation would bring you there eventually). A great inspiration is the Metta Sutta (see:
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=2438 )
Work to make it your default, knee-jerk reaction (it's hard...we keep lapsing into old habits, particularly in stressful moments). One warning: it's extremely important that you realize the love is not originating from you. It's bigger than you. You're just the transformer. The Sufis believe that the ultimate purpose of mankind is to serve as transformers for this divine loving current. Whether or not that's literally true, it's beautiful and by far the best way to conceive it (if you've got to conceive it at all). If you believe that you're zapping the world with your love gun, offering something that's your's ("in here") to others ("out there"), that's a very nasty trap in nine different ways. You're a wire conducting this stuff. If you want to be hatha about it, your spine is that wire (did you just get a buzz?).
I'd suggest that in addition to practicing this, that you self-observe and learn from this insight....from your newfound ability to refine pure love without associative objects. The notion of refinement (not just of love) is a big spiritual key. For one thing, you will get mileage out of rereading all of Yogani's writings, and applying your newfound understaning anywhere he uses the word "refine". That will open up all sorts of interesting things (this is why it's helpful to also own his e-books...word searches are easy).
A deeper understanding of the notion of refinement can eventually be applied to consciousness itself. Just as love can simply be, same for consciousness. Consciousness can just be, without reference to any thought, memory, or perception. In fact, that's the very fabric of it all. We're swimming in it. And the flavor of that consciousness is....love (and it's delicious!).
