Hi Peter,

Your questions are very profound, and I hope I can help you with some answers but the role of a person like me is not necessary to give you solutions, merely to give you answers to assist you in finding the solutions through your own searching.

Let me give you an example I use in some of my free books of what I mean by that. A man is walking in the forest, and he sees a cocoon on the ground, and it is moving from side to side. Thinking he will help Nature along he picks up the cocoon and with his penknife, he carefully creates a slit in the cocoon and the butterfly escapes and falls to the ground. The butterfly flips and flops on the ground and is unable to fly. What the man thought was being kind and compassionate was a death sentence to the butterfly. Unknown to the man the butterfly has to develop its wing muscles enabling it to fly by breaking open the cocoon. The man had an answer, but Nature had created a solution for the butterfly to fly and not lie on the ground as food for another insect or bird. I am going to attempt to answer your questions in the order you gave them, but they will be answers and not solutions. I do not want to rob you of the gift that comes from exploring each topic experientially and growing yourself and your soul in the process.

Let me begin by saying what if your questions were the meaning and purpose of your life? By that I mean if you, in Spirit, made a Soul Contract to come to earth to investigate, learn, understand and experience each of these questions for the growth of your eternal Soul? If I handed you an envelope with all the answers and solutions, then your life would be over, and I would have robbed you of your growth and your Soul’s eternal journey.

Q- Can happiness exist without the possibility of sadness?

A- Yes, in Spirit, as Oneness but not on the earth as duality is the necessary experience that your free will has to make for the causal- cause and effect- of your life and Soul’s growth. The ego, and here I refer to the so-called “bad” ego, which I define by the acronym as Edging God Out is based on providing hope and fear in the past and the future, whereas your Soul, which is Love, as I will explain later on, exists in the Now. For a better understanding of this, please read my free book How to Live in the Now found on my website personalempowerment.co. The ego’s role is the catalyst for experiencing your Soul, but it usually comes with many painful lessons you have to endure which have been called the Dark Night of the Soul. It’s a journey I have been on and believe me you have no concept of how much emotional distress and pain you will have to endure to rid yourself of your ego and evolve as a soul/love based person. Eckhardt Tolle, the author of The Power of Now, was depressed to the point of being suicidal when his ego fell away, and he was gifted with his current life as a soul/love based person. I am using this example because it is a public record in his books and CDs.

Q-What is unconditional love?

A- Unconditional Love is what many religions call “God is Love”. This Love, and I always use a capital L to distinguish it from an ordinary love that we experience on earth as familial love, relationship love and friendship love, is so unusual to experience on earth that we occasionally make a god or Saint out of someone who shows such Love. My understanding, belief and behaviour are that we, as a soul, are a part of The Creator/Source/Oneness/God or whatever label you want to attach to this Universal Power. As God is Love so are we at soul level, and it is when we connect to that Love in ourselves and with another’s Love based soul that we talk about “falling in love” with another. I prefer to call it “Rising in Love”. Regrettably, when our ego comes into play, that soul based connection is severed, and disharmony arrives in its wake.

Q- How are the attributes of accountability, responsibility, discipline, purpose, meaning related to the experience of being Loved and loving- Unconditionally?

A- The short answer is unconditionality has no conditions so the attributes you describe cannot be used or measured in being Loved and loving Unconditionally. I think I know what you are asking and if I may use an example of a parent imposing accountability and responsibility on a child, is this the meaning and purpose of a parent’s role? If my assumption is correct, then I think you are asking is that Unconditional Love and being Unconditionally Loving? I have written a free book Unfolding Your Child- A Spiritual Approach to Parenting found on personalempowerment.co, and the answers will be found there for your question. It’s the role I used when I was able to discard my ego-based life and replace it with a soul/loved based life in bringing up my sons. Once again I don’t want to rob you of this magnificent experience of bringing love, and not hope and fear, into play as you allow your child to unfold and not be moulded by your ego’s desire’s and wants.

Q- If the condition of being unconditional a condition of unconditional love, is it still Love (SIC)?

A- The SIC refers to using your exact words in the question. While I appreciate the semantics of your question, genuine Unconditional Love is virtually never experienced on an ongoing basis from a human being, no matter how virtuous they are, because we have our base reptilian brain as a survival instinct and to override that is Super Hero territory! In my free book Being Loved Unconditionally- Finding Unconditional Love within your Being also found on personalempowerment.co I state that we can never actually be Unconditionally Loving in the real sense of the word but we can strive to be so. In so attempting we elevate ourselves away from our ego-based life to a more soul/loved based life, and that brings the emotional feelings into play of happiness, joy and maybe even bliss.

Q- What is Love?

A- I have answered that earlier by using “God is Love” as believed in many major religions of the world. God is Love, and when such Love is experienced in the emotional heart of a person, then God is also experienced there.

Q- If Life is Love, and the reality of Life is that Life eats Life…. are pain, sacrifice and death also attributes of Love?

A- This is a profound question and not one I have thought of before so thanks for bringing it to my attention. At this point in my journey, I don’t have an answer to that question. Apparently, those religions that forbid the killing and eating of any living animal, vegetable or mineral have decided that the killing of anything that is alive involves such pain, sacrifice and death.

Perhaps we can both explore that and compare notes at a later date.You can contact me on personalempowerment.co where there is a contact form. Thanks for your questions and I hope that I have stimulated you with my answers for you to carry on seeking and experiencing what could very well be the meaning and purpose of your life.

In Light and Love

Neville Berkowitz

PersonalEmpowerment.co