What is the constructive use of love in spiritual practice?

Osho, most of the world’s religious leaders gave their male and female renunciates rules to keep as much distance as possible; yet you always emphasize love between the two. Do you wish to make some constructive use of love? Or do you want us to experience its futility?

Therefore I say: love is the first introduction to God. Whomever you fall in love with, you will begin to glimpse God in them. Where love happens, you will see transformation. The person you love is no longer ordinary; he becomes extraordinary. Your love begins to seek God within him. Love finds God—because without God, love cannot be. The faults of the one you love stop appearing; and the one you hate, you see only faults. In the one you hate you begin to see the devil; in the one you love you begin to see God. You see goodness upon goodness. Even if he does wrong, it seems right. Only fragrance seems to emanate. A temple begins to arise. This is the recognition, the acquaintance. If this acquaintance is with you, then some day, standing before God, you will recognize him. Without this, as is the case with your…

And only when one is full of light.... The first child of light is love. And love contains all that is beautiful, all that is divine: compassion, prayer, creativity, grace. They all follow love, you need not think about them, they are by-products, consequences of love. But love itself happens only through light. All meditation techniques are devices to bring you out of your sleep, to help you wake up. OSHO (to Aige) : Your heart starts pulsating in a different rhythm. The whole world remains the same but your eyes are no more the same; hence you start seeing things which you have never seen before and you stop seeing things which you have always been seeing. So in a sense the world remains the same and in another sense it is no more the same, because when the seer changes, the seen changes.

That's what sannyas is: creating a right space, the right soil for love to grow, for love to expand. As your love becomes bigger, you become bigger. When your love is perfect you are perfect. There is no other way to be perfect. Only the perfection of love can bring perfection to your being. There are two ways to reach God: one is meditation, the other is love. A few people reach through meditation, a few people reach through love. Both are valid ways and both reach the same experience. When the meditator reaches the ultimate peak he suddenly finds love arising in his being, and when the lover reaches the ultimate peak he finds meditation happening of its own accord. On the way they are different, at the peak they become one. The path of meditation is arduous, it demands a little superhuman effort.

There are lovers and no love. Parents pretend they love their children, children pretend they love their parents, husbands pretend, wives pretend -- pretensions and pretensions... And it is not that they are doing it knowingly, they may be completely unaware of the fact. But the root cause is... If everybody was told from the very beginning that love is the greatest art in life because it is the greatest magic, the most miraculous phenomenon.... You cannot take it for granted, you have to explore it, you have to go deeply into it, you have to learn its ways. It is an art. People learn painting for years; then too, only in thousands of painters does one become a Picasso. People learn music for years and then only once in a while is there a Yehudi Menuhin or Ravi Shankar.

Love, and love unconditionally. Love, and love without asking for any return. Love as an end unto itself, and that is true prayer. And love the whole existence without any discrimination, without any choice. Love choicelessly, and then the day is not far away when you will become aware of godliness surrounding you, reaching you from every nook and corner of existence. You will become fire with it, aflame! (And then to Prem Peter Osho said: ) Love is the rock on which the temple of life can be built. Without love all houses are made on sands, shifting sands. One is bound to be disillusioned sooner or later, one is bound to be disappointed because the whole effort can collapse any moment. You don't have a real foundation to your house. It is more or less a house made of playing cards.