We have come to the end of our reflections on Buddha’s eightfold path. These final steps of Right Mindfulness and Right Contemplation assist us to experience the fullness of this path in all its steps - this path to love. In this passage Christ uses the Greek word agape which is ultimate love, Christed love.

This love is the substance of the I AM. We cannot experience our I AM unless we experience agape. This is our ultimate battle; it is a battle between the spirit and the flesh which is waged in the soul. As we try to give birth to Christ in our soul the hindering forces lure us away from the spirit into the distractions of the world. Buddha gave us the eightfold path as a means of recognising the distractions.

We have been placed on this earth in a body of flesh. To sustain its life this body contains two powerful forces known as drives and desires. They continually seek to be fulfilled. In fact some of them must be fulfilled otherwise we will die. It is how they are fulfilled that makes us fully human.

The drives of hunger, for instance, become the desire to eat. These drives can also urge us to find love for they are also linked with procreation. When, as desires, they enter our soul they are taken up by our feelings. Desires and feelings hold us in bondage and convince us that they will give us an experience of the love we seek. Except at this level it cannot be love, it will more likely be lust.

From past experience we know that every time a desire is satisfied, we feel empty. We crave the experience again to take away the empty feeling. Also, every time we please our feelings our will becomes inactive; this is because our will subsides in our satisfaction. The secret is not to immediately satisfy the soul’s desire and feelings but to allow them to live into the realm of the I AM where agape, the highest love is found.

The problem is that we yearn to rest in satisfaction. We are consumed by our search for satisfaction. Yet, if we can postpone the stage of satisfaction, if we can contain our desires and feelings and allow them to live in us, in an unfulfilled state if you like, then we will reach the experience of love which is open-ended. It is not closed by an experience of satisfaction.

It is this experience of the unfinished, of continuation, that we must always strive for. Of course, this is an alien concept in our modern world. We demand satisfaction, even though it leaves us feeling empty. Yet, if we are really honest with ourselves we will admit that the state of non-fulfilment is far more satisfying. Think of a time when you decided to purchase something new; you plan and research, save for it, look forward to it – this process is very satisfying. Are the days after the purchase more satisfying than the days leading up to the purchase?

The delay in fulfilment of desire and feeling can be equally applied to thinking. Thinking must never end, there is always more to think. This particularly applies to our judging; we must try to experience justice as a series of adjustments rather than a final judgment. Love does not close the door; it is always open to new ideas, new perspectives, new and ongoing discussions that embrace many possibilities.

Love is inexhaustible; there is a never ending supply of it. No matter how much love we express we are never depleted. Love can make us anxious however; both in our inability to experience this never ending love as well as being in its proximity.

We will know when we have reached the greatest love. It is when we lay down our life for our friends. Life is psuche, soul. Friend is philos, brother. We lay down the need for personal and private satisfaction so that we can experience a new kind of brotherhood – that you love one another as I have loved you. This is not a sacrifice of ourselves, it is a contribution for the greater good which benefits us also.

The greatest enemy of agape is our personal opinions and our judgments. Brotherhood with each other and with Christ only happens when we delay satisfaction, delay fulfilment so that we are an agape fraternity, a never-ending or eternal fraternity.