While still a young man, an invitation arrived from a friend who was seeking a companion for a cross-country drive. It promised a great adventure, a chance to see the landscape unfold, and it delivered in every way.
Our journey eventually led us to Quebec City, Canada. Wandering through the historic old city, we were both immediately captivated by the vibrant art market along the Rue du Trésor. It was there my attention was drawn to a particular watercolor rendition, which my friend wryly described as “two trees making love.” The imagery—of two distinct forms merging into an intimate whole—was so powerful and intriguing that I purchased the piece and brought it home, a tangible metaphor for a dawning philosophical idea.
At the time, I was already familiar with Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the “Will to Power” as the fundamental driving force of human existence. But contemplating the image of those two entwined trees, I began to ask: if there is indeed such an essential, fundamental force, might it be something else entirely—a “Will to Unite”?
Today, I would reframe this “Will to Unite” as the profound, inherent desire to return to our essential wholeness. Like the mythical figures of Adam and Eve, humanity perceives itself as having been banished from the garden of unity. We experience life through the lens of separation and duality, and at the deepest levels of our being, we sense that something vital has been lost. Our every conscious and unconscious effort is, in fact, a struggle to claw our way back to that state of integration and wholeness.
However, I now understand that nothing has truly been lost; it has only been forgotten. The sense of separation is an illusion of the mind. In time, as we evolve and awaken, we will realize this truth and once again fully know and experience our very nature, which is wholeness and love itself.
This understanding leads to the inescapable conclusion that Love is the most powerful, gravitational force in the universe. To use an analogy: through the act of creation, the Divine has manifested a magnificent downpouring of water. All of us—the creeks, streams, and tributaries of individual consciousness—are rushing downward, joining forces as we progress, finally merging into one great, unified waterfall that plunges into the vast, boundless Ocean of Source. We are all perpetually impelled forward in our personal and collective evolution, moving inexorably until we finally merge back into the One Source—the wellspring of our being and the eternal spring of our joy.
This pursuit of union, this “Will to Unite,” ultimately culminates in the experience of non-duality. It is the dissolving of the ego’s boundaries, where the lover and the beloved become indistinguishable. As the mystical poet Kabir intoned:
“Narrow is the lane of love. Two will never fit.”
