Romantic love in a spiritual setting

QUESTION: Masters, I have a friendship with a man whom I love deeply. We are both teachers in a spiritual organization, working to uplift human values and consciousness on this planet. Our connection is so strong and the longing so profound that thoughts of him consume me, and at times my heart physically aches. We are so well matched in many ways it’s difficult for me to imagine any man who could fill his shoes. In this moment, he has chosen to be single and celibate, devoted to his path, but he seems conflicted about this and I know he loves me and cares for me deeply. At the heart and soul level, so connected, the love is so deep. What is the purpose of our connection in this lifetime? ~Leslye, US

ANSWER:  You are blessed to know the extent of feeling soul or spiritual love with your physical body. When you work in positive energies the sense of unconditional love is able to penetrate from the universe into the very fabric of a physical existence. Spiritual workers espouse all the virtues of their soul-essence in that they love and share their energy with those around them.

You are confusing a third-dimensional physical romantic love, which you so desperately desire, for the non-physical plutonic unconditional love one soul has for another. You understand “love” only at the level of the emotional reaction it produces in your physical body. You have reduced this to producing physical pain and a mental/emotional obsession for your friend. Your associate does love your soul unconditionally, but he does so at the level of your true nature, not the body that surrounds your soul right now.

He has no longing for you because he loves all souls the same as he loves yours. He does not need to have that reduced to a physical interaction with another body because he feels it in his whole being physically and energetically.

The conflict you think you perceive is the common one that exists with spiritually advanced people who, because they are still in a human body, have to deal with negativity around them. It is difficult to bridge two worlds. You have chosen to be together at this time so that you could observe the reactions of each other, and from them, learn the possibilities.