3 ways relationships are better for spiritual growth than religion

I think I know the meaning of life. It’s to learn to love, pure and simple. We came from love, and now it is our life’s purpose to undertake the journey home; to merge back into the unified field of creative consciousness, whose nature is love.

There are a number of ways to achieve this spiritual growth, many of them ancient. Prayer, fasting, meditation, psychedelic drugs, and even therapy, to name a few. These are all valid methods, and do have their place. They can definitely lead to enlightenment—just think of Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree. But of all the ways to travel the spiritual path, I believe romantic soulmate relationships are the best—even better than religion.

There are three reasons for this.

1. Romantic love builds oneness

Romantic soulmate relationships are driven not only by love but also a powerful urge to merge with another being. This encourages the journey of the soul from isolation, fear, and egoistic thinking toward oneness and divine qualities, and far more than sitting alone in meditation or praying to silent deities.

Interpersonal relationships provide the best possible environment and stimulus to grow through our issues and heal psychological wounds because all relationship dysfunction is an error that exists on the level of the personality; it is not part of our essential true nature. Simply put, relationships are the curriculum through which we learn to love.

2. Romantic love is universal

Many other practices, such as meditation, asceticism, prostration, religious study, and contemplation promise to cultivate spiritual development. But romantic love is a more potent, powerful, and important path than any of these precisely because it transcends religion, belief systems, and ideology.

Conveniently, it also happens to be linked to the continuation of the species. Relationships are sought by virtually every person on Earth, regardless of their culture, religion, or belief system. In this way, romantic love can be seen as the universe’s mechanism to ensure that every human being has an opportunity (and innate urge) to grow and evolve as a spiritual being—even those who don’t believe in God or the existence of the soul.

3. Romantic love is a journey of awakening

In this journey of romantic love we move from unconsciousness to consciousness, from the errors of the ego-mind to the self-awareness of the soul. Viewed another way, the concept of “soulmate” can be taken to mean that we mate with our own soul in a reintegration of self. Our souls come back to this dimension to join with other soulmates to learn spiritual lessons that we have not learned well yet, but the journey toward unity really begins within. Through the external connection with our soulmate, we gradually become self-aware. Our body, mind, and soul become one, a necessary step before we can have harmonic unity on the spiritual plane.

Every sacred path leads to the same destination, regardless of its origin or the route taken. Spiritual seekers and love seekers alike will arrive home to love when they experience unity and compassion for themselves and others. This occurs both in the socio-psychological realm and energetically in the spiritual realm.

Again, there is no one way to walk down the path to spiritual growth. Whether you find your enlightenment in a pew, on a yoga mat, or with a lover, the important thing is that you are on your journey. I recommend using a multitude of these methods together. But unless you are stranded on a desert island, your most important spiritual teacher could be sitting across from you in the café—don’t let that opportunity go to waste! Jump on it.

Now is when we are fully present in our romantic heart.