Nonlinear thinking, with its lack of expectations and nonjudgmental characteristics, demonstrates unconditional love as its ethical value and guiding principle. It is the most reliable benchmark for other ethical values because it satisfies the values of any living system. These include cooperation, partnership, nonjudgmental and no expectations. These ethical values are not anthropocentric; they come from observing the behaviors of other living ecosystems. For example, the Earth gives us a smooth ride around the solar system every 365 days, providing us with everything we need. It does this with no expectation regarding how we treat her back. The same is true of the sun and of animals such as dogs.  After all most of spiritual, artistic, and near-death experiences have indicated that when we are selfless and totally connected with the living universe we feel joy, peace and love. Unconditional love is a most enjoyable, pleasant, creative human experience and is the pinnacle of the emotional part of the cognition process. “In love, one and one are more” (Jean Paul Sarter). On the other hand, thinking linearly in terms of blame hinders our ability to forgive, which is an inherent part of unconditional love.

After all, most spiritual beliefs hold that the fabric of the universe is made of love and that the primary duty of human beings is to recognize and manifest this concept as the ultimate goal of the spiritual journey. In his book The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell has shown that most mythical stories of human beings show that the main purpose of creation is the manifestation of unconditional love. In Christianity, for example, these values found their physical embodiment in Jesus Christ’s experience and his core beliefs.

The mythology of Sufism also states that the creator is love and wants to manifest itself in physical form. The creator made angels, but they could not feel and suffer the pain that accompanies love. So it then chose human beings, which are capable of feeling and suffering pain, to manifest this ultimate goal of creation. This mythological imagination and teaching ultimately embodies itself in a great number of Sufis’ personal life experiences. The values were set down in the poetry of love, inspired by the personal experiences of Rumi, a renowned poet born in 1207, and, a century later, in the work of Hafez, a Persian poet who wrote about love and spirit.

Through love all that is bitter will sweeten.
Through Love all that is copper will be gold.
Through love all dregs will turn to purest wine.
Through Love all pain will turn to medicine.
Through love the dead will all become alive.
Through love the King will turn into a slave!

• Rumi