Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. Most of us egotistically love to be loved; being the prime disappointment for that expectation, love is just to love. If we truly understood Love, we wouldn't need teachings or a meditation practice. Our response to Love is to shut it out. "It might kill me," we think to ourselves. We run from Love as if it were a wildfire. Really, it is the medium of alchemy, and we actually need to get burned up in order to become transformed.