Love is a timeless teacher

Notice some people believe love is simply an emotion that keeps people bonded and committed. Awareness echoes love is more. Uplifting feelings, a deep sense of care, connection and commitment awaken something deeper. One might say everything points to a love beyond boundaries, beyond the known and unknown. Even that which evokes discomfort and resistance is guiding us to surrender to what is greater than self.

As Kahlil Gibran echoes, "when love beckons, we follow him." The brave are willing to travel high and low, to endure and grow from whatever presents. The winding journey is guiding one home.

Something within invites us to trust or have faith in what love represents, in all its disguises, shapes and forms. At different life moments, dreams may be shattered. This can be love in action And even as we fall in and out of love, do we realize love invites growth and pruning. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

The fearless one knows love is not limited to peace and pleasure. Love gives nothing but itself and takes nothing but itself from itself. Love possesses not and cannot be owned. Love is enough in and of itself. Only ego thinks it can direct the course of love. If love finds one worthy, love actually directs one's winding course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. This takes shape in the flowing river, the sun beaming down on the Earth, the wind that blows through the forests, plains and deserts. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own under-standing of love. And to bleed willingly and joyfully. Every moment is another opportunity to love and be loved, to be grateful for another day of loving. Meditate on love’s ecstasy.

To exist and move through life with a grateful heart is to sleep with a prayer of love for one's beloved and all beings in th heart. So love is everything and nothing, flowing in all directions and all dimensions right now. How and to what extent we are open to it, begins and ends within our unique being. This is the path of love, to love, back to love, from hence we came and never actually left.

 

Get out of that dilemma

I am sometimes asked why share Zen stories as part of my workshops and group sessions. In a nutshell, Zen stories may confuse or leave one hanging, yet they do not impart information or knowledge. They are designed to to get rid of something, to get rid of a false problem with which you are wrestling so that the problem will disappear as the result of understanding the story.  In this way, they invite joining the dots like stars into constellations and evoke eureka moments.

There was a Master walking, engaged in forest meditation with a group of his disciples.  Suddenly, he picked up a tree branch and said to one of the monks, "what is it?" As the monk hesitated , did not answer immediately, the Master hit him with it.  Then, the Master turned to another monk and asked, "what is it?" That monk said, "Give it to me so I can see."   The Master tossed it and the monk hit the Master.  The Master said, "Well, you got out of that dilemma." 

When we look for the mind that seems to be giving us so much trouble and realize it cannot be found, this is a pointer to the solution to our perceived problem. A dilemma is like a physical stick that many people hold within themselves, dwell on, discuss or allow to fester. Focusing on dilemmas harms ourselves. Letting go, going with the flow, acting spontaneously, implies less thinking, and more savouring this moment as it is. A dilemma is a state of mind. Albert Einstein echoes we cannot solve a problem with the same level of consciousness that creates it.  We can always tune in, and allow the rhythm of the breath to guide us. The power resides within.