Love is your immortal name, the essence of true beingness. Love is not something you do or don't do, give or don't give, receive or don't receive. In other words it is not a commodity, not a derivative substance. Love is not something that is subject to the laws of abundance or scarcity. Love is WHO you are.
I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease.
Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the earth,
"You owe
Me. "
Look
What happens
With love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.
How gently and lovingly
You wake in my heart,
where in secret You dwell alone;
and in your sweet breathing,
filled with good and glory
how tenderly You dwell in my heart
with love.
The little orphan and I walked down the mountain to the city to buy shoes. She slipped out of her small rubber sandals into a new pair, carefully counted 45 rupees (less than one US dollar) into the shopkeeper's hand, and walked away.
"Wait! " I called, as I reached for the discarded shoes. "You've forgotten your old sandals. "
She glanced back at me, "No, leave them," she firmly replied. "I only need one pair. Leave them for someone who has none. "
Love. Compassion.
I must practice.
When we're old, our lives become the sum of all whom we have loved. It is important not to waste anyone. One task of living out the last half of life is excavating and recovering all of those whom we loved the first half. Thus, the recovery of lost loves becomes an important way in which the past affects the present.
For Love to be fully satisfied,
it must lower itself even unto nothingness,
and transform this nothingness into Fire.
Love is the principle of action, not a quality of behavior. We cannot learn unconditional love. To love unconditionally, we must become Love. And love is the natural outcome of union with the Inner Self or Soul.
Julia Butterfly Hill spent 738 days 180' high in a 200' redwood estimated to be 1,000 years old. One day, through her prayers, an overwhelming amount of love started flowing through her, filling up the dark hole that threatened to consume her. She suddenly realized that what she was feeling was the love of the Earth, the love of Creation.
"Everyday we, as a species, do so much to destroy Creation's ability to give us life. But the Creation continues to do everything in its power to give us life anyway. And that is true love."
The Light that flows through your system is Universal Energy. It is the Light of the Universe. You give Light form. What you feel, what you think, how you behave, what you value and how you live your life reflect the way you are shaping the light that is flowing through you. They are thought forms, the feeling forms and the outer forms that you have given to Light. They reflect the configurations of your personality, your space-time being.
When you see from the consciousness of light, you project a flow of Light energy that becomes a healing influence.
. . A Baby's cry
shatters barriers
women, men
of every creed,
culture, race
gaze across
the rubbled walls
in wonder finding every face
luminous with godliness!
Light is knowledge; where there is no knowledge, there is darkness. Light is the presence of day, where things can be seen and appreciated. Light is the power of Love, the presence of life that is sustaining and nurturing. … Become the light of the world — the loving light. Do everything in your power to let your light shine.
When love has carried us above and beyond all things, into the Divine Dark, we receive in peace the Incomprehensible Light, enfolding us and penetrating us. What is this Light, if it be not a contemplation of the Infinite, and an intuition of Eternity? We behold that which we are, and we are that which we behold; because our thought, life and being are uplifted in simplicity and made one with the Divine Truth which is God.
Soul gifts are the means through which we manifest our individual sparts of divine light. By practicing our gifts with wisdom, love, and compassion, we can contribute to a spiritual renaissance: one in which our creativity reflects the true light of divinity. This renaissance can remake the world.
Look at this window: it is nothing but a hole in the wall, but because of it the whole room is full of light. So when the faculties are empty, the heart is full of light. Being full of light it becomes an influence by which others are secretly transformed.
In the hollows of quiet places
we may meet,
the quiet places where is neither
moon nor sun,
but only the light of amber and
pale gold
that comes from the Hills of
the Heart.
Inner light is
not hidden.
Myriad openings
lead to it.
In passing from
darkness to light
One moves freely
between eternity.
To acknowledge the Sacred within is humbling. One's ego portrays itself as the captain of its separate destiny, like an intrepid explorer, seeing things and naming them for the first time. Ego doesn't care for the idea that MY hunger for love, MY grief, and MY thankfulness are not only mine but also God's in me. As our egos die into Love, we see that our personal stories are transparent to an infinitely larger story within us. Suffering "in God" is allowing our small stories to be like icons, transmitting a Great Light.
What heals one soul, searches another soul, what comforts one, drives another to the brink of darkness; and all the while the Light gives each soul what it is calling forth. No one can withstand the Word of Truth echoing through the corridors of the soul. The Light is searching, healing, self-revealing; thus in the Light clouded conditions are revealed, self-conscious fears loosened.
In the seed, the genes whisper: stretch out for the light and seek the dark. And the tree seeks the light, it stretches out for the dark and the more darkness it finds, the more light it uncovers.
If we allow silence to open up within, we shall see the gate and be free to open it. The gate that silence opens up within us leads to light. Light exposes us with an almost merciless radiance and, in the exposure, reveals the beauty of the real.
Grandma smiles at her. "The light has not departed from you. Never turn from the knowledge of it, little piece of my heart."
"Oh, let me come to you."
"If you were to come to me, a sliver of light would be absent from the earth. You are sent down into the cold dark world to bring it light, though you are but a reflection. In many times and many places you will not see the light that you bring, for it is hidden from your eyes so that others may receive it."
If we can be perfectly quiet and perfectly still with no attempt to overcome, destroy, remove, or escape from any situation or condition, the flow to the Spirit will rush in and there will be freedom.
The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that Love is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, Love is under the porch as well as on the top of the mountain, and JOY is both in the front row and in the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.
When we are able to accept being accepted, able to receive the loving, listening presence of God b oth embodied in others and hidden in their hearts, we experience God as Love, resulting spontaneously in gratitude, praise and joy. I mean an upwelling of heart-breaking, heart-opening thankfulness and joy that such Love could be, that we could be in it, that it could be in us, that we are all in it together.
The only true joy on earth is the escape from the prison of our own false selse, and enter by Love into union with the Life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.
Joy is our goal, our destiny. We cannot know who we are except in joy. Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things can be. Joy is not necessarily what happens when things unfold according to our own plans... Joy demands that we have the audacity to embrtavce the knowledge of just howbeautiful we really are and how infinitely powerful we are right now -- without changing a thing -- through the grace that's consistently born and reborn in us.
Practice is everything; you practice to acquire facility in every art; but not one of these will repay you to the extent that the practice of joyousness will.Fall asleep at night, awaken in the morning; in the silence know, "All is joy." Then one day it will begin to work within you; you'll retain that joy as a permanent consciousness. Seek ye the realm of joy -- one of Love's holy attributes!
Jeremy found joy in the midst of Block 57. He found it during moments of the day where we found only fear. And he found it in such great abundance that when he was present we felt it rise in us. Inexplicable sensation, incredible even, there where we were: joy was going to fill us. Imagine this gift which Jeremy gave us! ... The joy of discovering that joy exists, that it is in us, just exactly as life is, without conditions and which no condition, even the worst, can kill. We did not understand, but we thanked him, time and time again.
O thou dweller in my heart,
Open it out, purify it, make it bright, beautiful,
Awaken it, prepare it, make it fearless,
Make it a blessing to others,
Rid it of laziness, free it from doubt,
Unite it with all, destroy its bondage,
Let thy peaceful music prevade all its works,
Make my heart fixed on thy holy feet
And make it full of you, full of joy, full of joy,.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so,
We were made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.
Happiness is the joy of the heart;
joy is the happiness of the soul.
Listen and I will tell you who are the people open to Joy whom God has blessed. Joyful are the poor, for nothing stands between them and the Realm of Love. Tilled with Joy are the sorrowful, for their souls are made strong through suffering. In Joyful surrender are the humble, for they receive the whole world as a gift. Joyful are they who long for holiness as one longs for food, for they shall enjoy Love's plenty. Joyful are the mercifully judged.Filled with Joy are they who establish peace for they share God's very nature. Joyful are the single-hearted for they know Love.
The spiritual life is the uncovering of deeper and deeper levels of joy until that joy that streams from the God-head itself is realized and known in every breath. Every increase in joy is an increase in strength and peace of soul and an increase in all the powers of creativity that reveal life as a divine dance.
A life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are.
I felt first of all joyous. I felt that which joy is made of, and I realized that Joy itself must have been the impelling force, that which was before we were there, and that somehow Joy was in every part of our making. When the world was an ooze without any shape or direction, there must have been Joy reaching out and expressing itself everywhere.
I have made a friend who is so deeply connected with God that he can see joy where I expect only sadness. He travels much and meets countless people. When he shares, he tells of the hidden joys he has found: someone who brought him hope and peace, little groups of people who are faithful to each other in the midst of turmoil, the small wonders of Gexhilerating od. At times I realize that I am disappointed because I want to hear "newspaper news," exciti9ng and stories. But he never responds to my need for sensationalism. He keeps saying: "I saw something very small and very beautiful, something that gave me much joy."
If we want to live like a feather on the Wind, we must strive at least once a day to taste the peace of paradise that dwells within us. We need to find some time each day to sit quietly in peace, in stillness, savoring the mystery of God within us. Such silent sitting will not only prepare us to find "eternal rest" at the time of our death; it will help us find infinite peace in the midst of the problems of life.
We are all joined in the holiness of the mind that God created. I therefore never consider myself alone in the silence. I'm 90 and live alone in a four room house surrounded by open space. I have no T and have always luxuriated in silence. The exterior silence is here. The i8nterior silence is a work in progress.
Friends,
the wise tell us that God abides in silence --
that God speaks in the silent serenity of the heart.
Let us not speak of silence; rather,
let silence speak to us of God.
Together, let us enter through the door of serenity,
the silence of our heart: a heart that is free,
peaceful, quiet and calm, a heart that is one ...
a heart so large and wide it embraces God
of all and the all of God,
the God who in silence speaks all languages,
the God who in silence speaks in all creatures,
the God who in silence speaks one word:
the God who speaks of Love.
Begin each day anchored in stillness, taking nothing for granted, open to whatever the coming day's gift may be. Listen to the silence for ten minutes or so and realize how filled it is, filled with the breath of God! Su8ch silence wants to draw from you a quiet prayer that leans on that presence and seeks to harken to it throughout the day.
Silence is the indispensable climate for all revelation;
noise renders it absolutely impossible.