Love.
In most of my soul searching posts I have pondered on this subject - Love - and always explored something different about it. I've gone on and on about how it should be, and what can be expected, etc. etc. But it took a moment - just one, for me to realize that this "love" I have been talking about and ranting on about is so different than that one instance.
We learn about love from so many different sources: movies, music, books, family, friends, role models, religion, etc. From what I have gathered about love, I have always held this simple, spiritual love to the highest degree. One love where a pleasant, unknown force - like the universe - brings and holds two people together. Allows them to connect in a way beyond materialistic matters. These are great things to speak of and think of. But what about that moment, that time in which you feel all of this?
It wasn't the moment I heard the three most beautiful words, "I love you"; nor moments spent finding interesting places to go to, or good restaurants to eat at; nor any Valentine's or Christmas day. It was a moment when I was all alone, in the dark after the lights turn off for the night and I sat on my bed facing the picture of the God I speak to late at night. I took off a bracelet my beloved had given me for Christmas; I felt that because I missed him I would wear it all the time - I had had him adorn my wrist with it too. But in that moment as I took it off to place it on the shelf in front of the picture, a serene feeling filled my inside. I found myself smiling for no reason - as a thought seeped into my heart and soul. I realized in that brief moment that love wasn't attached to anything - not to a body, not to a gift, not to anything representative of anything else - love was this feeling right here. My love - my beloved - was ever present, in my heart - I didn't need anything else to remember that. And in that moment I felt a love like never before. A love that I knew was the kind I have always seeked, always spoken of, always dreamt of. In that moment I realized that the one thing I have always wanted, has been in my heart.
A connection so simple, so deep, that an unwavering trust can be formed. Is that possible in today's world I wonder? Maybe not for everyone - maybe not for those who have lost touch and lost themselves. But those who want, for those who ask, for those who open up and look inside - it is there. That love human beings crave - the one that is the best of all. This is that love, the love that no matter where, no matter what, will be there. It doesn't need reminders, or things to attach to, no conditions to be placed on it - it is simply there. It fills my soul, and I hope some day it will yours too!
Showing posts with label soul searching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soul searching. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
A Piece of Advice from Rumi
"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love."
~Rumi
A lot of people have expressed their views on love. I do like a few of them (refer to Valentine's post with quotes from William Shakespeare and the Bible). However, recently, I came across a quote from a source I haven't read much of - Rumi. He wrote about love in a way that I can feel at this point in my life. And what I like most is that he doesn't try to analyze love, he simply tells you to let love guide you. So simple - yet so deep!
I have grown to realize the various forms of love. Of course we all initially think of relationships - what love has come to represent in our society. But love is so much more than that. Love goes beyond our human race, beyond anything materialistic, beyond the world we know. Love is this emotion, this feeling, this thought, this perception that is drenched in spirituality. Since the time I began exploring Buddhism I realized that it was love for which I live. That pure, innocent feeling that causes the lamp in my heart to stay alight. Sounds Romantic and poetisized doesn't it? But it really is not, how do I find the words to explain?
Remember the allegory of the cave? (See previous post) It feels something like that. The understanding of the nature of love, knowing how or what or why - it is impossible to go back to not knowing - it is so difficult to make the others see what causes that shadow! Love makes this world go round, and of this I am thoroughly convinced. Look at the qualities that are generally valued in people of our society today: kindness, generosity, patience, hard-working, trustworthy, etc. etc. Where do you think these qualities stem from? You guessed it, Love. How?? This is what I think:
Kindness is our sensitivity to the world around us - our intuition of how others are feeling and what would help them the most; but what produces this sensitivity, what allows us to be open in this way? Love - for ourself. We learn to love ourself, respect ourself, and be sensitive towards our own emotions. That is the path that leads to kindness towards others. You can't expect someone to be sensitive and kind to others without being kind to themselves first - and that can only happen with a respecting sort of love for oneself.
I could go into how the other qualities stem from love - different types of love. But I won't. This Blog was made with Soul Searching in mind - and somewhere I wandered from that path. But somehow, at every turn, at every point, I find my way back. Now, you make think this is unstable or troublesome - but in reality it's love that pulls me back. Stop. Think. Let it sink in. It is the love for spirituality, finding myself, knowing the intricacies of the world and life in general, and my path using Buddhism that always pulls me back towards it. What does Rumi say? "Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love."
Trust yourself. Listen to your inner voice.
It will never guide you wrong. It is what you really love. IT will pull you, no matter how much you wander, you are connected, I am connected, we are all connected. So, there is no need to fret, no need to stress, no need to be a busy person running around with no head, because what we love, what we really, truly love, is always there. That's right. We don't have to go looking for it, it pulls us towards it - it is always in our life, we just have to let it pull.. and stop resisting of course!
~Rumi
A lot of people have expressed their views on love. I do like a few of them (refer to Valentine's post with quotes from William Shakespeare and the Bible). However, recently, I came across a quote from a source I haven't read much of - Rumi. He wrote about love in a way that I can feel at this point in my life. And what I like most is that he doesn't try to analyze love, he simply tells you to let love guide you. So simple - yet so deep!
I have grown to realize the various forms of love. Of course we all initially think of relationships - what love has come to represent in our society. But love is so much more than that. Love goes beyond our human race, beyond anything materialistic, beyond the world we know. Love is this emotion, this feeling, this thought, this perception that is drenched in spirituality. Since the time I began exploring Buddhism I realized that it was love for which I live. That pure, innocent feeling that causes the lamp in my heart to stay alight. Sounds Romantic and poetisized doesn't it? But it really is not, how do I find the words to explain?
Remember the allegory of the cave? (See previous post) It feels something like that. The understanding of the nature of love, knowing how or what or why - it is impossible to go back to not knowing - it is so difficult to make the others see what causes that shadow! Love makes this world go round, and of this I am thoroughly convinced. Look at the qualities that are generally valued in people of our society today: kindness, generosity, patience, hard-working, trustworthy, etc. etc. Where do you think these qualities stem from? You guessed it, Love. How?? This is what I think:
Kindness is our sensitivity to the world around us - our intuition of how others are feeling and what would help them the most; but what produces this sensitivity, what allows us to be open in this way? Love - for ourself. We learn to love ourself, respect ourself, and be sensitive towards our own emotions. That is the path that leads to kindness towards others. You can't expect someone to be sensitive and kind to others without being kind to themselves first - and that can only happen with a respecting sort of love for oneself.
I could go into how the other qualities stem from love - different types of love. But I won't. This Blog was made with Soul Searching in mind - and somewhere I wandered from that path. But somehow, at every turn, at every point, I find my way back. Now, you make think this is unstable or troublesome - but in reality it's love that pulls me back. Stop. Think. Let it sink in. It is the love for spirituality, finding myself, knowing the intricacies of the world and life in general, and my path using Buddhism that always pulls me back towards it. What does Rumi say? "Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love."
Trust yourself. Listen to your inner voice.
It will never guide you wrong. It is what you really love. IT will pull you, no matter how much you wander, you are connected, I am connected, we are all connected. So, there is no need to fret, no need to stress, no need to be a busy person running around with no head, because what we love, what we really, truly love, is always there. That's right. We don't have to go looking for it, it pulls us towards it - it is always in our life, we just have to let it pull.. and stop resisting of course!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Allegory of the Cave
Plato had an idea many, many centuries ago (several really, but let's just focus on one). This concept is referred to as the "allegory of the cave." The allegory is as follows:
There is a cave, with a high wall in it (partitioning the cave into two), on the inner part of the wall there are prisoners chained to the wall - and all they can see is shadows on the cave walls; these shadows are caused by the small fire that guards of the prisoners have on the open side of the wall. The prisoners are seeing shadows of the guards and people passing by in the cave due to the fire light, but they cannot actually see anything or anyone. Now, if one of those prisoners is taken out of the enclosed part of the cave and brought to the fire side of the cave, he will be shocked by the light at first, but once he has adjusted, he will be able to see the things that made the shadows. If this same prisoner is next taken out of the cave into the real world with the sun shining - he will at first be blinded by the sunshine, however, once he gets over it, he will begin to realize that the sun is the source of what created the things that made the shadow, and is hence the creator of all things. Here comes the twist - if this prisoner is then taken back to his prison and placed back with the prisoners who only see shadows, he is in a bind. He is no longer satisfied by the shadows - he knows what causes them and what creates the cause - so how can he simply accept the shadow? the illusion? At the same time, if he tries to explains it to his fellow prisoners, it is pointless, because since they haven't seen it, it is hard for them to understand it.
What is the connection of the cave and some prisoner and shadows and light? Us. We are the prisoners, our world the cave.. we see shadows and feel satisfied with it - simply because we don't know or have not experienced anything beyond it. And once we do, it is hard to be satisfied with just this, especially since it can't even be explained to someone else. So, does this prevent us from exploring what is beyond our immediate, materialistic world? I don't think so. But then wouldn't knowing the "beyond" and knowing what exists beyond materialism prevent us from living peacefully within the material world? What a conundrum, eh?
Here is what I think, or my "solution" to this allegory is:
Plato was a smart man - he came up with several notions, one which explained knowledge as something that cannot be taught or learned explicitly, but something that must be discovered or guided towards. The teacher is not there to give all the answers, but to guide the student with a series of questions and situations in order for the student to discover and learn for themselves. If we connect both of Plato's concepts we can find a semi-ok solution - which I would like to think is in play in our world today.
IF someone believes they have been to the sunshine, and have found their way back to the dark cave - our material world - they become our spiritual teachers. Take a look at the Buddha - he is one of the greatest spiritual teachers known to us. Reiki, yoga, meditation, ayurveda - all modes that lead to some form of "beyond." Many people mistaken sprirituality for religion - a fine line does exist, and must be put into play if this allegory has a solution. Religion is organized by us - lead by us - practiced by us - how is that outside of our world then? The sages of ancient India who roamed the forests in search of spiritual nirvana practiced a simple life - a nonmaterialistic life - BINGO!
Nonmaterialism is a stepping stone towards leaving the darkness of the cave. That is the step many of these spriritual teachers have taken. And a true teacher will never give us the answer and force/insist on us following them. Spirituality must be discovered by oneself - guided by the teachers, but learned individually. Look at what the Buddha says to us in so many of the scriptures written by his disciples; he says that in his search he found certain simple ways of living and being that can free us from the mundane, material world - but he also asks us to not follow him blindly - he wants us to explore for ourself, test out those ways and theories and see for ourself if the truth can be reached.
So, if we pause and think, what is it that we haven't experienced, whose shadow is all we ever see and be satisfied with, because we don't know its true form? All I can come up with is: Inner Peace. Think about it - we see materialistic, "shadows" of peace that is temporary at the best. We don't know what causes the shadow, or what creates the cause. We all strive to know the shadow, to know the cause - to obtain inner peace, but how many of us truly know the form, the reality of inner peace? How many of us have felt it? A lot of us might think we have, but if it is fleeting, then it is simply a shadow. Those who attain inner peace - true, sustaining inner peace - tend to stay that way for as long as they live. They cannot come back and embrace the shadows of inner peace, they have found the everlasting version. They try their best to explain it - but can't because those who don't have it don't know what it feels like. Keep the Buddha in mind - his history - and all of this makes a whole lot of sense.
What can we make out of all of this? Now we are aware that we live in a cave, that there is something else out there. How will we find our way there? Well, a lot of people will not. They will always be content with the mundane, the materialistic, cave world of darkness. They will live and strive for homes and jobs and society. Those who attain that, or are aware of the beyond will always strive for the beyond. An ultimate goal comes from this allegory - to find our way out of the cave, to find the source of the shadows - to obtain that knowledge of what it is that causes the source. It is a difficult path - because once we know what we know, believe what we believe - it will be near impossible to not know it anymore, to not believe it anymore. But then again, isn't that what soul searching is all about?
There is a cave, with a high wall in it (partitioning the cave into two), on the inner part of the wall there are prisoners chained to the wall - and all they can see is shadows on the cave walls; these shadows are caused by the small fire that guards of the prisoners have on the open side of the wall. The prisoners are seeing shadows of the guards and people passing by in the cave due to the fire light, but they cannot actually see anything or anyone. Now, if one of those prisoners is taken out of the enclosed part of the cave and brought to the fire side of the cave, he will be shocked by the light at first, but once he has adjusted, he will be able to see the things that made the shadows. If this same prisoner is next taken out of the cave into the real world with the sun shining - he will at first be blinded by the sunshine, however, once he gets over it, he will begin to realize that the sun is the source of what created the things that made the shadow, and is hence the creator of all things. Here comes the twist - if this prisoner is then taken back to his prison and placed back with the prisoners who only see shadows, he is in a bind. He is no longer satisfied by the shadows - he knows what causes them and what creates the cause - so how can he simply accept the shadow? the illusion? At the same time, if he tries to explains it to his fellow prisoners, it is pointless, because since they haven't seen it, it is hard for them to understand it.
What is the connection of the cave and some prisoner and shadows and light? Us. We are the prisoners, our world the cave.. we see shadows and feel satisfied with it - simply because we don't know or have not experienced anything beyond it. And once we do, it is hard to be satisfied with just this, especially since it can't even be explained to someone else. So, does this prevent us from exploring what is beyond our immediate, materialistic world? I don't think so. But then wouldn't knowing the "beyond" and knowing what exists beyond materialism prevent us from living peacefully within the material world? What a conundrum, eh?
Here is what I think, or my "solution" to this allegory is:
Plato was a smart man - he came up with several notions, one which explained knowledge as something that cannot be taught or learned explicitly, but something that must be discovered or guided towards. The teacher is not there to give all the answers, but to guide the student with a series of questions and situations in order for the student to discover and learn for themselves. If we connect both of Plato's concepts we can find a semi-ok solution - which I would like to think is in play in our world today.
IF someone believes they have been to the sunshine, and have found their way back to the dark cave - our material world - they become our spiritual teachers. Take a look at the Buddha - he is one of the greatest spiritual teachers known to us. Reiki, yoga, meditation, ayurveda - all modes that lead to some form of "beyond." Many people mistaken sprirituality for religion - a fine line does exist, and must be put into play if this allegory has a solution. Religion is organized by us - lead by us - practiced by us - how is that outside of our world then? The sages of ancient India who roamed the forests in search of spiritual nirvana practiced a simple life - a nonmaterialistic life - BINGO!
Nonmaterialism is a stepping stone towards leaving the darkness of the cave. That is the step many of these spriritual teachers have taken. And a true teacher will never give us the answer and force/insist on us following them. Spirituality must be discovered by oneself - guided by the teachers, but learned individually. Look at what the Buddha says to us in so many of the scriptures written by his disciples; he says that in his search he found certain simple ways of living and being that can free us from the mundane, material world - but he also asks us to not follow him blindly - he wants us to explore for ourself, test out those ways and theories and see for ourself if the truth can be reached.
So, if we pause and think, what is it that we haven't experienced, whose shadow is all we ever see and be satisfied with, because we don't know its true form? All I can come up with is: Inner Peace. Think about it - we see materialistic, "shadows" of peace that is temporary at the best. We don't know what causes the shadow, or what creates the cause. We all strive to know the shadow, to know the cause - to obtain inner peace, but how many of us truly know the form, the reality of inner peace? How many of us have felt it? A lot of us might think we have, but if it is fleeting, then it is simply a shadow. Those who attain inner peace - true, sustaining inner peace - tend to stay that way for as long as they live. They cannot come back and embrace the shadows of inner peace, they have found the everlasting version. They try their best to explain it - but can't because those who don't have it don't know what it feels like. Keep the Buddha in mind - his history - and all of this makes a whole lot of sense.
What can we make out of all of this? Now we are aware that we live in a cave, that there is something else out there. How will we find our way there? Well, a lot of people will not. They will always be content with the mundane, the materialistic, cave world of darkness. They will live and strive for homes and jobs and society. Those who attain that, or are aware of the beyond will always strive for the beyond. An ultimate goal comes from this allegory - to find our way out of the cave, to find the source of the shadows - to obtain that knowledge of what it is that causes the source. It is a difficult path - because once we know what we know, believe what we believe - it will be near impossible to not know it anymore, to not believe it anymore. But then again, isn't that what soul searching is all about?
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