May
this email find you well, delighting in the knowledge of your
oneness with the Absolute -- the primordial source of life and
love.
The
whole notion, or concept, of Valentine's day gets right to the
heart of Yoga philosophy, as well as to many teachings of the
Buddha.. Indeed, this day of roses and chocolate
underscores the "stuff" of our deepest, most heartfelt
longing -- our need to love and to be loved. To quote
Swami Rama, "Love is the Lord of Life. Life without
love is like an infertile, barren field. No matter how much
it is tilled, nothing grows."
Why
do we practice Yoga? Why do we meditate? Is our
practice just another self-improvement project? Or, rather,
are we walking in the footprints of the sages, seers, mystics and
avatars that came before us, as pilgrims in search of our own true
nature? Within each of us is a faint memory -- a
whisper -- of our oneness with creation; our connection to the
source of boundless joy and manifestation; our interconnectedness
with every facet and expression of the stream of energy referred
to by many names, such as God, the Divine, Oneness, the Force, Yahweh,
Brahman, Alaya, etc. The names are irrelevant, but the feeling
is universal. The feeling of knowing that deep within
ourselves and in the eyes of the beloved lies the fulfillment of
our life's greatest desire - to "yoke", or reunite to
the Absolute, expressed throughout all creation as fundamental
basic goodness, compassion, curiosity and generosity; as ananda,
or bliss; as prem, or transcendent, unconditional
love.
Again,
Swami Rama:
The
Absolute smiles through the human being. Those who have an
eye to observe can see the Absolute in the human
existence....Nothing can exist without the existence of the
Absolute. Therefore, the Absolute is love eternal.
Nothing can survive without love. Therefore, life is love.
Whether
your beloved is a spouse, a special friend, a child, a pet, or a
teacher, the teachings are clear: the lover and the beloved
are one. What the beloved arouses within you is an experience of
the Absolute -- your own true nature.
So,
on Valentines Day (and every day) we can befriend and perhaps even
love ourselves. For as we renounce all barriers that
we have erected between ourselves and others, we also dare to
shine brightly, and widen the circle of our love. In doing
so, we recognize -- in yogic terms -- that all of
humanity and all of creation is, indeed, the Beloved.
With
love, may you know happiness,
Robert
"The greatest
thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return."
Eden Ahbez, from Nature Boy
