Hello friends!
Allow me to ride the bandwagon of Valentine's day so that we can all get out of its misrepresentation of Love and get off from that bandwagon.
Love, as we are all aware of, is a tremendous energy, a driving force. Love is very sensitive to lies and deceptions and it leaves as its purity is tainted. Love then is turned into senseless drama, misguided passion, and reckless decisions.
The true energy of Love is one that aspires to Co-create, spread goodness, give birth to inspired actions, make one closer to Oneness. Unfortunately, the current construct of society and media has turned it into a perversion of romance and selfishness.
True love is not fickle and requires effort and a good soil to grow.
True love is a seed that sprouts and grows only into True Love. Think of it as planting an apple seed. Once you plant an apple seed, only an apple plant will sprout not an orange, or anything else. Like a seed, True Love will never sprout into hate, lust, passion, and others that it is not.
True love may sprout but it requires effort and deep looking and understanding. Even on a sprout growing slowly and bound by the laws of nature, our efforts and understanding will nurture its growth. True love is not lazy and is not indifferent. It requires practice such as the mantras that Thich Nhat Hanh shared with us. You may practice this with anyone, anytime, and anywhere when the situation permits.
These are the five mantras that Nhat Hanh encourages us to practice. Before saying these mantras, calm yourself first, breathe, and dwell in the present moment and focus all your being to the one in front of you.
1. "Darling, I am here for you."
2. "Darling, I know you are there and it makes me happy."
3. "Darling, I know you suffer and I am here for you."
4. "Darling, I am suffering and I need your help."
5. "Darling, this is a happy moment."
(source: http://tnhaudio.org/tag/four-mantras/)
Practice these to your loved ones everyday. Find time to appreciate them and show them True Love.
True Love like a seed, needs a good soil to grow. This soil is similar to your faith, or where your faith is grounded upon. Faith, I believe, is not a matter of Religion. It is a matter of an individual's complete trust to his or her experience of the truth. If a person has experienced God, then by all means, place your complete trust on God and let it not be shaken by struggles. Faith crumbles once it is founded on simply what others say or what a book says. Faith must come from our own experience and our own direct feeling of the truth. True love, as I have mentioned does not dwell in lies and deception. If your Love is grounded on such faith, it will also crumble with your faith and will cause you great suffering.
Maybe we can practice True Love everyday. Not only on our object of romantic love but also on our family, friends, society, plants, animals, earth, stars, on all Beings of this Universe!
Let's celebrate Love everyday!
Even a simple rainbow can be an object of our Love. All it takes is to feel sincerely happy that it is there.
