Love

Love might be one of the most overused words in the English language as well as the most misunderstood.  It can span the scale from 0 to 10 in actual meaning.  One might say I love pizza, and then there is waiting for that special someone to say those three words, “I love you.”

It can be centered on giving or receiving.  It can be needy.  It can be conditional or unconditional.  It can be bought.  It can be true.  It can be deep.  It can be shallow.  It can even be a tennis score.  In writing this I am reminded of one of George Carlin’s monologues.

The meaning of this four-letter word can be so broad that one can question if it even has meaning at all?  This one single word really encompasses too much and I feel it needs an offshoot of words with its own dictionary.

The Greeks had four words for love:

Agape – In Modern Greek it means brotherly love.  In more ancient times it referred to a true, deep, or sacrificial love.  It can also be referred to as a divine love or God’s love.  It can mean the highest and purest form of love.

Eros – This type of love is sensual and passionate, although it may not necessarily be sexual.  Nevertheless, it is more intimate in nature.  Its name is taken from the Greek god Eros, from whence the word erotic comes.  Cupid is another form of the god’s name, generally depicted as the second Eros, or his son.

It can refer to beauty or an appreciation of beauty such as physical attraction, but is not necessary in this type of love.  Plato used the term platonic to refer to love without physical attraction.  Platonic love is a love on a deeper level – the level of the soul and delves into the spiritual aspect.

Philia – Philia means friendship in Modern Greek. This love is virtuous and involves loyalty to friends, family and community, a concept developed by Aristotle.

Storge – Storge means “affection” in ancient and Modern Greek. It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring. Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family.

Yoga, meaning to yoke to God, is varied and broad in its many branches and definitely takes in the meaning of love. Under the ancient Indian tradition of yoga, Bhakti yoga is based on the doctrine that love is God and God is love.  All else is meaningless.  Earthly attachments with their lower forms of love are meaningless.  Bhakti yoga is the most direct method to experience the divine.  In perfection of this yoga all becomes one, knower and known, subject and object, deity and devotee.

“Giving love to all, 
feeling the love of God, 
seeing His presence in everyone…  that is the way to live in this world.”  Parahamansa Yogananda

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. Lao Tzu

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter of the Bible.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I believe that love is God’s glue, and actually is and is not separate from God.  It is that which holds all that is together.  It is the bliss and joy that mystics have experienced and that cannot be described in mere words.  Perhaps the closest earthly experience we may have of it is of “being in love.”  It’s an experience that usually fades and is not considered the norm.  I really think that “being in love” feeling should be the constant and the norm – a continuous ecstasy of spirit.  The poetry of Rumi to me most exemplifies this.  Rumi could be quoted all day on love, but I will end with this:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”  Jalal ad-Din Rumi

I am thankful for the brief encounters I’ve had with that blissful love one would term Bhakti.

 

Finding the G Spot – G Rated

This has been a work in progress for many years now.  I didn’t even know there was a G spot until something miraculous happened to me many years ago.  By G spot I’m talking about the God spot, wherever that exists, in my brain, in my heart, perhaps permeating every cell in our bodies, in our universe, at the same time playing hide and seek.  It’s very elusive, but once you find it you won’t mistake it for anything else.  At the same time, it seems to appear in it’s own good time.  For me, perhaps it will appear only once in this particular lifetime.

I haven’t had a near death experience; but I did have an experience while this body was still very much alive.  I briefly found the G spot.  I’m sharing it in hopes that it may give others comfort.

Several years back there was a channel on television called Wisdom I heard the phrase falling awake.  This is a good description, because the first sensation I felt prior to the experience was that of falling, a sort of free fall…you know that falling experience that you sometimes have before falling asleep.  The difference was instead of falling asleep I fell awake – truly awake.

The experience is not as vivid as it once was in my mind, although, the longing of re-experiencing it has entered my mind on a daily basis.  This might give you some insight as to its impact on my life.  It happened in November 1992.

It seemed to have become clearer to me once again after going through a divorce, and gave me comfort, probably because a haze had lifted at that time, and because I needed the reassurance of this experience.  At any rate, it is what I long for again, more than anything else.  It seemed more real than what we term as reality on earth.  After this experience I see everything around me as maya or illusion.  What happened to me was the only true reality.  Of this I am convinced.  I have over the span of years had other experiences of an astral or loving nature, but none to compare with this one.

After the falling sensation, I found myself floating out in the universe, as a ball of energy, around other balls of energy, which were like stars to me.  It was totally beautiful, and reminiscent of our Hubble telescope images of space.   I felt I was part of the Milky Way Galaxy, as afterwards, that is what I thought it most resembled.  The things I experienced were total bliss and ecstasy, and that I was a part of unconditional love, oneness with God.  I intuitively termed it as Source during the experience.  This unconditional love, wisdom and all knowledge were the Source of everything.  My experience of God was of this unconditional love, which emanated from the center, radiating outward.  It was what held the universe together.  Although, I was experiencing all of this love and oneness, I still felt individuality.  I felt that the other lights or stars were also souls.  Some of the interpretation comes from thoughts afterwards.  During the experience I knew all knowledge and wisdom where readily attainable; however, it all went away after the experience.  I didn’t ask any of life’s questions; although I think anything would have come intuitively.  All I cared about was being cradled in the metaphorical arms of God, like an innocent baby.  The other thing was the non-existence of time, which seemed perfectly natural, but was hard to understand after coming back into this existence.   Everything on this plane involves time.  With God time didn’t really exist.  It was like going home for a short period.  I can’t really tell you how long it lasted in earthly terms…. I think only minutes, as compared to hours.

Some people may describe this as out of body; however, I was more aware of what was happening in my body during this time than ever before.  It was as if I could feel every cell.  I was perfectly aware almost in a surreal way of everything physical, like I was in the body and in the heaven existence at the same time.  I didn’t want to come back from it, but when I thought of wanting to remain in this state was when I started to come back.  I could see this world in the background. Yet it was in black and white, and only an illusion, but still important or necessary. I looked at the sphere called earth knowing it was a school and a learning experience.   My daughter was just entering her teens.  My longing to remain there actually preempted any responsibility I felt as a mother.  The compelling force to stay in this bliss and ecstasy, and the unconditional love of God was so strong that nothing on earth could have held me.  Words cannot explain it.  Somehow I knew everything would continue and be fine without my earthly existence.  But these thoughts ended the experience.

There were no words spoken to me, or no meeting of any entities, just energy, and everything and everyone composed of energy and oneness and unconditional love.  For weeks afterwards, I had so much energy, and tried so hard to repeat the experience.

I wondered if this was happening to others.  I thought it couldn’t be.  If people knew this, there would be no wars, no anger of any kind at all.

Maybe one day again…. hopefully I will fall into this perfect state of bliss and love. There is absolutely nothing in this earthly existence that can compare.  If you even take the most loving experience you’ve ever had and multiple it one thousand times, you still could find no comparison.  When I’m listening to music now, I relate it to being in love with God.  Sinead O’Conner’s song, “Nothing Compares to You,” says it, as does the words to so many love songs.  I see God as all.  When I read Rumi, I know what he was talking about.  I have had other experiences, some major, some minor.  I think a lot of what I experience comes from this first experience.

I have no reason why this happened.

After this there was no more “just belief.”  There was “knowing.”  I termed it as going to heaven.  I hadn’t pictured heaven this way.  It certainly wasn’t in human terms as it is so often described.  I grew up in churches preaching fire and brimstone.  So, I expected to see a judgmental Jesus in clouds.  I’m not a churchgoer anymore that is going to church buildings, and wasn’t at the time this happened.

I have found spiritual people along the way since this happened and talked about it and found others who have also had similar experiences.  I have read.  I learned the term Samadhi.  I know there are different levels.  I briefly encountered one level.  Through synchronicity, I picked up a book in our house, not knowing where it even came from or how I had it.  It was by Yoganada.  Since then I’ve been reading him almost daily.  He lived this experience everyday.  I could literally see this heaven in his eyes in a photograph of him, taken one hour before the death of his earthly body.

I’m no one special.  I have no idea why this glimpse of God was given to me.  I still have no answers; well, maybe a few more than I did have.  I know that unconditional love holds everything together.

I heard a statement from Deepak Chopra; although, I don’t think it is his originally; and I may not have it exactly right.  “Every saint has a past.  Every sinner has a future.”  This statement certainly gives us all hope.

I’m certainly thankful for this experience.

God Sometimes Speaks Through Socks

This happened to me several years ago.  I felt compelled to write about it but didn’t until a few days later as the result of one of those synchronicities.  I read an article about a discussion topic of  “How Does God Communicate With You?”

A few mornings earlier I awoke thinking I must look for that missing sock today.  These were my favorite socks.  I had one sock, but one was missing.  It had been missing for a month.  I kept thinking it would turn up, falling out of laundry or something like that.  Since this was Saturday my husband was home and I would get him to move the washer and dryer out thinking perhaps it had fallen behind one of them.

Being a lazy Saturday, I fell back asleep for about an hour.  We finally arose, and had breakfast.  I had forgotten, once again about the sock.  After breakfast, we started talking about spiritual things.  I had a question for God.  I get so involved in the “whys” and the mysteries of the universe.  I was doing some deep soul searching.  I prayed rather hard asking God a question.  Immediately, intuitively I got the answer, almost as if God were telling me directly.  It seemed so clear.  I wasn’t too crazy about the answer, but just feeling God’s presence in that moment was reassuring.  Silently, I replied back,  “that felt so real, but “just give me a sign.”

My husband at the same moment walked back into the room.  Just minutes before he said he was going to change into some old work clothes, while leaving me alone to say my prayer and ponder all this.  He returned, standing in the doorway putting on an old shirt, to go work outside.  As he was putting it on, the sock fell to the floor.

I’m thankful for synchronicities and answered prayer.

 

Practicing Non-Religion

Gandhi

If God is love in all religions, then isn’t what really matters love?  Love connects us.  Religion when not practiced with love divides and conquers us. Why do we look for differences instead of similarities?  Why does it matter if someone is black or white, American or Indian, rich or poor, Catholic or Muslim?  If one is a Christian, what does it matter if someone is Baptist or Methodist?  Why do we continually practice division instead of love?

It is my belief that all the plans of division we devise separate us from God.  Love connects us to each other and to God.  When we see someone practicing devotion, the path of love, such as Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Rumi, do we see their religion, or do we see the path they have taken – the path of love?

Love is actually the easiest path in my opinion.  It requires no great intellect or wisdom, no resistance or strain, no analyzing or judging.  It firmly places us in the now as opposed to the past or future.   At the same time it provides the greatest benefit to our whole being – soul, body, and mind.

Sometimes I think God just dropped, we the children off, on this playground called Earth, and said play your little games but be good to each other and above all love each other.

I still see a lot of violence in both thought and deed in the world.  I also see a lot of humans coming to together showing compassion towards each other while celebrating both individuality and sameness and am thankful for that.

 

The Spiritual Journey of a Child

The view from our front porch

That would have to be in the beginning.  No, correction, if we are all a part of God, and God has no beginning or no end, then in the beginning couldn’t really be accurate.  I really can’t imagine no beginning or no end, but God is far beyond my imagination.

If the spiritual journey comes down to lifetimes then I really can’t say, as any remembrance of lifetimes is scanty to say the least. In this lifetime my first recollected God connection moment was when I was around eight.  I was in the wooded area near our house, lying in warm overgrown grass looking up at the clouds, thinking God was in those clouds.  All my senses were alive.  I felt the soft crunch of the grass, the warm ground, and the kind breeze and was in awe of all life around me – the bees, the worms, and the insects.  There was nowhere God was not.  God was the entire life and beauty of the moment.

It’s strange what we remember when we were young.  This, however, is one of my strongest memories.  I’m thankful to carry this memory of seeing through the eyes of a child.