Monday, 8 August 2022

Love and Pain


 Where did I leave off . . . ah, yes . . .love and pain. Periodically over the last few weeks I've paused to reflect on the ending of my last post and the sense that I've repeatedly come to is that love is the way forward and pain is something you encounter along the way. No need to be dramatic about it or try to deny it. It's best to simply accept that you will experience pain and face it squarely when you do. Different traditions and schools of thought prefer, and argue strongly for, certain other terms for what I'm calling pain.  I opt for the word pain for two reasons, first, because it's bodily and second, because it's simple. Suffering seems elevated and it already belongs to the Buddhists.  I've noticed some people preach embracing pain, as in the old catch phrase which never seems to go out of style from the Jane Fonda aerobic videos, "no pain no gain." I'm urging something more neutral. No need to hug it or push it away. Pain is a whisper you should attend to because if you don't it's going to be a scream. 

Love, for me, is not only the way forward, but it is the totality of the surrounding environment. Love is the expanse of the sky while pain, along with other things, is the clouds.

Monday, 11 July 2022

Love Teaches You the Way



 "Love teaches you the way," is a phrase that was given to me as a gift to explore and discuss publicly.  I want to clearly delineate that this phrase emerged as a gift in the blank void of my mind/imagination and not a phrase or idea that I thought up. That fact that it's a gift confers a clear benefit which is that I don't need to defend any identification I might have if it was an idea of my own. As a gift, I get the pleasure of receiving it with an open mind and heart. I can be grateful for it, but also feel free to examine it closely under different circumstances to unlock and wonder at the meaning and use of it. 

"Is it true?" That's where my mind goes first. My initial reaction is that it "feels" true. It also "feels" like I would be a better person if I accepted and recognized this as true and acted upon it in my life.  If someone asked me "what is the great teacher in life?" I would answer without hesitation "pain." I don't like this answer and I've often resisted acknowledging it, but pain does seem to be the signal most people, myself included, are tuned into most of the time and it motivates us to inquire. Are pain and love related?  

Love Teaches You the Way video series:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvxDbFASaFmk91Pc9NGgw64EP-LM7BUVs