The Mind Follows Love

Sri Sri Ravishankar of Art of Living Foundation
talks about love and the mind's attraction to it.

A beautiful commentary on how love can take us to a state of meditation. This is from a collection of Guruji's talks on the Bhaktisutras available at www.richesofindia.co.uk

Below is the link to The Art of Living Foundation's YouTube site with other videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahyURPUsLmI

Raspberry Jam

Mmmmmm . . . Raspberry Jam! I love it. I love strawberry Jam too. Let's face it i like jam.

There's nothing quite as joyful as opening a jar of raspberry jam on a cold, snowy winter day. Although opening a jar of garden tomatoes you canned last summer's end and thawing out some green chilies roasted and frozen that same weekend might rival the jam.

Once the jar of jam is opened, the scent alone reminds me of the fresh fruit, and the color(!) oh my, such a deep rich red the kind of red you just don't see in Colorado during the winter months. No, not red. Brown? Yes. Gray? Yes. White? You betcha! But red? No, not so much. Maybe left over Christmas ornaments, or perhaps ones cheeks or nose from being outside, but that's about it.

Oh, and this color remind me of other berries, strawberries especially; and roses and ruby-throated hummingbirds, and the little heads of the finches which nest in my porch light.

It's good to think of these things, to remember the joys of hearty Summer whilst deep in the throes of Old Man Winter.

These simple things we do, spreading jam on toast for breakfast or making our children's lunch for school can be moments to remind one to be mindful. We can take the time to think about the jam we are spreading. What is this glorious stuff full of seeds with their potential for more life and fruit bearing (well, maybe not after the canning process . . . but maybe if it's freezer jam). It is clearly more than the jam, it is not simply jam that is to say, for nothing is self arising. It is so much more than just jam.

Think of the rainwater that went into growing the plant and it's berries, and all that sunshine being turned into sugars by these miraculous plants. And what of the clouds in the great sky that brought that rain, and the ocean it came from and all the weather it brought to others on its way from there to here. What about the dirty hands of the gardener who pruned last years raspberry canes and planted the seeds or the root seedlings. And there's the soil, and the compost and leaf mulch which made it and the worms which enriched and aerated it. When you look at the jam can you see the rain and the soil, the gardener and the garden; can you see the sun, the weather and the worm.

No, this is clearly much more than simply jam, this is part of the endless process of life. Perhaps jam represents a still point moment in the planets water cycle. Perhaps it is the worms' pinnacle altruistic achievement.

How She Knew

and her children grew
since crying from birth,
to make their own wombs,
harvest fruit from the earth

that pollen from flowers
of daisies fed bees;
both laughter and hours
heal badly scraped knees

kites that she flew,
once tethered by string,
now nesting in trees
for birds on the wing

that's how she knew,
in no uncertain terms
that god loved earth,
the circle, the worms

-David A. Martin

All We Need Is Love

"Imagine" may be my favorite song by John Lennon; it envisions a world created from our best intentions, where the brotherhood of mankind is healthy and harmonious . "All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance" really clarifies the method of moving toward that vision. But "All We Need Is Love" gives us something the one thing by which we can measure and temper each moments intentions, actions and perception.

When we act in this world we can do so from a place of love. When we move through our day we can practice viewing all that comes to us, even the challenges, as an expression of this life's love for us. When we are about to act out from our emotions or are considering how to act in a certain situation, we can quickly ask ourselves, "Am i doing this out of Love?" Often when acting without mindfulness, when we are just playing those same old response tapes instead of consciously and purposefully acting in the moment we often are acting out of habit. Other times we may be acting from quite base emotions. Often when we are angered it is due to ignorance or greed. Even the way we feel about things is often based in greed, or ignorance but our third option is love.

If we are mindful and awake in the present, in tune with the true nature of the moment and are seeing things as they are instead of how we wish they were, we find that responding from a place of love becomes quite a bit easier. It becomes easier to see that love is all around you. Everything is an expression of this vast universe's love and nurturance of you. The universe seeking to increase life and expand toward greater and infinite expression of itself. And we are all parts of that one great self.

So, then one can see that the sun rises each day. That is love. The rain which falls, that is love. It can nourish the forests and our lawns, fill our birdbaths; or it may flood things and overcome the temporary structure of things as they were yesterday, washing old things away to start new life and new forms of expression.

The universe is an artist, creating order from chaos, mixing and arranging various single things into a pattern which becomes a new and unified larger thing. It is always working on the big picture. And just like a painter, sometimes things are only sketches of ideas, somethings are painted over; parts are carved away from the block or the stone to reveal something inside, a vision . . .

. . . but i digress.

Love.
It is more than a feeling.
It is a way of life. It is a mode of thinking. It is a knowing. It is a decision making criterion. It can be what we do, why we do it, how we do it and who we are.

"Winter rain, now tell me why
Summers fade and roses die,
the answer came, the wind and rain."

-Bob Weir, Erik Anderson