Choose Love
Love is why we are here...
Love is the rhyme, and it is the reason - behind every season...
Love is what makes a difference, and every spiritual tradition at its essence, teaches love...
A Course in Miracles divinely exhorts us, to:
We are the very embodiment of love...
A dear soul, who is an internationally known Anusara yoga teacher wrote to me yesterday, saying to me: "You are the embodiment of love..." But I, could only think to myself, that no - it is not me - but it she who is the embodiment of love, for she selflessly and humbly shines her light, all over the planet!
St. Francis de Sales taught:
Paramahansa Yogananda wrote of devotion, as the manifestation of love, and reminded his devotees, to love God:
I sit in meditation, under the gaze of Hanuman, who exemplifies devotion, and loyalty, and who tore open his heart to reveal the very Presence of the Divine within...
Can I live like that? Let me try - in every way, and moment, for the fruit of every practice is love. It is what Mother Teresa of Calcutta taught - that God is love - and faith and action - and practice is love...
In the dark of night, I review the events of my day, scrutinizing each thought and action, and word - trying to ascertain if I came close to my goal of exemplifying and embodying love on this day, and at least one day this week, I feel I have come as close to my goal as any day...I seek to make those days more the norm, than the exception...
I meditate, I chant, I teach - and each practice and moment offers me the opportunity to embody love...
I come home in the late evening after teaching, excited to hold in my hand, Exquisite Love, the new translation and commentary of the Narada Bhakti Sutras by William K. Mahoney, having had the privilege of receiving a preview of them a year ago, at the Anusara Yoga Teacher's Certified Gathering...
I open to page 256, after having sought to choose and embody love all day, and read this:
"We are born of God's love, we are sustained by God's love throughout our lives, and we remain in God's love at our deaths...Love stands within us as our true nature. To live in love is therefore our completion; it is our wholeness and our perfection..."
I am a Bhakti yogini at heart - the way of devotion has always been mine, and now, in the twilight of my years, I am driven by a sense of urgency, that there is much more love yet to embody, and not as much time before me, as there is behind...
I drive home, from teaching a class today, where I felt every moment was the embodiment of love and prayer - every moment a student embodied a pose was truly a holy moment - every outward manifestation of a pose merely revealed it's inner beauty. With strength and power in their legs, as we worked on leg principles, everyone present connected to their essence as love, and sent forth blessings and prayers to Japan, and the nuclear reactors, joining millions around the world, doing the same today...
We are made to embody love, and prayer...I share with the students, this beautiful quote by Barbara Brown Taylor, since they were working strongly in their legs:
"Sometimes we do not know what we know until it comes through the soles of our feet, or the embrace of a tender lover or the kindness of a stranger. Touching the truth with our minds is not enough. We are made to touch it with our bodies."
I prepare to sit in meditation as the day winds, down, listening to this prayer by Beth Nielsen Chapman, from her beautiful collection of prayers from the world, Prism. This song, is titled, so appropriately, "Choose Love..."
Love is the rhyme, and it is the reason - behind every season...
Love is what makes a difference, and every spiritual tradition at its essence, teaches love...
A Course in Miracles divinely exhorts us, to:
"Teach only love, for that is what you are..."
We are the very embodiment of love...
A dear soul, who is an internationally known Anusara yoga teacher wrote to me yesterday, saying to me: "You are the embodiment of love..." But I, could only think to myself, that no - it is not me - but it she who is the embodiment of love, for she selflessly and humbly shines her light, all over the planet!
St. Francis de Sales taught:
"All through love, and nothing through constraint."
Paramahansa Yogananda wrote of devotion, as the manifestation of love, and reminded his devotees, to love God:
"Love Him, talk to Him every second of your life,
in activity and in silence, with deep prayer..."
in activity and in silence, with deep prayer..."
I sit in meditation, under the gaze of Hanuman, who exemplifies devotion, and loyalty, and who tore open his heart to reveal the very Presence of the Divine within...
Can I live like that? Let me try - in every way, and moment, for the fruit of every practice is love. It is what Mother Teresa of Calcutta taught - that God is love - and faith and action - and practice is love...
In the dark of night, I review the events of my day, scrutinizing each thought and action, and word - trying to ascertain if I came close to my goal of exemplifying and embodying love on this day, and at least one day this week, I feel I have come as close to my goal as any day...I seek to make those days more the norm, than the exception...
I meditate, I chant, I teach - and each practice and moment offers me the opportunity to embody love...
I come home in the late evening after teaching, excited to hold in my hand, Exquisite Love, the new translation and commentary of the Narada Bhakti Sutras by William K. Mahoney, having had the privilege of receiving a preview of them a year ago, at the Anusara Yoga Teacher's Certified Gathering...
I open to page 256, after having sought to choose and embody love all day, and read this:
"We are born of God's love, we are sustained by God's love throughout our lives, and we remain in God's love at our deaths...Love stands within us as our true nature. To live in love is therefore our completion; it is our wholeness and our perfection..."
I am a Bhakti yogini at heart - the way of devotion has always been mine, and now, in the twilight of my years, I am driven by a sense of urgency, that there is much more love yet to embody, and not as much time before me, as there is behind...
I drive home, from teaching a class today, where I felt every moment was the embodiment of love and prayer - every moment a student embodied a pose was truly a holy moment - every outward manifestation of a pose merely revealed it's inner beauty. With strength and power in their legs, as we worked on leg principles, everyone present connected to their essence as love, and sent forth blessings and prayers to Japan, and the nuclear reactors, joining millions around the world, doing the same today...
We are made to embody love, and prayer...I share with the students, this beautiful quote by Barbara Brown Taylor, since they were working strongly in their legs:
"Sometimes we do not know what we know until it comes through the soles of our feet, or the embrace of a tender lover or the kindness of a stranger. Touching the truth with our minds is not enough. We are made to touch it with our bodies."
I prepare to sit in meditation as the day winds, down, listening to this prayer by Beth Nielsen Chapman, from her beautiful collection of prayers from the world, Prism. This song, is titled, so appropriately, "Choose Love..."
Years cannot age you
Fear cannot scare you
Pain cannot hurt you
Death cannot kill you
Choose love, Choose love
War cannot harm you
Hunger can't starve you
Sin cannot shame you
Guilt cannot blame you
Choose love, Choose love
When you're doubting your direction
And you feel like giving up
Choose love...
Fear cannot scare you
Pain cannot hurt you
Death cannot kill you
Choose love, Choose love
War cannot harm you
Hunger can't starve you
Sin cannot shame you
Guilt cannot blame you
Choose love, Choose love
When you're doubting your direction
And you feel like giving up
Choose love...
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