New Home

Thank you, everyone for following my blog here at Blogger. I also thank Blogger for hosting my blog. Now, I have moved to Pathfinders' Commune's new home at Wordpress, pathfinderscommune.com . I will still keep this blog as part of Pathfinders Commune humble beginnings. Now, I invite you to come to my new home. Thank you so much. Blessings of Love be with you!

Rem

Understanding

Most people in this world feel the need to be Loved by seeking Love from other people who seem not Loving. In truth, Love is never found in people we thought can give us Love, but within ourselves who is the only source of Love.

This is why the Buddha instructs people to seek the Dhamma within, just as the same way Christ told us to find the kingdom of God within. Once we realized that we are the only reliable person from where Love comes, we will cease to find people who can Love us. As a consequence, Love becomes so natural that it binds people without effort. Love manifest in all relationships. Only by giving Lovingkindness to the world that you will gain all the Lovingkindness you can experience. By accepting people as they are, even if you find them ungrateful, you are beginning to Love. Here lies the paradox: The more you give Love, the more Love comes to you.

Love cannot exist without understanding. They are inextricable from each other. Love is understanding, expressed. Love is something vague and subject to misinterpretations. Understanding, on the other hand, is a specific expression of Love. It is not an interpretation or definition of Love. Understanding is the nature of Love as it sees differences and situations without any judging. It is the nature of Love sans all experiences that keeps us from Loving.

"Negative experiences and obstacles
may stop us from Loving,
but they always remind us to Love."

Those people who Love but do not understand can be seen and understood in two ways. First, they seem to interpret that their actions are expressions of Love. In principle, those actions are only interpretations of Love. Still, they have done things out of, ironically, not understanding Love. But deep beneath it comes the second one: That even they claim that their actions are coming from Love, with suffering as an outcome, still they are in their greatest opportunity to Love. The Buddha said this is akin to a lotus that grows from the mire, and once it blooms, the mire cannot anymore touch it again. The mire of suffering and misunderstanding is the fertile ground of Love. A friend who seemed not to know how to deal with a lot of misunderstanding told me her story. I simply advised her that all her negative experiences and obstacles may stop her from Loving, but they always remind her to Love.

You can read Thich Nhat Hahn's Being Peace, and there you will find that Nirvana or enlightenment is a state of Loving understanding. You cannot help but Love if you really understand. You can gauge your own awakening by the extent of your deep understanding. In the process, we will find that Love is something not sought from anyone else, but emanates from our inner consciousness. When we begin to understand, we begin to Love.




photo by coee

Reflection

What is a reflection? Is it not the opposite of the one who looks? Is it not the same person, yet a different one? I can see myself in the mirror, but the mirror shows only the me that looks on it. There is this person on the other side, who moves the hand, blinks the eyes, smiles and frowns exactly as I do. This person seems to be far and separate from me. Yet it is me, nonetheless. I might find this person different from me, because he is only a reflection. But reflection do not exist as a separate truth. My reflection and I are one.

This is literal in a sense. It is a simple logic to think that my reflection is me. But what if that the whole humanity is my reflection? What if that each person I encounter is my exact reflection? Would that be an easy task to be conscious of? Or would that be a difficult confusion to solve?

We have believed, as far as our everyday lives are concerned, that we are no more the same from other people. They are there. We are here. This is the definition of territories and boundaries, ownerships and righteousness, contrast and separations. We cannot be the other person, for the other is different, and often opposing to our ways of being. Oftentimes, this sense of separateness compels us to destroy each other, both coming from a belief that we are the only deserve the happiness that all of us--including our enemies--desire.

Why it is so difficult to see Oneness? Because it is a vague concept for someone who have witnessed great rifts and strife. Because we still live in the illusion that our physical bodies are separated islands in the ocean of uncertainty. We will be used to this until we can get use to the vagueness of the essence of becoming One.

Reflection is an action and a powerful tool. Reflection goes beyond the notion of being alone and reading over a good passage, or trying to mull over a certain decision. Reflection, in contrast, is an essential experience: an experience of seeing. This is a radical seeing, for it needs more than the physical eye can do. Each of us sees with the eyes of our soul that can penetrate the depths of our hearts, threading ours to those we are allowed and about to see, people who have been trying to seeing ourselves. BY reflecting, we are experiencing through the experience of those we see. We reflect ourselves by becoming the person we see, and allowing us to feel and fulfill the experience of the soul.

If we reflect ourselves to those who suffer, we can see them with eyes of compassion. In essence, we have opened our hearts toward their suffering, and ease their burden with the purity of our reflection. If we reflect ourselves to those who rejoice, we can see them with the eyes of shared joys. We are happy because the other is happy. Happiness is the same reflection.

When we awaken to this reality, Love becomes clearly and sharply visible. Reflecting ourselves with the other frees us from all sense of separation. It saves us from that hellish experience that we are fated to do things and end up without anymore time to transform and deeply savor our true humanity.

A deeper way of seeing, reflection opens our sight to see ourselves from within through the presence of the other. Another word for this experience is called "insight". We see ourselves. And the world we see outside is the world we must see inside us. Each and everyone we meet is a reflection of our consciousness. Whatever circumstance, situation, both we like and dislike that seem to be apart or out of our personal bounds, once they entered our awareness, they all become a manifestation of what is within our minds and hearts. All this opens new ways of seeing reality and penetrating the truth. We take responsibility of knowing the source of truth: everything that we witness and experience is a key to touch the essence of Love within.