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.

You are Love

Wherever you are is the place where you can understand Love. Whatever you do is what you need to understand Love. It is about time to learn Love. You have been called. For years, you have disregarded the call. Now is the time. This moment is the most perfect moment to understand Love. You might ask “How can I understand Love?” or “How can I Love? I don’t deserve it. I just can’t Love.” These questions challenge you to pay attention to Love. You might have doubts to begin because you see and identify yourself with these words: sinful, impure, defiled, unworthy. You have doubts because you have done a lot of undesirable things in the past. You thought that you are ought to be punished than rewarded, let alone to be Loved. You think all these prove that you cannot understand Love.

Here’s the good news: all things you have done and felt guilty about are all PROOF that you are ready to understand Love. That is the truth. We will look into that truth. Don’t worry. You are ready. No matter how the world judges you, or no matter how you judge yourself, the only proof that you are ready is the face you see in the mirror. Yes, that proof is YOU. Nobody but you. Go on, take a look again in the mirror. See that face as it is. That face, your face, is the face of Love. You are made in the image and likeness of Love.

How do you see yourself? Have you ever always judgmental against that person you see in the mirror? Do you always feel guilty of all the things you have done in the past? Have you ever felt lacking of the things you need and want, and made you feel unworthy? Do you always want to prove yourself to others and please them as much as you could, so you can say that you are Loved? Take some time to answer these questions wholeheartedly. Allow your awareness to cut through those painful answers. Those answers are, truly, difficult to accept. Your have to begin to face them, to let yourself be conscious of these truths you often deny. All of these painful thoughts and feelings are darkness of your shadow you choose to see. This darkness will immediately disappear when you cast the light of your awareness.

"To understand Love is to be aware that you are Love."

The source of the light of Love doesn’t come from outside. It comes from inside. That Love is eternal and nourishing, like that of the sun. Wake up early in the morning, right before the sun rises in the east. Look at its gentle rays peeking from the clouds in the horizon. See that same sun rising in you, beaming with brightness. See that sun as the eternal symbol of the light of Love within you. Being aware of that light allows you to shine and be the guiding light for others who are seeking the same light within them.

To understand Love is to be aware that YOU ARE LOVE. Yes, you are Love. I know, you feel so undeserving, because you have done a lot of things that did not allow you to become Loving. You feel that no one has Loved you, that is why until now you are still searching for that Love. You have tried your best to find the right person and keep and own them, yet eventually they would leave you behind and alone. You have made your best on your career, and fattened your bank account so you can find great self-worth. You have tried to buy all new things: clothes, gadgets, or anything you can possess so you can command respect from people and earn their praises and trust. You have tried to give in to people’s demand, or maybe to be always in command, so you can wield more power over their wits. But after all the efforts, you wonder, why in the world you still feel empty? You have believed, as what others have told you that human beings can never be contented.

Ask yourself, “Can we humans become contented? If yes, how can we become?” It has been bugging you that after what you have accumulated and achieved, there is still this void in the depth of your being; something that bothers you, an itch that you cannot scratch because you cannot find where exactly it is. That troublesome itch is the truth drawing your attention. The truth that cannot be touched nor held nor seen. But you can feel it deeply. That truth is the truth of you being Love. You are Love. You must begin to journey back to that awareness.

Opposites

To understand Love, we must understand the opposites.

Love is often an opposite of either fear, hatred and evil. But Love has no opposite. Fear is the opposite of courage, hatred is the opposite of forgiveness, and evil is often the opposite of good. Courage and forgiveness are both transcendent quality of Love, where they represent Love as a direct experience. Good and Evil are, on the other hand, not really opposites at all. This problem can be understood through the two kinds of opposites. In the truth of Love, we will see that there is a thin line that separates the the nature of opposites: either opposites are complementing or opposing.

Complementing opposites are basically natural: light and dark, hot and cold, high and low, hard and soft. They are all part and whole of this reality. Nothing separates them except in our minds. The experience of complementing opposite is what most spiritual teachings call Oneness.

Oneness is the ultimate sense of unity. It is deep beneath the physical reality we see. It is the essence of connectedness, no matter how different people, things and events may be. In Oneness, opposites do not oppose; rather, they are always one and the same. They are in the same spectrum. Darkness is simply absence of Light, and Coldness is simply absence of Heat. In absence, we define presence and vice versa. At first this would be mind-boggling, but we will further understand this when we understand the next kind of opposite.

Opposing opposites are distorted view of the opposite, an experience we often call Separation.The ultimate separation ingrained in our beliefs is the opposition of good and evil. From here, all natural opposites seem to be always at war with each other: Black versus white, superior versus inferior, strong versus weak, rich versus poor, man versus woman. We have always believed this illusion that it has perpetuated a culture of survival of the fittest. We destroy each other because we both believe the other is an enemy rather than a friend, or we see ourselves more righteous than others. We have become self-centered creatures that our only survival is our concern. This primal instinct has wiped the dinosaur species millions of years ago.

Seeing beyond the opposites leads us to an awakened soul. We would not see that the mind and body are separate, more so of seeing God and humanity. There is no more rift between two opposites, only understanding them as two expressions of the same essence. Deepak Chopra, the poet-prophet of mind/body medicine, says that "good is the union of all opposites; evil does not exist." As we operate on this consciousness, we would never identify evil as the great opponent of good. Good is the all-encompassing circle that includes all opposites that naturally mirror each other. No more enemies. No more evil.

But why do we still think in opposites. One reason: because the nature of Love is completely whole that it cannot be experienced without a conscious mind that can experience it.

Think of a flower. A flower is perfect in itself. It behaves on its own reality without the need of other flowers' appreciation. But a flower is not conscious of its own existence. We, human beings who are conscious of our own, cannot escape the reality of being conscious of others' existence, be it a fellow human, living beings such as plants, animals, and inanimate things such as nature, heavenly bodies. With this consciousness, we see the flower, appreciate and give name to it. This is the experience of seeing the flower, as if the flower experiences itself through us.


Because of this consciousness, we sense our reality as if separate from us, an illusion most thinkers call duality. I am here, you are there. Kahlil Gibran, the poet-mystic author of The Prophet once said: "Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?" By being down here, we can see the mountain up there. If we are up in the mountain, we cannot see the mountain at all.

This is why opposites exists, not to separate us from everything that exists, but to be conscious of all of them. Love is infinite in many ways, expresses in different forms, and how Love does it is a mystery to all of us. And these seemingly separate expressions of Love, be it in words, deeds, objects, persons, creatures, arts, etc., are all but same manifestation of this Oneness.

This is why opposites exist not to separate us from everything that exists, but to be conscious of all of them.

A man is naturally a man, and his experience is different from that of a woman. They are different forms of the same species: homo sapiens aka human beings. Can we really say that their nature is opposing? How can another human being be born without a man-woman sexual union? It is because of their difference--opposite--that they can complement each other, and their unity bears another creation, or material unfolding of Love that remains intangible and invisible.

It is in this sense of Separation that we can appreciate this sense of Oneness. And the irony is that It is because of this Separation that our consciousness seem to contradict itself. This is known to many as paradox. Christ himself has taught paradoxical teachings, of which loving your enemies is the most well-known. In the realm of separation, truth will naturally contradict in the form of paradox because each opposite can embody the truth of another. Paradoxes are so universal and natural that it traverses all systems of thought. Our notion of opposing opposites tells us to take sides, yet the realization of complementing opposites tells us that we cannot--choosing one means choosing the other. As one meditation teacher puts it, you cannot choose the right wing of a bird more important than the left one. Both of them are important.

Now, we can refresh our ways of seeing opposites. In a paradoxical manner, I am you, and you are me. We both have this same human experience and both of us seek to embody what Love is. So long as we seek for Oneness, through intentions of cooperation, collaboration and participation, rather than competition, domination and manipulation, we are materializing the possibility of Love to exist in our lives, not just a concept, but a true and tangible existence.