May 1, 2021, for meeting on May 2, 2021
prompt: a simple thing

It’s a simple thing. Maybe even a cliché. Love. Maybe it’s a useful cliché. Simple, yet it so often eludes us, even though it is always there. I am reminded of this from a facebook post today, May Day, a memory from 2019 posted by a friend and local spiritual teacher. Quote:

There is a simple truth - there is no fear in Love. Empathy, yes. Compassion, yes. Understanding, yes. Wisdom, yes. Power, yes. Connectedness, yes. Validation, yes. But, there is no fear. Stay with Love, and Love will set you free from fear. Love is not something to hope for. It is something to be in. When you are in Love, you are in a Power greater than yourself. Love becomes you ... and you become Love. Be not afraid. Put your faith in Love, and Love will reveal Itself.
from MaDar Trikaya Blessings, May 20, 2019

I quote this even though I know I am not a very good example of Love. It may even be embarrassing to claim it. Love is never boastful, as is said in Corinthians. But Love did come to me, as I have told a number of times, back in late June 1966. I had been asking for an answer to my question, which I later learned was also one that Plato asked. What is beauty? His answer referred to an eternal essence, and finally to an attribute of The Good. In English, that is God with one letter o removed. The answer that came to me was Love. It was my love, and the love surrounding me, that beauty is. And it entered me, never to entirely leave me again. I communed with the sky, seeing beauty as never before. My courage improved after that, and my curiosity and discovery deepened in the following months. I learned that our reasoning mind is not always the best guide to life. I reckoned with infinity, and I learned to see beyond the frameworks we are given. I learned that I am one with All; that Love is a greater power than myself. But then, further challenges left me in doubt again.

I have learned many things, experienced much more beauty, and even shared and created some of it, in the years since 1966, even as I have kept in touch with this original awakening. I learned about the heart starting in 1980, first through feeling it fully for the first time at a Lifespring human potential seminar, and then soon afterward by learning about the chakras. The Lifespring course used symbols from The Wizard of Oz, which we all know and love, but which I had not compared to the chakras yet, since I didn’t know about them. I was honored out of the dozens of people there to be called The Scarecrow. And of course the Oz movie featured my favorite old song which I had known from early childhood, thanks to my Mom. I didn’t know about its connection to the chakras yet either.

Realizations continued from there. Anodea Judith in The Wheels of Life, a definitive book on chakras published in 1989, said that chakras are consciousness centers that correspond to nerve ganglia and endocrine centers in our body. Each of the 7 major chakras can be seen in one of the colors of the rainbow. Each are either yang or yin, alternating between them as they go up the spine. The heart chakra, I recently clarified, is yin, so it does not overwhelm me or direct me. I need to call on it or else I forget. But the heart chakra is always there, really; always crimson sweet; a place of refuge and rest; a place of guidance for our lives, letting us know what is kind, and what is authentic. Relationships go better when I come from the heart chakra. We find balance in all things there; we connect with the true center of our being. And I can contact it with my breath. Love is always there, in the heart center, and it suffuses us. It is not something to seek or wish for, but something to be in. It is always there, within us, especially if we ask for it, if we connect with it.

Perfect Love casts out fear, it is said. I don’t feel so perfect, though. I also learned that fear has its place; as an alarm bell to danger. So a bit of fear is OK. It is a part of life too. But once you hear an alarm clock go off, you turn off the alarm. You don’t need to take it to work or play with you. You don’t keep it going all day, all the time. And yet we do, in floating anxiety, hypertension, worry, and other compulsions that possess us. As we become more aware, we can gain greater ability to turn off the alarm. And Love shuts it off; so says MaDar.

Music was right there at my Love Awakening in June 1966. At that time I was wondering if another favorite song would come along for the top of my list of favorites, as it always had for the last 2 years. I was worried that this new pop music would dry up. Little did I know yet that it was only the beginning of its greatest heights. Two songs, 5D by The Byrds, and I Couldn’t Live Without Your love by Petula Clark, came to the rescue just then and rose immediately to the top of my list. They were so positive, so blissful, that this music suffused my awakening. And so did the Revolver album by The Beatles that shortly followed. I was so happy that these songs came along, and so much more followed. Music had already opened me up to my appreciation of Nature before this, mostly through Beethoven symphonies. There was that song about the rainbow too. But ever since my awakening, even in my lonely hours, I have been blessed by much more music that puts me in love. From this I know that I don’t have to hope for it, then. I know I am in love. I have put this music at the top of my lists. philosopherswheel.com is the place to find it. And at my youtube channel. Because what I have experienced, given to us from the heart of the composer to this heart of mine, I like to share, so others can experience it too, if they can open themselves to it.

My friend Melanie Lan passed away this week, way too young. She was a lovely soul, and happy and easy-going most of the time. She had even called on me to counsel her and encourage her through her troubles. She had come a long way, I felt. I knew her for about 20 years or so. She devoted her life to reaching out, creating community, serving others, sharing beauty, living in harmony with Nature, and supporting the causes she loved. Her smile was enchanting. The plant she gave me lives on. Given her devotion to justice and community, and to socialist ideals, perhaps it was appropriate that she passed on May Day. She was a better example of love than I am; one we can all learn from and remember. I guess she is over the rainbow now. And thanks, and happy anniversary, to MaDar and Trikaya, too.

(Ma(y)-Da(y)r)

The Chakras Wheels of Life in Yoga

Music within Love:

Midwinter by Kevin Kendle (born 1966)(2006)

Silver Droplets by Andrew Lahiff (2009)

Within Love by Robert Carty (1996)

Within the Dream by George Wallace (1988)

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland (1955) (Written by Arlen/Harburg 1939)