Friends,
It has been truly nice to receive comments from all of you out there in cyber space. It is very humbling. As has been the case lately, the blog has been a place for all of us to exchange ideas. I feel in the coming times, any place where we can gather and share ideas will be very important. I got one comment from a reader I would like to share my thoughts about or and hear yours as well. This was the response to my post A Peculiar and Graphic Sufi Anecdote. Take a look:
True unconditional love …to be there, to be that the person that exists needs to die and give herself up…a very painful process indeed, in the world of mortals.
Khalil Gibran words are very significant to this:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.Yet once you taste that ‘connection’ nothing else comes anywhere close, nothing else will do…like Rumi said: “All half-loves must be forsaken to take a whole heart home.”
As I am a romantic at heart I still believe such love can exist between 2 human beings, such human beings being God-actualized.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
I particularly like the quotes by Kahlil Gibran as well as Rumi. So thanks to you again ‘Reader‘ for your comment. There were something that stuck out to me though and I would like to share those with you all. Please realise that I am not criticising , affirming or denying anything the reader has said, just offering my opinion on two things, unconditional love and The Mortal World to open up discussion.
Unconditional Love
When I think about unconditional love a few things come to mind. The first being the love a mother has for her child. I think that is the closest to unconditional love we humans can get. As human beings we are bound by and ultimately imprisoned by conditions; some of our own creation, some by nature of being created beings.
I have come to feel over the years that only God can love unconditionally, and human beings cannot. This may sound a bit sardonic but … what can I say. Mystically one can say before I existed, I was loved which is why I have ultimately been given this gift that is human existence. There is that beautiful Hadith: “I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be known, so I created a creation.” which in Sufi tradition has been said “I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be Loved, so I created a creation.”
The mystical experience has even been described as God experiencing Himself. The highest form of human love even of a perfected being, or an awakened one or a prophet, doesn’t compare to capabilities of the Creator. The longing that turns the person into a weary wayfarer is the longing of God for himself in creation. In the realm of metaphysics one can even say that our existence is contingent upon a condition: i.e. God wanting to experience Himself. We cannot surpass this condition.
On a practical level if when I met my wife all those years ago I told her that I loved her before she existed, before she was born, before I knew her, while she was in diapers I doubt we would have ever really dated. That kind of talk as far as I have heard scares women away as it sounds kinda of creepy.
This doesn’t mean I don’t aspire to love unconditionally, as Rumi advises: Seek only that of which you have no clue. Desire only that of which you have no hope. I something have the feeling that thinking one can do something kind of goes against the whole mystical idea . Ultimately I dont feel that an awakened person does anything. The closer one approaches unconditional love I feel the less there is a ‘person’ there. I remember this prayer of a mystic
I do not ask to see
I do not ask to know
I ask only to be used
What do you feel about this please share 
The Mortal World
I personally have never been able to make a distinction between a mortal world and o ther worlds except when I play video games, or read mythology or play as a paladin in WoW -World of Warcraft a MMORPG (just kidding) There simply is. Creation is such a vast thing, an infinite thing as it is none other than the Creator. I have always had a misgiving about labelling things, adjectives and I have a weird relationship. I feel the more labels we create the more we weigh ourselves down.
Okie Dokie I have put out enough banter please comment .
PS – I had a funny ideas of an eHarmony website for ascended/enlightened/beings who want to meet up but are tired of boring dates that go nowhere, and are in a rut .Just made me laugh
When Love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep..Love is our strength!