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LOTUS OF THE HEART
All is Welcome Here
Living in Love beyond Beliefs
With your kiss
Longings for love
Ceased forever
*Aug 30.2004.
The 'kiss' of Love, or the Beloved, represents the intimacy with Grace that dissolves longing for Love, for Grace - this we are likely strongly to resist for a time, for we may not envision how we could live beyond this apparently essential aspiration.
Most religion and spirituality is devotional. This 'kiss' does not end devotion; it does dissolve the longing for Love, even for 'God,' or some ultimate 'Other' to worship. Now, devotion may arise, but it arises from the fulfillment of Love. Worship may be devotional, but the devotional is the celebration of a consummation beyond the sensed-Union. Worship can be, then, like two lovers playing love games, but both are fulfilled prior to the ritual of giving themselves to each another: another way of saying this is, there is a rite of acting out a sharing of separation. Why would this be? Possibly, Grace likes this game, this dance of two, and, possibly, this remains integral to the human experience and is not meant to be denied or transcended in some proclamation of transcendence of humanness.
This fulfillment is a gift, one prior devotion may have been preparatory for. Also, this dissolving may not occur suddenly, as some teach. My sense is the dissolving of the longing for Love, for Grace, for the 'Other,' happens as we are drawn more deeply into Presence; so, the 'kiss' may point to a process of deepening intimacy, progressively moving toward a transition to a new way of being and living, and worshipping.
Most religion and spirituality keep persons away from the 'kiss,' though the 'kiss' is both our longing and the Grace leading us to enjoy Life beyond longing. And, now, without the longing, we can serve others from the fulfillment of Love, which frees us more to be more present to others. However, if one has not tasted deeply of the longing and lived with it for some time, that person may feel some sense of fulfillment and contentment; I would conclude such fulfillment is likely not the fulfillment of Love, but that one, due to whatever reason, has not awakened to the longing to be drawn beyond the longing. We cannot transcend what we have not lived. Simply because one is content with life or feels loved by others, and feels love for them, is not necessarily what is meant by the 'kiss' happening that leads us to fulfillment not found in the self, the self even at its best cannot come to this grace of Fulfillment.
*Move cursor over pictures for photographer and title.
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