If you are seeking closeness to the Beloved, Love everyone. Whether in their presence or absence, See only their good. If you want to be as clear and refreshing as The breath of the morning breeze, Like the sun, have nothing but warmth and light For everyone.
*Sufi, Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir (967 - 1049 CE)
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If you are seeking closeness to the Beloved, Love everyone
Closeness is not emotional; such as, "I feel really close to you." This closeness is intimacy before the emotion or the feeling of distance or nearness. The reason the emotion can arise is the intimacy is prior present. If... between "if" and "yes" is a gateless gate to a new world. There is no separation between closeness to Spirit and manifestations of Spirit. To seek God is to seek others in God, even as the seeker is in God. Separation is the ultimate illusion. Differentiation is how the One manifests in matter and creates closeness here.
Whether in their presence or absence, See only their good
What benefit is there in talking on and on about what you see to be others' shortcomings? That talk comes from the talk in the head. That is ego play, not God play. Why not notice the good about others? Everyone has good, even as you have good. There is something good of everyone. To see the good begins with a choice to see the good. Sadly, many people cannot see the good within themselves, so they cannot see it in others. Seeing the good is more than seeing what you like in or agree with regarding another, for the good is virtue free of others or self.
If you want to be as clear and refreshing as The breath of the morning breeze
Clear and refreshing. To whom? Do you not recall feeling like this? Others can sense this, too, about you. They can sense it without you saying a word. The wind does not have to say anything, and neither do you. Being clear, you bring clarity. Being refreshing, you share refreshing. Being means no separation: you are it - clarity, refreshment.
Like the sun, have nothing but warmth and light For everyone
Others, too, can feel this warmheartedness. Again, you do not have to say anything. There is no need to try to be warmhearted. Being warmhearted, let your speech flow from the warmth; then, your speech will be warm and warming. So, with action, too. Again, this is not from egoic effort but willingness to allow something to arise of its own nature. The mind is bowing before the heart. Too much effort is willfulness, and this blocks the natural appearance. The heart is soft, gentle, and welcoming. Your nature is welcoming.
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I wrote the above poem to an acquaintance. I prefixed it "Lovely Reminder." Later, before sending, I added "Challenging Sometimes" and "Aspiration."
We are inspired by aspirations, not getting caught in "I succeeded" or "I failed." Aspirations point us in a direction, not toward perfection. To love is a noble aspiration. To love is life, not to love is death. Distance is absent from love.
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What arose later within is how the person (i.e., any person) cannot do what the poem encourages. You, the person, cannot love everyone or always think well of them. You, the person, may find it impossible to think well of a certain other or group for one moment. You will appear to love those who behave as pleases you, those who fit your expectations. But is that love?
The person, or ego-sense, has an array of conscious and unconscious preferences and thinks and acts based on where someone or something fits. That you tries to love based on memory, for its present thoughts and feelings are grounded in memory, not in the present. "I love you" is "You please me" ... "You and I like the same things" ... "You and I think alike" ... "You and I are the same race" ... "You and I are of the same religion" ... "You remind me of someone who pleased me in the past."
The heart, however, cannot have but "love and warmth" for all. From the heart, there is no struggle to love anyone: such love is spontaneous. From the heart means from you, us - God. Yet, this true you is not how most persons see themselves. They see themselves as a separate individual struggling in a world of tribulations and competition spanning time from birth to death, relating to others as other objects.
When you do not know who you are, you do not know who anyone is; when you know who you are, you know who everyone is. If you know yourself and do not know everyone, you do not know yourself but a thought of yourself.
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Let us go one step further, here. The true you - the heart - is all of us, only loves others, and before any intention to love or feeling of loving arises. The heart is already in love, for it is love. To be in love is Love in love with Itself.
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We can call this true I - the lover - many things. We cannot speak it. Even the thought "I" dissolves in this silent illumination. The sense of self relaxes and is embraced and absorbed in it, the Beloved. Presence speaks forth Presence through you, the person. God loves God.
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So, what can be done? Surrender. By the inspiration of the heart, our heart, relaxation of the self-sense allows the uprising, the resurrection, of the one Presence, which is one Love. Then, love arises for those we could not love before. Love loves through the phenomenal appearance, which is part of duality - Life's dance. Duality is God's dance floor. So, God loves loving others.
In Love, no one can say, "I love you." For One love loves through you. You are the instrument through which the Beloved plays the music. To say, "I love you," you say, "We all love you. God loves you. I love myself," or simply, "Loving." The latter, for in such loving, the lover is not the Subject.
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There being one heart, there is one lover, one loving, and one loved. And in loving any appearance of this Beloved, you love every appearance of the Beloved, and you love the appearance doing the loving of the Beloved.
So, the wisdom in the following -
She said to the Sage, "I'm so frustrated! I simply can't seem to love some persons as I wish, no matter how I try, though I truly want to." The Sage replied, "Wonderful! That's exactly the beginning of loving them."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
Who wants to love one being unloved? Who cannot do it? Who can do it? What is meant by: not every I signifies I?
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
