The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founded a religion based on love. He says to us of love, "If you want to play the game of love with me, put your head in your hands and walk with me."
How this speaks to me... To walk in love I must surrender my head, meaning follow the heart-of-hearts, not the intellect. The world can fit in my heart but not my head. When putting my head in my hands, I am not allowing what I think - beliefs, thoughts, ... - to block the flow of Love... the love game. The intellect serves me well in practical matters, but it cannot go where the heart goes... everywhere, all at once. All good arises from the heart - spirit, soul, True Self, that-of-God-within, Buddha Nature, Self, Atman, ...
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"The God Who Surrenders," 11.27.2004
After these years of Exploring the wisdom of spiritual paths … I hear this simple Message tonight:
"Brian, My Love, there is one thing That will bring lasting pleasure To the union of You and Me: Surrender."
But, even more amazed Am I to find tonight That God, to Give and receive love, Surrenders Too.
What a truth! A God who so longs To enjoy you, Surrenders to you, To open the way Of surrender From you.
Is this not Grace?
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An early Christian wrote, in I John 4.19: "We love, for God first loved us" (GNT), or with love to God implied, "We love Him because He first loved us" (NLV).
This wisdom points to a sacred truth: all love entails surrender of self. Yet, this self cannot surrender itself, and it cannot claim to love anyone.
Surrender arises from spirit. Spirit is that-of-God-in-all - including nonhuman beings. God loves through each being according to the capacity of that being. We humans, among created beings, do not claim the whole market, so to speak, on love.
This surrender of self allows our True Self, spirit, to come forth and shine. The spirit within us is the medium for the shining forth of Spirit through the body.
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Spirit and spirit are one in loving; their nature is love. They cannot do other than love. And they love with or without anything done.
In or apart from action, love is its own witness. The Sunlight witnesses of the Sun. Before the Sun shines on anything, the Sun is the Sun.
And one cannot say, "There is the Sunlight, there the Sun." To say "Sunlight" is to say "Sun." Love is in all loves, in all loving, and loves and loving in love.
*Quote from Guru Nanak, in "Sikh Path of Love," February 8, 2012, by Sardarni Guru Amrit Kaur. See www.sikhdharma.org .
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photographs.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
