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Brian Wilcox 'Yellow Stella De Oro Day Lilly'
Ramana Maharshi -
When you truly feel equal love for all beings, when your heart has expanded so much that it embraces the whole of creation, you will certainly not feel like giving up this or that. You will simply drop off from secular life as a ripe fruit drops from the branch of a tree. You will feel that the whole world is your home.
*Stephen Mitchell. Bhagavad Gita.
* * *
A Hassidic tzaddik, or "righteous one," Rabbi Wolf, sat at the third meal on the Sabbath, an intimate, sacred gathering. The Rabbi was in a quiet, pondering mood; hence, the Hasidim at his table quietly spoke, so not to disturb him.
Rabbi Wolf's wish and the rule of the house was that anyone who wanted could enter and sit at the table. A man, considered by many as ill-bred, entered and sat down. After a time, he pulled a large radish from this pocket, cut it into pieces, and began to eat it with smacking lips. Those near him were unable to restrain their annoyance, saying, "You glutton. How dare you offend this festive occasion with your barroom manners?"
The men had tried to keep low their voices, but the Rabbi heard them. He said, "I feel like eating a delicious radish. I wonder whether anyone here could give me one?" In a sudden arising of happiness, and with his embarrassment swept away, the radish eater handed Rabbi Wolf a handful of his cut pieces.
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Expansion, from Latin, "to spread or stretch out."
* * *
In expansion there is no isolation.
It is love.
*Jean Klein. Who Am I?: The Sacred Quest.
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