Loving the Beloved is like the man who was in bed with his wife. He kept talking; finally, she said, "Dear, would you please just shut up and make Love to me!"
Fall through the words into the body; drop all thought and penetrate within the rind. That is what Love-making is all about, and more. But I will remain silent about the more.
No great lover is a great lover because of mastering the theories of other great lovers, anymore than a poet is a great poet due to quoting great poems.
The great lover is the one who practices, the one who makes an artwork out of loving. Such longs for the Body of the Beloved, knowing how loving Her makes one a better lover for Her.
Once, a Master instructed his disciple, who complained of his struggles with spiritual practice. The Master said, "Son, just knowing how to pucker up the lips, that is a good beginning."
Loving the Beloved and other, one Loving; always a beginner, ready to give and receive more.
Doing is the way beyond self, and being a speck of Dust lost in the Sunlight is already to taste Heaven.
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While love is not a feeling, love evokes feelings we could call loving feelings. Loving feelings are important, for we need to include the whole self in the Way.
Over twenty years ago, a friend told me about a book I would enjoy. It was of Rumi's poems: Colman Barks' The Essential Rumi. I had never heard of Rumi. His work was, also, just becoming mainstream. I purchased the book. Reading Rumi evoked loving feelings from within me for what he often called the Friend. I am reading Haleh Liza Gafori's recent translation of Rumi poems titled Gold. Reading devotional poetry is like standing under a love shower, getting doused with affectionate feelings. I like to read a number of poems at a time - I call it soaking.
Some years after I started reading Rumi and Hafiz, another Sufi devotional poet, I published a book of devotional poems called An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. Buddhism, Sufism, Christian Mysticism, and other spiritual paths influenced the content and style. After taking home copies with me from Florida to Georgia, my teen nephew began reading from it. I was told he got on the phone and started reading the poetry to his girlfriend. Much of the poetry could be read to a human lover or the Lover. I was glad he found the poems befitting for his human lover.
We need to feel affection. Affection comes and goes, love remains. In fact, affection could not even come without the prior, underlying love. And, as we need affection in human relationships, we need affection in our relating with Spirit.
When young, we would stoke the fire. We burned wood in our fireplace. When the fire was dying down, we had a poker. We would poke the remaining wood to get the fire blazing again. In our spiritual life, we can use practices like a poker - to stimulate affection - even as we might find we need to do that in other relationships. One way I poke is through music. I often find music, sacred and secular, to stir the feelings I need to feel - gratitude, compassion, joy, sadness ....
As we grow spiritually, we need less poking or soaking. Loving feelings tend to rise and fall. We become content with that. Still, it is helpful to do some poking or soaking when we sense we need to stir the love pot some - and, yes, I know I just used mixed metaphors, and I do not care. Enjoy!
*Brian K. Wilcox, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
