Love

Awakening reveals that there is no personal self, and that everything is myself. It appears to be a paradox. We find we are nothing and absolutely everything simultaneously. When we see this, we realize there is nothing more happening other than love meeting itself -- or we could say you are meeting yourself, or the Truth is meeting itself, or God is meeting itself. Love meets itself each moment, even if it's a rotten moment. This will never happen through the egoic state of consciousness, filtered through the mind. But from the innocence, love is simply meeting itself. If you love me, it meets that. If you hate me, fine, it meets that, too. And it loves meeting that. I am talking about the One meeting itself, realizing itself, experiencing itself.

There is a love that includes the good feelings that we associate with love, and also far transcends good feelings. It is a love that's much deeper than an experience. Have you noticed, with whatever quality of love you have experienced, that when true love arises, it opens up both your mind and emotions? It's an openness to whatever is happening. The egoic state of consciousness is always closing the doors.

Emotionally and intellectually, it's always slamming things shut as soon as the moment isn't the "right" kind of moment, which is about ninety-nine percent of the time. But the innocence and the love do not slam the door shut, even in the face of something that is very unpleasant.

Notice that the more you see past your sense of personal self, the more innocence creeps in. And the more innocence is known, the more love sticks its head out and starts to experience life, live this life, and move within this life. The wisdom becomes available now because one is open. So the wisdom deepens, and the innocence deepens. And the innocence allows for more love, and the more love there is, the more room there is for wisdom, and so it goes. These qualities of love and innocence are what make liberating wisdom possible. They are not only outcomes of the blooming of your true nature, they are also what make awakening and the embodiment of it, possible.

In Zen, one of the definitions of enlightenment is the harmonization of body and mind. This also means the harmonization of spirit and matter. When spirit and matter are in harmony, it's as if a third entity is born -- that's really the Buddhist "Middle Way." The Middle Way has nothing to do with the notion of being halfway between two opposites. The Middle Way is when spirit and matter are in harmony -- when the inherent oneness is realized. Spirit and matter are not two different things, they are two aspects of the One. This is the realization of our true nature.

As humans we become identified with matter. Matter includes every subtle and gross manifestation. Matter is anything that can be touched, seen, felt, perceived, or thought. A feeling is matter and emotion is matter, as is a body, a car, or a floor. The essence of matter is spirit. Matter is animated by spirit, by the life force, and they cannot be separated. Although we can speak about them as if they are two things, if we take away the life force, there is no matter. It's not as if there is dead matter. There is no matter. Part of realization is moving from identification with matter (which manifests as personality or "me") to identification with spirit. True enlightenment is when matter and spirit are in harmony. We could call this harmony nondifferentiation or oneness.

When we realize that we are spirit, there may be a much deeper harmony than there was before that realization, but there can still be some disharmony. So it is helpful to understand the value of exposing ourselves to the teaching, which is the same as exposing ourselves to what is, each and every moment. We need to expose ourselves as we would to the sun if we want to get a tan. Instead of putting on clothes, we take them off. If we want to be free, then we don't clothe ourselves with our concepts, ideas, and opinions; we take them off. Then something happens quite by itself. In order to deepen this harmony, we cannot hold on to concepts just like we cannot stay partially dressed and get a full tan. We will not get transformed. But once we are really naked and completely exposed, we can become transformed or awakened in a very natural way.

- Adyashanti, from Emptiness Dancing