Love, Freedom, Aloneness ...

I'm a big believer in receiving truth from whatever reSource we encounter ... that nothing is an accident ... that everything matters ... that everything we experience is a clue ... that each person we meet is a teacher (or reminder of what we've forgotten ...!).

Of course, I often, sometimes seemingly *always*, have to remind myself that I believe this ...! ;)

All too often, I'm prone to discount a deep and profound truth-message, because I don't like the packaging ... it's either unfamiliar, or uncomfortable, or too-close-to-home, or painful ... or even frightening. Or, perhaps I have judged the messenger-container as "bad" or "wrong" or "not for me."

I guess I'm coming to the place where I figure, hey, if I'm experiencing/receiving/encountering this thing ... it must be for me, for NOW. So ... what do I need to receive from it?

Not easy, not always fun ... sometimes downright excruciating. But ... still good.

One of the messenger-containers that I formerly judged ... but from which I have continuously received much truth, is Osho. Yeah, yeah, I know ... I've heard all the dire reports, the scandalous rumors, and the various ridicules that have followed him like a plague (& certainly I know, first-hand, what it's like to be judged on the basis of what others say about me). But -- I know this, when I allow myself to actually read what he's written, for myself ... I find that much resonates. And, so it has been in reading his book entitled, "Love, Freedom, Aloneness: The Koan of Relationships."

Without further ado, and with no particular order, I'll share some passages with which I deeply resonated ... do with it what you will. Let it speak to you ... let it touch you ... let it perhaps cause you to think, or re-think ...

Socrates: A man who practices the mysteries of love will be in contact not with a reflection, but with truth itself. To know this blessing of human nature, one can find no better helper than love.

[The rest of the quotes are from Osho]

Search into, meditate on love, experiment. Love is the greatest experiment n life, and those who olive without experimenting with love energy will never know what life is. They will only remain on the surface without getting into the depth of it.

I can drop the word God very easily -- there is no problem -- but I cannot drop the word love. If I have to choose between the words love and God, I will choose love; I will forget all about God, because those who know love are bound to know God. But it is not vice versa: Those who think about God and philosophize about God may never know about love -- and will never know about God, either.

Love yourself.

Just the opposite has been taught to you by all the traditions of the world -- all of the civilizations, all the cultures, all the churches. They say: Love others, don't love yourself. And there is a certain cunning strategy behind their teaching ... no state, no church, no vested interest has ever wanted people to have strong souls, because a person with spiritual energy is bound to be rebellious ...

Love makes you rebellious, revolutionary. Love gives you wings to soar high. Love gives you insight into things, so that nobody can deceive you, exploit you, oppress you.

but ... if a man cannot love himself, he cannot love anybody else, either... it is by loving other without loving yourself, trying to love others, that the ego arises.

I know ... totally contrary to what most of us have been taught ... and yet ... it rings true in this heart, to this soul.

There is much that we call "love," which is nothing more than mere duty ...

It may be duty, but not love -- and duty is a four-letter dirty word. Love knows nothing of duty. Duty is a burden, a formality. Love is a joy, a sharing; love is informal. The lover never feels that he has done enough; the lover always feels that more was possible. The lover never feels, "I have obliged the other." On the contrary, he feels, "Because my love has been received, I am obliged. The other has obliged me by receiving my gift, by not rejecting it."

You have been made afraid of ever being in love with yourself -- which is the first step of love, and the first experience. A man who loves himself respects himself. and a man who loves and respects himself respects others, too.

If you live love, you have to share it. You cannot go on loving yourself forever, because one thing will become absolutely clear to you: that if loving one person, yourself, is so tremendously ecstatic and beautiful, how much more ecstasy is waiting for you if you start sharing your love with another!

Don't condemn yourself. You have been condemned so much, and you have accepted all that condemnation. Now you go on doing harm to yourself. Nobody thinks himself worthy enough, nobody thinks himself a beautiful creation of God; nobody thinks that he is needed at all. These are poisonous ideas, but you have been poisoned ... this has been your whole past.

Don't be afraid of loving yourself. Love totally and you will be surprised. The day you can get rid of all self-condemnation, self-disrespect -- the day you can get rid of the idea of original sin, the day you can think of yourself as worthy and loved by existence -- will be a day of great blessing. From that day onward you will start seeing people in their true light, and you will have compassion. And it will not be a cultivated compassion; it will be a natural, spontaneous flow.

Basking in the delight of KNOWing that this is truth...!

Ohhhhhh, I am choosing to allow this to transform me, from the inside out ... yes, I'm choosing to love myself. AS I am, right here and now, imperfections-galore ...

Feeling led to share, tomorrow, on the virtues of "selfishness"...! :)

Shalom & Namaste ~
Dena