Love is the Lion of Truth

As the seasons turn and extremes of weather have their effect on us all, we are faced with the power of the mighty natural world in which we live, move, breathe and have our being. Our daily lives can be beset with the demands of work, co-workers, friends, family, society and international tensions to the point where we may forget the great Life whose rhythmic heart beats through and sustains our own life-pulse. But the changing seasons are a reminder that we are deeply interconnected with the natural world. Reflecting into this truth, we realise that our very being has the impress of our Earth’s DNA. The great diversity of nature and the human kingdom may distract but cannot hide the fact of our intrinsic Oneness with our world and so with one another. Our physical bodies are of the same substance; we breathe the same air recycled through the plant kingdom; and our most subtle inspirations are towards the unfolding harmony, balance and divine pattern with which we are all imprinted and which animates our being, which keeps our hearts beating and drives our progress through experience into realisation and understanding of the living system we share.

On the surface the world may appear to be full of conflicts, and yet behind every apparently opposing side the same urge to create a better world is the inspiration. What may vary is the breadth of vision – still unfolding and limited – and this generates the illusion of difference, separation and conflict which plays out in actions and events. Deep wounds of separation can embed patterns of living that run counter to the essential flow of the planetary life and can entrap consciousness which then clings to the familiar prison of the known. And all the while the greater world is everywhere around and through us – familiar, yes, yet familiar perhaps only as glimpsed through the prison bars of the small individualised personal identity.

To venture beyond those bars into the living reality of the larger world is a far different experience than brief glimpses through a momentary window. Working in nature restores, expands and remind us of the value of our true being. There are many uplifting examples of how direct interaction with the natural world through gardening can bring healing and happiness. Among the many initiatives in this area is the creation of gardens by and for war veterans and their families, as featured in the latest program of Gardening Australia.
(See: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/veterans-garden/9680272 )
Another example is the establishing of zero-waste organic, bulk-buy, plant-based, wholefoods shops. As one shopkeeper asserts: “Every time you make a purchase, you cast a vote for the kind of world you wish to live in. We want that world to be sustainable, clean and thriving for our future generations to enjoy.”
(See: http://thezerowasteshop.co.uk/ )

If we began to count the instances of initiatives that collaborate with the power of nature and that appreciate the world we share, we find that they are not isolated but are part of a living, organic movement – a manifesting network inspired by a shared consciousness of our deeply intimate relationship with the natural world. It is a realisation of the oneness of being of our Earth and that the outer network is an expression of an inner reality which is beyond the mechanistic logic of the mental plane and is fired by love of our beautiful world and its divine purpose for being.

Love lights the fire that leads to enlightenment. It expands our vision and our view of the world and of one another within it. The more fired by love, the more we see into the heart of each other, into the heart of all things through into the heart of the world. It is love which draws veterans together to help one another and, through nurturing the earth, nurture one another. It is love of our beautiful planet which inspires the movement to natural, organic living. The only possible remedy for those whose psyches have been wounded by the violence of separation is the love which accepts, includes, understands and nurtures towards wholeness. As Rumi reminds:

When Love in all its majesty opens its mouth
like a whale it devours everything
it bewilders the mind and overwhelms the soul.
Love is the lion of Truth.” Rumi

As love is registering in the human heart a great conflagration is moving through the world. Its increasing light towers over the pettiness of small, transient prisons and releases human destiny towards fulfilment. This mighty fire destroys all that is not of itself. It is spirit manifesting and burning away separative illusions which dissolve in its piercing brightness. The more we love, the more we see that we are made of the same fire. God is Love we have been told. Now we are realising that we are love as we become at-one with the divine essence in all things, at the core of our own being and in every atom of the substance we inhabit. At this point love and light are one. The impress of love opens the heart and soul to enlightenment by that great light we call Life. As the poet, William Wordsworth, experienced:

… And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
~ From Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey – William Wordsworth

As we identify with the spiritual essence and our view expands beyond the hold of the little persona we no longer see “through a glass darkly”. In the clear light of the Soul one can at first be overwhelmed by the petty limitations of a smaller identity and horrified at the pain and suffering it may thoughtlessly, heartlessly, inflict on others and on all the natural kingdoms of our world. How do we see more clearly and still continue to love more? Yet this is so needed as the Tibetan Master identifies:

Few…dare trust themselves to see their fellowmen as they really are, for fear of a critical spirit—so hard it is to develop the true practice of loving understanding which leads to the seeing of all people in truth, with their faults and their virtues, their pettiness and their grandeurs, and still to love them as before and even more.” Discipleship in the New Age II, page 763

The great Being which is our planet breathes life through all things. Its mighty heart beats through every man, animal, plant and stone – no matter what pettiness or grandeur we express through its living sustenance. It allows us, human beings, the freedom of will that drives us on through experience to penetrate our self-created veils of illusion and glamour until we understand how transparent and impermanent they are – fleeting tatters to be dissolved so we may enter into the expansive freedom of eternity and the great Brotherhood of the Universe.

Broadly has spread the praise of daring. The least of the disciples have turned to the path of searching and have approached Us, asking that We judge their striving. Each brought his dreams: “I will destroy all earthly temples, because Truth needs no walls. I will water all deserts. I will open all prisons. I will demolish all swords. I will blaze all trails. I will wipe away all tears. I will travel through all lands. I will inscribe the book of humanity.”
But the least one of them turned to the shining stars and said, “Hail to you, brothers!” And in this salutation of daring his ego vanished.
Let the path of the Universe be acknowledged in this daring greeting!”
Agni Yoga, 12

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