'I think now that being free is not being powerful or rich or well regarded or without obligations, but being able to love. To love someone else enough to forget about yourself even for a moment is to be free.'

-from Jeanette Winterson, The Passion


...Everything in life turned into a love relationship as I started to think only in terms of love. I began to do things not because I needed to but because I wanted to. Because I would have loved to. ... I tell myself there is not one thing I have to do, including being alive. I have to choose life from death every second to continue living, and I do so because I love living. When one is choosing life, each breath is sweet, as if the air has fruit juice in it and the clouds are made of cotton candy.

"My heart has become capable of every form; it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba, and the tablets of the Torah and the book of the Koran. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take, that is my religion and my faith."
- Ibn al-Arab, Ibn-Al-Arabi: The Bezels of Wisdom (Classics of Western Spirituality Series)

I think the world today is upside-down and is suffering so much because there is so very little love in the homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other.
– Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
Mother Teresa: In My Own Words

One positive seed-thought
Has saved me,
My entire life:
My Lord Supreme
Will always love me
No matter what I do
Or what I say
Or even what I become.

Excerpt from Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 9 by Sri Chinmoy

God Is...: Selected Writings of Sri Chinmoy

In this world of change,if there is anything that is unchanging,ever constant,ever constant,ever-present, most dependable, it is that God is Love and that God's love is available to you.This is the one great fact of your own life.

~ Swami Chidananda
AN INSTRUMENT OF THY PEACE/Swami Chidananda in the West

"Be proud of love. that the Nature is giving to you, the Divine is giving to you, the People are giving to you.". . . SRI SRI...

~ Jai Gurudev

When there is a wound deep inside a person, he will try to share that with other people. What else can he do? You just recognize: "Oh, he needs compassion." Compassion is the only medicine. Unconditional love is the only treatment."...........SRI SRI


~ JAI GURU DEV

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

~ Marcus Aurelius

If you cannot love your brother whom you have seen,how can you love God whom you have never seen ? You cannot be selective in your forgiveness,in your kindness,in your tolerance.If you can extend this charitable nature to an impossible person,then you will know that it is possible to extend it towards everyone.

~ Swami Chidananda

AN INSTRUMENT OF THY PEACE/Swami Chidananda in the West

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 'Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Matthew 7:1-5

["In my opinion, when you judge others, then that internal judging voice also judges yourself. When you have a heart filled with love and compassion and wisdom, then you do not judge, because a heart filled with love and compassion and wisdom is a heart filled with God. A heart filled with judgment is a heart filled with separation, which is what "sin" means. It arises when we do not see that God created us, that God exists within our hearts, and that God sustains us. When we realize this, then there is no separation. Then there is gratitude, & love." -Heather Havey]

Come out of the circle of time
And into the circle of love.


~Rumi

The foolish blame love, without understanding the cause of pain; without knowing its conflict there is no transcending anguish. Without becoming aware of the source of conflict, craving, love brings pain. It is craving, not love, that creates dependence and all the sorrowful issues that arise out of it. it is craving in relationship that gives rise to uncertainty, not love; and this uncertainty breeds possessiveness, jealousy, fear. In this possessiveness, in this dependence, there is a false sense of unity which sustains and nourishes the temporary feeling of well being; but it is not love, for in it there is inward fear and suspicion. This outward stimulation of seeming oneness is parasitical, the living of the one on the other; it is not love for inwardly there is emptiness, loneliness and the need for dependence. Dependence breeds fear, not love. Without understanding craving is there not domination, oppression, taking the form of love? In relationship with the one or with the many, such love of power and dominance, with its submissiveness and acceptance, brings conflict, antagonism and sorrow. Having the seed of violence within oneself how can there be love? Having the seed of contradiction and uncertainty within oneself how can there be love? Love is beyond and above all these; it transcends sensuousness. Love is in itself eternal not dependent, not a result. In it there is mercy and generosity, forgiveness and compassion. With love, humility and gentleness come into being; without love they have no existence.

~ J. Krishnamurti, Ojai public talk, 18 June 1944

. Sophia 2 .

Love fell on me
like snow from high sky
(gently)

I stood there
waiting for
Communion

I looked into the eyes
of the man
who held Love
my Love
in his hand

Abyss called to Abyss
depth touched
the deepest core
of my sorrow

my Bread and Body

eyes closed -
"Noli me tangere"
said Jesus to Magdalene

I know -
this Love will shield me

I count my blessings

bless his Holy Name


. Sophia 4 .

and now bless
and now
the whole, the all,
cosmos, chaos,
gleaming, living waters,
exploding spheres,
black skies filled with fire

and now bless -
blessed be the Holy,
the One beyond being,
above, below, after, breathing

now bless -
mine, ours, yours, love,
pearl strings of peace,
joy, heartbeat of stillness,
jewels of transfigured touch,
petals unfurling
into wings of glory

now blessed


. by Maja Trochimczyk .
from Miriam's Iris or Angels in the Garden

In the dark tarn of my spirit love the morning star is lit.

~ A.E. (George William Russell)



Buy this book:
Three mystic poets: A study of W. B. Yeats, A. E., and Rabindranath Tagore

In order to overcome our desires and to renounce all those things, our love and inclination for which are wont so to inflame the will that it delights therein, we require a more ardent fire and a nobler love.
– Saint John of the Cross

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Ephesians 4:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another
in love.

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience.

"Love never fails" - Corinthians 13

“Every human being thinks
that he is not loved enough,
and that he is not understood properly and fully.
Can I be of any help to them?”
“No, My son. If they feel
that they are not loved and understood,
then tell them to give Me a chance.
Let them try Me.”

Excerpt from My Lord’s Secrets Revealed by Sri Chinmoy