Please take a moment to ponder the nature of love. 

Your True Nature. 

Below is a short excerpt from a dialogue with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Questioner:

"What is the Real?"

Maharaj:

"There is no great mystery."

"The Real is simple, open, clear and kind, beautiful and joyous. it is completely free of contradictions. It is ever new, ever fresh, endlessly creative. Being and non-being, life and death, all distinctions merge in it."

Questioner:

"What then, in all the universe is there one single thing of value?" 

Maharaj

"Yes, it is the power of love. "

I love how the great teachers cut through our confusion like a laser, like a mirror they reflect the Real.

But how can this appear real to us in our day to day lives? 

The power of Love....what is that exactly? 

How does that apply to us, here, now?

I had a friend recently experience an unexpected layoff from a large insurance company just weeks after she was assured during her annual review that her job was secure. 

The following was my correspondence concerning her layoff, and with her permission she has asked me to share it. After the unexpected layoff, Lisa decided to tie one on, and after a night of drinking with her girlfriends, she e mailed me in despair. She was feeling ashamed that she had turned to alcohol and fearful that I would judge her as weak and broken.

I hear you and feel you, sweetheart. 

Getting drunk and teary eyed and expressing your love is beautifully human, you know, Lisa, everything is ok. 

I personally believe that we all need to practice being okay with ourselves no matter what may be happening at any given moment. There are no rules, no shoulds or shouldn'ts. Life is very short, it is meant to be lived, it is meant to be experienced. So be Lisa, with full on permission from yourself to be a human being with all that it encompasses. Being aware that our human self is pretty much a mess most of the time, is a great gift, being okay with ones own messiness is even a greater gift, letting the world be a mess, because it is a mess, is compassion not only for the world, but for your own world. 

You see, sweetheart, that's the big joke. Everyone is a mess and trying not to act like it, and we spend a lot of energy hiding that messiness from others or trying to fix it. I love it when people get real, but unfortunately it only seems to happen when there is a crisis. If we could all just be more vulnerable and out of control and okay and accepting with what's happening inside of ourselves, I feel it would be a better world.  

It is messy to be human, it is the mind, it is it's nature. 

There is another perspective, however, from the ultimate viewpoint of Pure Awareness, there is nothing wrong, ever, and everything is working towards our evolution. This is our True Nature, this is the viewpoint of the Self and the nature of the Self is Love. 

So can you see it is quite impossible to scare me off?

I love it when we allow ourselves to be real, even if it takes getting drunk to get there, sometimes that's the path we choose to be close to ourselves and others and it's no wonder then, why we use alcohol. So don't worry about a thing when it comes to my impression of you, because I'm human, too, and it's my messiness that makes me human, and you can't fix that, because it's not broken, it's not a broken thing to be confused. It is, however very human.

Okay then, so let's celebrate being human and confused, because we all are, until we're not. It's built in and if you want to take the high ground and start the process of integrating this body and mind with your True Nature, I can't think of a better place to start than with Eckhart Tolle or Byron Katie or Joan Tollifson or Nisargadatta Maharaj. Seek out these teachers of what's Real. I have found them most helpful.

I'm sure that our current human story about life and the fears and insecurities and doubt and self loathing and all that comes with being confused  is just a part of our current evolution. There are ways out of this confusion, but remember, it's okay right now just the way it is, unless, you believe it's not. 

Examine, observe and ask, who's in charge of your life right now?

What's in the moment right now? 

Who are you? What are you?

Can you really, only be, your suffering? Your mind? Your body? 

I believe from this viewpoint you can see the perfection of what is and move forward with compassion and with love.

Enjoy the ride.

namaste