I was recently in the Japanese Gardens in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

In it, I saw a sign: “Stay on The Path.”

Like a little Bodhisattva whispering to us…

There are two roads: the road of fear and the road of love.

The road of fear, oddly, often feels safer, because it feels more comfortable — more familiar, even though the branches lash us, the mud holds our feet fast, even though it’s dark and we can’t see ahead.

Fear is a soothing — and dangerous — dark forest trail.

Love is the wild open road.

Full of blind curves. Sudden potholes. Exposed heights. And, of course, haunted by the hot breath of the wolves of fear following
you with yellow eyes from the underbrush — trying to scare you off the path back into the darkness of the dead-end woods.

Listen to the signs…

Stay on the wild, open road.

Stay on that path.

And share with the rest of us… what keeps you on the wild road? What keeps you on path?

Tell us all about the signs that whisper to you…

Just Leave Your Comment below and give your gift to our whole community…

- Adam

Many traditions understand that it’s fear that keeps us from loving openly, fully, unabashedly, wholeheartedly, unshakably and all the time.  But what are the qualities of those fears?  What exactly are we scared of?  Few people have explored the battle between fear and love better than Don Miguel Ruiz, informed as he is by the Toltec Tradition.  Ruiz is best known for his book, The Four Agreements, which has not only been a best seller, but has also actually been read by many of the people who have bought it.  Why? His style is clear.  His wisdom is solid.  And his books are short!  Today’s podcast is based on another clear, solid and fairly short book of his — The Mastery of Love — which, in my view, is even more life-altering than The Four Agreements.  It had a huge impact on my thinking, forgiving and loving, and articulated for me how fear really does block the flow of love.  Call this work The Fifth Agreement: Love!    When you are finished listening, let me know if it makes as much sense to you as it did to me.  Enjoy!

 

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This morning my lover said, “I want to see everyone as love.”

Helluva goal, huh?

But I have a question…

Does she sound insane?

To the parents of my son’s friend who drove himself off Sunset Blvd and into the blood-sudden sunset of his own life the other night at two AM, boozed up and with not a care in the world?

Does she sound insane to them?

Does she sound insane to the family of my friend Adam S. who wrapped himself up in a plastic bag last weekend and gassed himself to death, unsure of what to make of his sweet existence?

Does she sound Insane to the buzzing vet who wrote the article I just read in Esquire - fresh from Iraq, teetering between the tit of pot and the tit of booze to make life bearable in his squalid, now wife-less flat?

Does she sound Insane? Airy-fairy? Idealisting, unrealistic, too Californian?

Maybe.

Or maybe not…

Maybe NOT having the goal of seeing everyone as love is insane.

One of my favorite teachers, David Deida, writes, “Love is the only way to live that is not insane.”

Look at the hand of a dying mother clutching her son’s hand.

Look at the delight in the eyes of a child when her peekaboo daddy’s face re-appears from behind the seeming obliteration of his hands.

Look at the warmth that flows between two men when one just casually calls the other, “brother.”

Love is the thing that turns the hard clock of time into music.

And each of us, in each moment, is a high note. Or a steady base line. A blurt. An arpeggio. A whistle. A cry of the heart. A lullaby.

You only have to listen.

Is that insane?

Was my lover insane for saying it…

“I want to see everyone as love.”

No. She is listening.

Everyone IS love.

Twisted maybe.

Love, painted over and tossed.

Love, gnarled like bonsai branches by fingers of anger or jealousy or lost hope.

Love, squeezed flat and explosive like a blocked firehose or suffocating under brittle shells of I’m-not-good-enoughs or buried inside the old calcified echoes of parents’ scorn.

But it’s love.

Because somewhere inside, like a firebug in a dark cavern, each of us is love waiting to be called out.

You already know this.

So call.

Call while there is still time.

Call if you have even one pulse of life left in your veins.

Tell me, beloved…

With whom would you rather live?

Someone who sees everyone as a sinner? As an obstacle? As a tool?

Someone who sees everyone as a stepping stone to greater wealth or personal glory?

Someone who sees others first as people with dumb or wrong ideas? Or as a bundle of any ideas at all?

Or would you rather live with someone who disciplines him or herself everyday to see others as love?

Think…

Because that person, that friend, that lover, that child is not only looking out at the world – that person is looking at you, too.

What do you want him or her to see as those eyes fall on you?

And think…

How does that beloved person of yours want you to see him? To see her? As obstacle? As nuisance?

Or as love waiting to be called into the warm light?

Mmmmmmm.

Make life easy for those you love.

Be love.

Even when you can’t easily see the love in others.

Be love.

Fearlessly.

It’s not hard like calculus or organic chem.

It’s like tennis. Or bowling. Or not burning lamb chops.

It just takes practice.

And practice makes us less imperfect.

If never perfect.

And always perfect.

Be love imperfectly.

Just be love.

Now.

With Love,

- 5 Am Thoughts, September 27

In this episode, we explore the challenge and opportunity of loving  fully, no matter what life throws at us.

 

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I begin with the assumption that you want to create more love in your life.

Not Hallmarky, surface, wordy love.

But love from the core of your deepest intention.

Love from your deepest strength

Love from your tenderest heart.

If so, then we are on a journey together here…

One that will take us into the lives we most deeply yearn for…

… into a life of practices to create more love in our lives.

Just this morning, i was sitting in a Cafe being nosey and listening in to the conversation at the next table.  They were talking about guitar.  The woman was saying that she had had a car accident and was relearning technique.  They both agreed that having spent years on the rudiments, on fingering, strumming, etc - made current recovery and improvement easier.

I interrupted, “it’s the same with love!”  They looked at me funny.  Who was this guy?  Namely, me.

But I was talking about love and hey - who isn’t interested in love?  Even Scrooge is, ultimately.  Even the Grinch.

I said what was on my mind - “We all want to love.  But you don’t just LOVE!  Love is made out of rudiments the way an guitar playing is made out of rudiments.  To love well, we have to learn how to be reflexively generous.  How to be kind.  How to be aware of our own negativity arising, or closure arising.  And how to be generous, kind, aware and open… anyway!

These are the “doing scales” of love. The octave practice and arpeggios.

Love is a skill that we practice.

Not a big, mushy, end-of-story pit we fall into.

Oui?

What do you think?

- Adam