We generally model relationships that are dysfunctional in some way since we grow up in situations where conflict and relational instability are common. That’s where we start, but we can take relationship—with whoever it is that we have love for—deep into the heart of love. There is something archetypal, that we all resonate with, about the relationship between love and longing. The mood of love that is produced in separation from a beloved is the theme of epic stories in many traditions and cultures. The tales of Romeo and Juliet, Layla and Majnun, Krishna and the gopis, and the poetry of Rumi that poured out of him evoke our own experience of deep love and longing that we have had at some point in our lives. One of the elements of conscious love (as distinct from chemical love or emotional love) is putting the other’s needs first. In the traditions, the Beloved is not an individual but is reflected in a person who can be the doorway to the state of love. If love finds us, it is free-standing, not dependent on another. In longing, the only way out is through, to love more. Life is a training ground for love even though we don’t look at it that way most of the time. VJ is author of Shadow on the Path and Father and Son.
Removing Obstacles to Our Heart’s Desire (Lalitha)
Losing the Taste for Drama (Bandhu Dunham)
Conscience and the Law of Identification (Red Hawk)
Working with Money as Spiritual Practice (Regina Sara Ryan, Tom Lennon, Vijaya Fedorschak)
The Shadow on the Path (Vijaya Fedorschak)
My Last Bully Is Me (Rick Lewis)
”Honey in the Heart: The Rasa of Enjoyment, Delight and Celebration on the Path” (Nachama Greenwald)
Deep Dharmic Doo-Doo: Resistance is Futile… But So Also Is Acceptance (Peter Cohen)
Wisdom Teachings of the Ancient World: Celtic Spirituality and Tantra (Mary Angelon Young)
Lies We Tell Ourselves (Karl Krumins)
How Do We Enter the Heart, and What Do We Find When We Enter? The Way of the Pilgrim and the Prayer of the Heart (Regina Sara Ryan)
Impermanence: Living with Reality (Bhadra Mitchell)
The Rough Road to Self Awareness: Intention, Attention, and Risk (Juanita Violini)
The Restoration of Love (Elise Erro)
Eating Bears: Notes on How to Go About It (Jocelyn del Rio)
Spiritual Bypassing and Adulthood on the Path (Deborah Auletta)
Pairs of Opposites (Bandhu Dunham)
Escape From the General Law (Red Hawk)
The Obstacle Is the Path (Chris McMaster and Debbie Hogeland-Celebucki)
We’ll Never Be Prepared for Life—We Might as Well Start Living It (Rick Lewis)
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