Love, Love is both wine and cup, Love is a wine that puts all rivals under the table. That first world-displaying cup is but a reflection of the purity of Love's glass and the half-drunk glance of the saki also drinks from this wine, whose ultimate end is desire. This cup was drained, and from its outpouring the water of life drenched the world; from that water a bubble arose and was called 'the 18,000 worlds'... You who have no news of this intoxicating vintage (never for a second having stepped outside yourself) how long have you boiled the pot of love-madness there in your monastery – and still the stew is raw! Now come to the tavern, for a few days sit from morning to night; drink a toast to the desires of the friend of wine till you're drunk enough to see through his eyes. Look: the saki's face how it swells the soul the saki's eternal face in the world-displaying cup.
You are the one I wake with every morning. The one I breathe with, the one whose every heart beat I feel as my own. You are the one I walk with, the one I speak and sing with, the one who stays with me through every waking moment of every sacred day. You are the one I get sick with, the one I cry with, the one whose anger and joy and doubt surges through me like fire. You are the one I will die with, the one whose arms I shall return to. You are the one I see in every face, shining through every pair of eyes, shimmering through the silences, the trails of dust and the spaces in the canopy. You are my constant companion, my home, my reason, my joy, my life. We cannot be divided, we cannot be two, and even 'One' is too far for us. I sing this song to myself, disappearing into the song, and I am never alone.
You seek Layla, but she reveals herself within you You think she’s other, but she’s not other than you And that’s a madness that is apparent to the cult of lovers So be careful, for otherness is the essence of being cut off Don’t you see how her beauty envelops you? She disappears only when you reject part of yourself “Come close to me,” you say to she who is your All And when she loves you, she leads you to yourself Meeting her is bliss beyond description and none reach her, save those who see meaning without forms I was so in love with her that I would have vanished in her love had she not sworn that I only obey her I concealed her from people with fantasy After having revealed her, truly, inside my cloak. I hid her from myself, with the robe of my worlds, And from my envy, out of the severity of my jealousy O Dazzling beauty! Should the light of your face Touch the eyes of a blind man, he would see every atom She is adorned with each and every charm and grace of beauty And wherever she appears, she is desired by those who love.
The world is breaking, down or open, or both. We stand at a major bifurcation point, like never before seen in our human story. It is an inner and outer breaking point, a point of maximum stress (for that is what "bifurcation point" actually means). A point when we the "system" (whichever system we're talking about, it could be a physical thing like a piece of metal or a psychological thing like the ego-mind or a biological thing like a cellular organism or a collective thing like a species) is under severe pressure to evolve.
But this evolution is not guaranteed. The system could totally break down and devolve. It could collapse into insanity or chaos. It could fall into further unconsciousness, fear and hysteria. It could only barely survive. Or it could start the process of breakdown and at the critical point break through to a new level.
Each of us holds this bifurcation point within. And each of us is called to listen from a deeper place to what is demanded by the reflection of the outer world. Do we continue to operate from a divided state, a state of fear and panic and noisy narratives that lock us into armored perspectives and narrow pedestals? Or do we open so wide that we can hold the totality of the mess, the loss, the grief, the horror and the agony in that openness, and then remain as this openness come what may? Can we truly take up the invitation for an inner revolution of consciousness?
Today, my heart weeps for those whose lives are torn apart by ruthless acts that strip them of true sovereignty. Today, a well of sorrow for the insanity that floods humanity and keeps on coming. Today, a whisper of light on the horizon of darkness as the potential for transformation and evolution beckons.
May we each rise up in our deep hearts and remember who we really are. And live as that, in the face of all that comes.
