How to Expand Love -Notes

Love is truly an expansion of spirit. It leads us in the awareness of the Infinite…

we are infinite spirits continuously dancing infinite love.

I have begun reading How to Expand Love by His Holiness the Dalai Lama today. I am enjoying it very much. Begininning with the first chapter he suggests that we stop labelling ourselves only in our secondary, temporary terms like American, Irish, Christian, Doctor, ect… but instead we need to become more aware of the importance of who we are until we die… human. I am a human being. You are a human being. With this common ground we can begin to give compassion and love freely. Compassion and love is the root of all religions, therefor religious leaders should have the main role as serving others, not dominating over them.

To practice religion is simply to consciously expand this love within, which can lead to an expansion outside of ourselves for others, too. I know that many of us are uncomfortable with the word “religion”. It brings to mind coersive institutional organization that can seem exclusive at times. I also have problems with this word. Most of us easily can replace it with “spirituality”.  However, I don’t want to turn a cold face away from religions anymore. I want to acknowledge a sacredness that encompasses all. I am here to celebrate the root of all religions… this love that will keep encircling us forever. A spiritual heart is a full heart because it is an open door where the world can flow freely inside… always you are full.

We must see that different is beautiful.

Yet acknowledge: We are all Life.

pics from: 

aftergadget.wordpress.com

pandasthumb.org

lsa.umich.edu

The Alchemy of Love: Rumi

This video has brought tears to my eyes tonight. I am looking forward to learning more about Rumi and hearing his love inspiring sacred poetry. If anyone has any good advice on which books I should begin with, please let me know.

May the beauty of life inspire you on this path….

Anonymous Hearts

A few years ago my mother came across a family who was stranded in a Walmart parking lot in their van. They had been traveling across the country and their van broke beyond repair and they were out of money. Alarmed, she quickly brought them meals and contacted local shelters. She found that there was very little help available for the stranded family and so she took it upon herself to call up the local news stations and voice her outcry at the community. There was a huge response. People began to donate left and right… but only on one condition: for their name/business to be announced on the local news. Auto shops donated time and help. Resturaunts gave food. Hotels offered rooms. When their car was deemed beyond repair a dealer donated a car. It was amazing that the community could bind together to help this family, but something significant really stuck out to my mother and I: my mother was the only on who refused to have her name announced on the television. For the same reason that she contacted the media in the first place, my mother felt that helping people should not be about serving the ego, but instead, helping others is something we should all just do because we should all care about what happens to others.

I’m not saying that egoless giving should be the only form of help (because let’s admit it, there would be less donations to charities in the world if this was so), but I am asking us to evaluate why we want to help others? What kind of world would we live in if donations were always anonymous and plentiful?

The Religion of Love

When I first began my journey into exploring love as the infinite form that is the source of everything, I came across The Religion of Love. Becoming more known in India and Mexico, this religion focuses soley on love as the form of God.  This is not new for a religion to purport, but this movement is not claiming any specific god or religion as the only true way. It went along with what I was feeling and I am still in middle of reading all of it’s free and short books online. Mother Rytasha, the founder of the movement, is a beautiful woman who gave all of her belongings away, began charities and travels around to different places teaching what she believes to be the source of all religions: love. The books read a bit like a testament in the bible, which is kind of a turn off for me, but the message is amazing.

There has never been a new religion. Those with knowledge know the spiritual to be timeless and eternal. The truth has always been and will always be…love.”

-from book, The Religion of Love

When asked how one can become enlightened, Mother Rytasha anwers that we already are:

Rejoice, for already you are perfect! You are more brilliant than a million suns, but now, in illusion, you are as the sun when covered by cloud, and so do not experience your true state of perfection.

-from book, The Religion of Love

There are also free printable children’s books that feature animals and can be colored. My own children adore these books. Little Blue Monkey is probably the most popular children’s book. There are even Youtube skits based off of it that are fun for kids to watch.

And on the same note a fun song that encompasses the same thing!

Ziggy marley- Love is My Religion

Project 2: Heart Forked Road

I put this up Christmas Day 2012. The wind was shifting it for the picture. To my surprise no one in my small town has taken it down yet! I am wondering what they think about it?

I took a dowel rod and tied yarn and ribbons on the sides to dance in the wind around this woodburned heart plaque. My hope is that my projects will put a smile on at least one person’s face and make them wonder. I never put my name on any of my projects, only a tiny blessing mark that cannot be connected with anyone or any organization.

If anyone out there has done (or will do) any positive and non-threatening public art projects that are anonymous and do not hurt property I would be happy to feature you to this blog!

Here are my personal rules for Positive Public Art Projects:

1. Do not damage property. So this means that whatever is done should be able to be easily removed by anyone at no cost to them.

2. Whatever is put up should be either upkept, replaced or removed when worn out.

3. If the piece gets destroyed, clean up the pieces and don’t take it as a sign that everyone loathes it!

4. If the piece gets removed, either two things happened: someone threw it away or someone wanted to keep it for themself! Try to imagine the second option happening! Although even if someone did throw it away that atleast ensures that one person saw it!

5. Be safe when putting up a project piece!!! EMPHASIZE THIS!

6. Never sign it (remember why you are doing this in the first place…) and never admit that you did it, except for maybe those few close and trusted loved ones in your life. Mystery is a powerful force.

I put this up two weeks ago on the outside of our garage door after we had our fourth break-in. No one has messed with the sign or the garage so far!

Love is My Spirit… New Blog!

The journey of the Heart takes us deep within our souls

and leads us to find that we are reflections of each other.

Welcome to my second blog, Love is My Spirit. One year ago from today a friend and I began the blog, Witching Wildwood and it fulfilled my outlet for all things spiritually witchy and kept track of our ritual adventures. Then something interesting happened along the way. The only words I can use to describe it is my heart expanded. I began to feel open to all paths of spirit. I began to see love as infinite.

I still adore the pagan path that I have been on since I was 11. I still honor the Goddess when the moonlight shines pale blue on a field of snow and when a deep cave reveals a secret crevice to me to rest and soak in her silence. I still sing of mystery and magic and feel the pull to greet the summer’s sun with bare feet dancing in dew-drip valleys. I still am a witch, and so Witching Wildwood will continue as always…

And now my spiritual path has led me to focus on something that is so expansive but simple that I felt the need to create an additional blog dedicated to it:

LOVE!

I want to explore love as Infinite Spirit. I want to celebrate people who have radiated this force so strongly that their actions helped shift the world, even if their action was so simple that it influenced just one person to open their own heart. I want to create and experiment with Love by awakening it in my own home, city and world community.

When we truly love, we are in harmony not only with our beloved but with all living things. Love is blind, insofar as it makes no distinctions but extends to everyone and everything.

-Living Yoga, edited by Gearg Feuerstein and Stephen Bodian

I have began dreaming about all different religions. I feel like peeling off a COEXIST bumpersticker and adhering it to my soul. How can I live more alive and serve love? How can I channel this energy that is an extension of the connection between us all? These are the questions I am asking.

Welcome!