True

Been a while, the end of another semester is fast approaching. Taking time today to prepare for the end of the semester grading crunch that will consume the next few weeks. Read a journal entry from a while back--prompted by Elke reading a "This I Believe" (NPR series and book) essay in yoga class. Thought I'd share it. This is what yoga has confirmed for me (so far). I don't just believe it, I have experienced it as true.

Enjoy : )



I believe love is our birthright; the thing that makes us human. The ability to open up, to love fully lights us up with unimaginable joy. We are born with an infinite supply of love to give—we can never run out or run low. A perpetually full tank. The more we let it out, the more we feel it emanating from within.
 
I believe love flows back to us and connects us to each other and ultimately to source. Let love in and it brightens our hearts, like oxygen fuels fire. Love doesn’t grow when we let it in; it simply becomes more visible.

Fear and anger, pain and suffering, can dampen our ability to connect to source—to experience the light of love that dwells within. Through yoga we work through the layers of delusion—of pain and sadness, fear and regret—so that we can see clearly the amazing light that is the soul of who we are.

Christians say that god is love. I believe that love is the soul of humanity. We are luminous beings, every one of us. Service, kindness, laughter, joy, empathy, forgiveness, compassion—all of these grow out of love. When we hold love in or put up walls to keep it out, love dwindles to embers.  The more you let it flow in and out, the brighter it radiates.

I believe love nurtures the best in us: kindness, humility, humor, forgiveness—and it’s opposite drives away our humanity. When we hate we’ve lost our connection to each other, to self, to source (god).

The yogic sages tell us that understanding who we are is essential. We get there by negation: neti, neti (not this, not this). At the end of the negation comes the revelation. We are energy and that energy is luminous light. Practice living with an open heart and open to all that you are. You are love.