One of my favorite teachers says, “Love everybody and tell the truth.”
Sometimes I think about the things we hold ourselves back from saying. Does pride ever keep you from telling someone how much you love them or how wonderful you think they are? Does anxiety ever keep you from sharing your concern for someone because of the habit patterns you see them in?
Our human conditioning brings us to places that separate us from ourselves (“I’m bad”), and others (“They’re bad.”) I’m sure that separateness served an intelligence at one point in time, yet I can’t think of a more painful feeling than “all alone,” particularly if that’s a place we visit often.
Those are the moments we need to bring love in–more so than any other time.
How do we do that?
We invite vulnerability in. We speak the truth (satya) to ourselves and accept. The act of looking at something that hasn’t wanted to be seen is so vastly powerful. Paying attention is the basis of all love. Practicing vulnerability with yourself is a liberating experience—no more secrets from yourself.
When we can share in our own humanness with others, we are experiencing connection on a different level. You’re allowing your whole (realized) self to be with others who are honest too. That’s such a happy place.
The path that makes me happiest is the one that leads me to look at something long enough to open to compassion. My walls of separation lower and even just for a few moments, I begin to feel that I’m part of it all.
