Silence Between Breaths

This resonated quite deeply with me...as a matter of fact, I was with my spiritual master recently in India. Within seconds of our eyes union, there was a deep sense of love and gratitude followed with a personification of humility. I sent out a silent prayer from the core of my heart and wondered what enabled it? Is it His presence? Was it my joy? Was it all about the heart and its condition? No sooner had my thought left my scope of consideration, He sang two lines, a couplet of a song and everything seemed to get the answer. In that silence san a description, something magical was enabled that left a lasting resonance in our hearts. I am sharing those two lines and its meaning herewith. Dil men kisi ke pyaar ka jalata hua diya Duniya ki andhiyon se bhala ye bujhega kya? A lamp of someone’s love burns within the heart — Can the storms of the world ever extinguish it? Saanson ki anch pa ke bhadkata rahega ye Sine men dil ke saath dhadkata rahega ye Fed by the warmth of breath, it will keep glowing brighter; It will keep beating within the chest along with the heart. Hope it resonates like it did with me - just two lines and a profound connection. May such a flame of love always burn in all. Hide full comment

My Reflections: We have a network of relationships. In this poem Stephen Levine writes about a sacred relationship in which there is an unexplainable yet profound connection with a sacredness within us. The foundation of a sacred relationship is pure unconditional love. We love for the sake of loving others with no personal and selfish agenda. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna asks his devotee Arjuna to act with no selfish agenda , but with a pure loving heart , with no expectation in return. It is called Nishkama Karma yoga. This is my path which I follow everyday. It bring My family was relatively poor, but rich in heart. We share with others unconditionally expecting nothing in return. It was a path of unconditional love and positive regard. And we walk on this path which brings joy and fulfillment. Walking on this path everyday makes me aware of the sacred within me. Daily practice of mindfulness meditation has helped me walk on the path joyfully. Following this path regularly makes me aware of the sacredness within me. Namaste. Jagdish P Dave Hide full comment

The Sacred is in all of us and we learn about it when we have a moment of intimacy. For me, it’s not only with a person, actually, I first learned about the Sacred when I was very very young, and felt the embrace of the universal life force surrounding me as if it could replace or at least enhance something that I was yearning for and not receiving in my human contact. It has stayed with me since and now I have learned that it also exists in other people and that when we deepen our connections with each other, just like in long-term contemplative practice that something lights up a new space of awareness and capacity for something more to be felt. It’s that profound connection, across time in space that creates the impression of something continuing that wants my attention and love. That’s why I write poetry and dance as a way to mirror what is in this extraordinary emergent space that we all are serving, consciously or unconsciously together or separately. I love to call it embodying emergence, and we are reaching toward something that we are collectively constellating for the sake of something not yet known, or maybe we have always known… That’s the fun part Hide full comment