I’ve been dwelling with these ideas for some time now. I don’t really know how to express them. What I am experiencing, is something, that would happen for me if I was an explorer. I just made, what seems to me, to be a radical discovery. I found two great rivers that share the same head waters. There is something so mystifying, perhaps deep, and other-worldly about this great source — that I cannot believe it is natural — but it is. I am flabbergasted, elated, and awed. Nature is so creative!
What I am referring to is two great rivers that run through the human heart. One is respect — the regard for otherness — the balm for our differences. The other is compassion — the regard for our shared essence — the balm for our sameness. Following them, throughout this life, has led me to a place within that I didn’t expect. They converge, with a peaceful roar, at the center of a mist-filled reservoir.
Flowing out, as they do, never drains the expansive source, but strangely seems to fill it. Something eternal seems to energize this place. I am amazed, gratified and awkwardly shy.
I sense a holiness here. There is something that defies the laws of nature about this naturally occurring effulgence. Essence becomes more essence as essence flows. What is freed delivers more of the same. Love expended, expands into Love. The headwaters freshen the flow, assuring a greater supply, and spreading into all the crevices.
I don’t know how to express the mystifying miracle of what has come into my awareness. So, please forgive this little journey into metaphor. I’m undone by the fact that all of this goes on within us, in the thicket of our self-regard.
Somehow, we humans, are equipped with a fountain that grows more effulgent as we learn to love the mystery we are. Loving oneself is a key to unlocking the treasury of endlessly renewing energy. Imagine that! What once was thought to be the height of selfishness, turns out to be the way into the realm of incredible vitality. The mystery of our humanity thrives, when we give it the affection it deserves. The Light is playing tricks with our assumptions, our limited and limiting viewpoints. Mystery moves and passes from common knowledge into uncommon wisdom.
Opening to ourselves, opens us to everything. Opening to what is essential, opens us to our own human nature. This kind of opening is so frightening, not because of the demons that live in the human soul, but because of the overwhelming magnificence of what flows through it/us. I am here to tell you, this is what you set loose when you follow the rivers of respect and compassion. What flows through us, increases in power and volume, touching what most needs nourishment.
Ego-death isn’t like becoming empty of self, it is becoming so full of Life that old skins give way to new growth. Self-love is love for all that is divine, all that is manifesting in our nature, all that encounters us. The rivers flow, like us, is the same force that expands the Universe. All of that, is what breeds respect and compassion. Loving ourselves is loving the enlargement of Mystery!
