I'm flying out to see my ailing Mom again tomorrow. And tonight I'm wondering what I would say if my number were up on this earth and there were only one more thing I could say.
Ah, that's an easy one. It would have to be about love, because in the end that is the core, the very ground of why we're here.
We're not here to collect toys or answers or experiences or empires, though all those things and more happen from time to time. But all that is the passing show, the passing phenomena, the movie of the day.
What abides are the moments of love. Not the love you receive, though that's nice, but the moments you feel love in your heart for someone or something.
Perhaps it's for your wife or husband, boyfriend or girlfriend. Perhaps it's for your baby daughter or your grown-up son, or a sick animal.
Perhaps it's the majestic beauty of nature, or the austere beauty of an equation. Perhaps it's your new car, or the love of an idea such as peace on earth.
Whatever it is, it's opening a door. To whatever extent that love is there, the door is opening.
The door to what? The door to the ungraspable, to the non-locatable, to the infinite mystery that surpasses understanding.
Because when we look upon anything or anyone with love, to that extent we are seeing the face of the divine. And we are also being the divine. The divine shows up on earth when love enters our heart.
That love for someone or something is a taste; it's like the olives they serve before the meal. The meal itself is embarked upon when all the resistance to everything that we don't love is evaporated.
When we're willing to appreciate everything just as it is, when there's no more resistance left in our heart to anything, when all the shoulds and shouldn'ts are no more, that's when everything begins to shine with an unseen light. That's when the face of the infinite reveals itself in the ordinary moment.
It was always there of course, because it's everything—but now we see it, we feel it, we sense it, we are it.
Everytime we extend a hand to someone or something in need, God shows up again on earth. Everytime we let go of judging the mote in our brother's eye and look at the log in our own instead, God shows up again on earth. Everytime that humility enters our heart, God shows up again on earth.
When we look around and there's nothing we don't love anymore, when we love even the tragedy and the pain and the loss, that's when the mystery that was always there enters into us once again. That's when we look upon the world like looking into a lake and seeing our own reflection.
That's when the infinite is perceiving itself once again, through your heart and mine. It doesn't see itself through our eyes, but through our heart. It doesn't hear itself through our ears, but through our heart. The heart is the door.
May that door of love, the door that opens upon the mystery within the mystery, be open for all of us tonight. And forevermore.
—jim sloman 4/11/01
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