On Love

Jim Tarran

It would not be right at this time of year not to mention something of Love. The shops are full of things you should buy for someone you love and although the commercialism and promoted expectation that these corporate events promote can be a little distasteful in the true spirit of Vajrasati, we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Instead of rejecting what seems to be shallow we dig a little deeper and find more satisfying depths and reconnect on a more direct level with these cultural festivals that may sometimes have just become another opportunity to make us feel pressured to spend more.

The quality of relationships, then, is at the heart of what yoga is about. These relationships can be played out wherever there is a heartfelt desire to extend beyond oneself and where there is a wish for a more comprehensive view of our environment, both internal and external. This relationship dialogue can be played out equally between a painter and their canvas, between a man and a woman, a man and a man, woman and woman, a composer and a symphony and so on. These journeys always involve commitment, faith and confidence as well as an inner striving for harmony beauty and open free flowing expression.

Here, then, are a few short extracts on love…

• “Life is dear to all. All tremble at the rod. Comparing others to oneself one should neither strike nor cause to strike.” The Dhammmapada

• “Whoever by a good deed covers the evil done such a one illumines this world like the moon feed from the clouds.” The Dhammmapada

• “Violence arises out of fear, weakness, ignorance or restlessness. To curb it, what is most needed is freedom from fear. To gain this freedom, what is required is a change of outlook on life and reorientation of the mind. Violence is bound to decline when men base their faith on reality and investigation rather than ignorance and supposition.” B.K.S Iyengar

• “The yogi believes that every creature has as much right to live as he has. He believes he is born to help others and looks on others with eyes of love.” B.K.S Iyengar

• “In the fields I was enthralled, so enthralled. On my way back home, the autumn moon accompanied me right to my room.” Buddhist Nun Rengetsu

• “And taken by light in her arms at long dear last I may without fail suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars” Dylan Thomas

• “Yet-as all things mourn a while at fleeting blisses; Let us to; but be our dirge a dirge of kisses” John Keats

  Quotes

  You could say that I'm resigned to the fact that this wonderful life that we get here is it

  — David Gilmore