I recently put up the video for Libera's "You were There ". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwDRZMoJtkk&feature=related This is the second time I have added this video to my profile as I really love this tune, but the theme "You were there " intrigued me enough to write a blog regarding it.
"You were There "; who was there ? Is it sung for a friend, a life companion, or God? Or could it be for Love itself?
Our words, our minds see love as something that "happens " between two persons, things or objects. The mind interprets love as a connection, a desire, a longing, a need, but the mind insists on an "other " for completion. We love a friend. We love our spouse or life partner. We love God. We love the forest. We love the thought of love. It is always us and the "other ". This is how the mind conceives love. But this is not what Love is, or how it works.
Love, in it's essence, is all there is. In John's first letter in the New Testament John writes; "God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him." A bit later, a few verses down, John writes; "We love, because he first loved us ." I have always loved this "God is love ". He doesn't say, God is like love, or God is similar to love, but God is love. This is very plain; God is love and love is God. It is a way of expressing that love is all, that the mind can comprehend.
When "awakening " "happens " there is the wordless conviction that there is only Love. The "I " thought vanishes, as does the "other ", leaving only the essence; the Love. The creative energy that is Love is so dynamic that it's unfolding creates "expression ". We and God are not expressions ofsomething, we are "expression" itself. The mind does not understand "expression " without an object to express or be expressed. This is also true of Love. The mind does not understand love without alover and a loved, so it conceives (thoughts) the expression between the two. The "mind ", rather than being an object in reality, is simply made of these thoughts. These thoughts are simply "expression " suspended in time, labeled as we see fit, and "projected outward ".
"God is a concept by which we measure our pain", wrote John Lennon many years ago. This has become a popular idea in modern spiritual circles, particularly neo-advaita, or popular non-dualism. We create God in our own image; this is true, but "God " is "expression " of Love, is Love. "...he who abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him." To abide in love means to be the expression of love, or so the "mind " would put it. But "you" are not the "expression " of anything, you are "expression " itself. To be expression, or to be Love is not something the mind can wrap itself around, so it conceives objects to be "expressions ".
This why it is necessary to silence the mind; this "bag of thoughts " we take as us. It not only wants silencing, but annihilation! When this occurs, we no longer need to conceive ourselves as "expressions of love " but "expression " itself. We no longer need to love God, but simply to be. This is not something that can be "expressed " in words or thought, but only by "being ". We are being, we areisness, we are Love. Once this is "realized " (wordlessly understood), we can use our "bag of thoughts " as our servant rather than our master. We can answer hunger, safety, our "work", and any number of "human" functions without disturbing the peace of being.
We can love a God, or a Guru, realizing that these are "expressions " in the mind of "expression " itself. We can love ourselves as "expression "; the unfolding of Love. As Ramana Maharshi loved his holy mountain as wordless expression, as a Christian loves Christ as expression, as Christ himself loved and trusted "God " as expression, we can answer the question of "who" is the "you" in "You were there". It is Love expressing itself, in itself. It is One!
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