The Heart of Love

Listen to the Heart of True Love

What is older and more venerable than love?
          In keeping with the old way,
          we can be in the present.
          Following this way,
          There is no end.
          Losing it,
          it returns to unbeing;
          unknowable, ungraspable and intangible.
          Without hiding,
          it is nowhere to be found.
          There is nothing so rare and precious.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

To love and not to own,   
          To love and not lay claim 
          To love and let it go; 
          This is the way of true love. 
          For letting go of love
          is what makes love stay.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

In clear mountain streams
          it is the deepest pools
          that hold the biggest fish.
          Some say that true love is so deep
          that it extends
          beyond life and death.
          Like love,
          life and death
          are both unfathomable and mysterious,
          yet each passes a way.
          Only love endures.
          Only the openhearted
          can recognize
          that which endures.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

What is all this talk of skillful lovers   
          and true love?   
          In love more is not better.   
          Any love is as real and significant   
          as all love.   
          Even a slight willingness to love   
          is sufficient.   
          Your own garden is as significant   
          as all the vast galaxies   
          in the universe.   
          If this were not so,   
          it would not be your garden.   
          It is the same with love.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

The way you love now,   
          isn't the true love.   
          What we call love   
          isn't the real love.   
          There is no object of true love.   
          It exists before things,   
          before ideas,   
          before emotions.   
          True love is eternal.   
          Without searching,   
          true love is found.   
          Without wanting,   
          true love is felt.   
          Without possessions,   
          true love can never be lost.   
          The wanting soul   
          sees only what it wants.   
          The unwanting soul,   
          sees what is hidden.   
          The skillful lover knows   
          two ways ~ one origin.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

The greatest power is   
          the gift of following   
          love alone.   
          How love does things   
          is hard to grasp;   
          elusive, subtle, obscure.   
          Yet there is a certainty in it, 
          a knowingness based on something more real   
          than perceptions and opinions.   
          But, it takes trust   
          to open this way of knowledge;   
          a deep trust,   
          without reserve,   
          without contingency,   
          without protection.   
          It takes a deep and complete surrender   
          to unlock   
          this mystery.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

So you are bewildered in love?   
          Why do you think it should be any different?   
          Do not the wisest 
          consider themselves but fools?   
          Why should you expect to know the difference   
          between yes and no,   
          between good and bad?   
          Who do you think you are?

Listen to the Heart of True Love

Brake   
          to be whole.   
          Twist   
          to be straight.   
          Empty   
          to be full.   
          Wear out   
          to be renewed.   
          Have little   
          and gain much.   
          Have much,   
          and lose everything.   
          The ways of love are strange!

Listen to the Heart of True Love

There is nothing to this way of love.   
          It is not special.   
          Like water, 
          it has no particular form. 
          It can be found everywhere   
          Because it is so common,   
          it is often not seen.   
          Lack of awareness of water   
          does not mean   
          that water does not exist.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

Stop being so serious about love.
          There is nothing to be done anyway.
          The pursuit of love,
          chases love away.
          Love comes of its own accord,
          by grace,
          or not at all.
          It is unnegotiable.
          If you want love,
          then love,
          and wait.
          When you are looking the other way,
          it will pounce without mercy
          and devour everything
          you thought you knew.
          To die in love is no mere metaphor.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

The most skillful of lovers
          are seldom recognized as lovers.
          Not being needy,
          They show not need.
          Having already attained,
          they are not in lack
          In not having lack,
          they do not pursue.
          They love not just aspects of life,
          but all of life.
          In loving so thoroughly,
          they become invisible.
          What is calm and serene,
          cannot be seen
          by the agitated and chaotic.
          The water cannot be seen
          by the fish.

Listen to the Heart of True Love

What is older and more venerable than love?
          In keeping with the old way,
          we can be in the present.
          Following this way,
          There is no end.
          Losing it,
          it returns to unbeing;
          unknowable, ungraspable and intangible.
          Without hiding,
          it is nowhere to be found.
          There is nothing so rare and precious.