Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Who You Really Are Is Love by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"


"Who You Really Are Is Love" by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"
Rumi, a thirteenth century Sufi poet, defines love as the magical moment when two spiritually connected individuals first meet. We call that love at first sight. In this meeting of eyes, Rumi romantically shares that we not only experience the union of two loving souls, but also the Love that is the crux of the universe. According to Rumi, when we fall in love with one another, we are actually experincing the Divine.


While not the Absolute, upon spiritual awakening, one of the first miracles that we realize is that we are Divine Love. This realization is an explosion of Radiance, whose magnitude had never been consciously experienced. Far beyond the relative love that seemingly requires another, Radiant Love is a mystical wholeness that is utterly beyond understanding and too overwhelming to even express. In this writing, not one word is able to properly define or contain it.

All love is one Love. Whether ethereal or everyday love, such as mother for child, when this cherished moment appears, we often have the misperception that someone or some other thing caused this rising as Love. In reality, we lose ourselves and for at least a moment, we are free of desire. This disappearance of the ego creates a crevice through which shines the Radiant Love that we genuinely are. We realize that there is only This Love and it is ever-present, since it is who we naturally are.

What I often refer to as the Beloved is the sacred substratum of the life situation, which is free of lovers all together. It does not reside within the confines of space and time. It is discovered in the twinkling of an eye of no time at all. This realization allows unconditional love to emerge into our life situation, our relationships and into the world.

As time travelers, we are identified with being a lover who loves someone else. As long as this subject-object relationship remains, true love cannot thrive. We expect and demand this or that to satisfy our self-created sense of lack. This lack is the ego’s belief in individuality as identity that is based on separation. It manifests in this world as the never-ending search for personal love, gratification and acceptance.

The false sense of “me” hopelessly pretends to separate from Totality and then expects someone else to fill the resulting pain gap. It fears the loss of a lover; it feels jealous, competes and needs. It may even voice its love for the Divine and faithfully express deep longing, while mourning its aloneness and separation. Yet, it stubbornly insists upon maintaining its sense of separation and of course, the result is suffering. Nonsensically, it then blames someone else for the emotional pain. It is the divided one, who is longing and searching, that sustains the delusion of estrangement.

Love is not really personal. It cannot be gained through any other. Love cannot be given to you, nor can it be threatened or taken away. It is essentially who you are. When you are seeking a lover, you are actually searching for love and its fulfillment. You are overlooking that you are what you are seeking, which is why it cannot be found.

Before you continue this search, my invitation is to discover that you are love’s conscious fulfillment. In this discovery, you then have the opportunity to meet romantic love as wholeness. You are free of the pre-existing condition and pain gap. At last, you no longer need to complete yourself.

If you are already in a problematic relationship, such as many personal relationships may be, as true lovers, you can disappear together. Free of “you” and “me,” we intimately rise above the push and pull of personal relationship and preciously rise as the Pure Love that we genuinely are.

In its purity and wholeness, Radiant Love is synonymous with Self-realization. It is the realized maturity of Pure Beingness. Then, romantic love does not need to bloom. When the perfect lover appears, the Rose already is.


"Who You Really Are” by singer/songwriter Kirtana from the CD “This Embrace.”
In this song, Kirtana points to the Ultimate Reality.

As Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon is quoted as saying, "I am the Abode of Love."


At Kirtana’s website, enjoy samples of all of Kirtana’s songs from all six of her CD releases.  
Also available is a new songbook with lyrics that is entitled Singing This Love Kirtana


You are invited to the Katie Davis Website to enjoy free videos and free downloads.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

True Forgiveness is Being Now by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"


True Forgiveness is Being Now

By Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"

The ego is the false sense of self that bases its self-image on time. It forms concepts about itself and so called "others" that are all based on past experiences. According to these past life circumstances, it then forms its likes and dislikes. In so doing, the ego is creating its desires and fears. These desires and fears then form its attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, intentions, expectations, opinions, judgments and its overall conditioning; all of which require more time. In turn, the ego then forms its concept of self based upon its success in either getting what it wants or avoiding what it fears.

Some refer to this false concept of self as the conditioned personality. It is this psychological structure that is the source of all sorrow and misery. Ego needs time and its story in order to form its false concept of self. Without its story, it is clearly seen that ego is unreal and does not even exist.

The older the ego becomes, the more past it is carrying. The burden becomes heavier and heavier with less and less time for future hope. If the pain of the past becomes too heavy to bear, it is common for the concept of forgiveness to come to the forefront. Exhausted by the past pain and by trying to perpetuate further separation through blaming others, the ego begins surrendering and letting go of its past stories.

Since  forgiveness requires "inner" work, the opportunity of spiritual awakening may be drawing near. Through this inner focus and self-observation, the ego becomes aware of its fears, lost hopes, anger, bitterness, regrets, sadness, resentments, shame and guilt. For the older ego, the list of stories seems endless and it might even seem altogether hopeless.

It is finally seen that it cannot keep its painful story and get rid of the pain. As the past stories are surrendered, the burden becomes lighter. Slowly, it is freeing itself from time. Presence begins emerging and it appreciates the present moment experience as something fresh and no longer shadowed by the past.

With the good fortune of self-observation, attention finally begins noticing that it is the storyteller and not the story that is perpetuating the pain. We begin inquiring who this storyteller really is and whether this concept of "I" is even valid in the first place. We finally realize that the concept of "I" is nothing more than another idea to which we add many good and unfortunate stories that condition us and therefore limit us. If we are willing to surrender this false concept of "I" that is the storyteller, all of the accumulated stories fall away with it.

In identification with dreaming "I," forgiveness sometimes remains only a mental concept. In other words, the ego might be relatively willing to conceptually forgive within the mind, but absolute forgiveness might elude the heart. By relinquishing the personal self-image, we transform the concept of forgiveness into the freedom of the heart that is unconditional love and perfect peace. 

Then through presence, we maintain the openness of our inner space moment to moment. True forgiveness has no external requirement, which means it depends upon no one. It has nothing to do with any so called other and remains free of the accompanying story-time. Real forgiveness is the power of timelessness within us that is already free of personal history. Where is the past in the here and now?

When we are free of the concept of forgiveness, we are living free. This is not an optimist's hope for the future. It is readily accessible for every human being right now and only now. The problem, so to speak, is not the insanity of a multitude of personal, family and world problems. The problem is the insanity in the delusion of time, the idea of separation that begins with the concept of "me," and its repetitive storyteller. This in turn facilitates the runaway madness of the unawake mind. 

Free of the ego, we are able to greet every moment authentically and compassionately. Free of time, we are free of the stories that bond us to negativity and suffering. Being Now, we realize that we have always been free.


Katie Davis Website

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