But love of God
hath so absorbed me
that neither love
nor hate
of any other thing
remains in my heart. 

Rābiʻa

Yesterday was a foggy summer morning.  The air had taken on form and texture.  Like a freshly painted canvas, it was heavy and wet with soft, silvery hues.  A subtle radiance seeped through the thinner layers of the fog, revealing the presence of light.

While in many ways this was a typical coastal California foggy day, it felt instead almost hallowed   A tranquil, loving gentleness enveloped the hillsides and canyon of the neighborhood.   There was a near stillness with an occasional cooing of a dove or rustle in the tree branches.  As if to seal in the divine sweetness, a large deer rested on the grasses of a nearby slope.  

I was grateful for my diligence in observing my habit of starting each day outside.  Sometimes this is just a brief greeting of the day while feeding the birds.  The peaceful atmosphere yesterday felt like an invitation to settle in for my morning contemplation outside.   

 When I had looked through the glass of the bedroom window, the fog appeared to be a flat lifeless mass of grey.  Although I am normally a very curious person, it took the force of my morning habit – rather than curiosity – to experience fog as the opposite of my mind’s predisposition toward viewing it as gloomy and foreboding. 

 Nature always seems to continually offer these lessons for us to see, hear, and touch anew, with reverent appreciation.   Just one moment of slowing down and getting a little closer to her pace and language can change our inner view.   I have now met fog in an entirely fresh way.  Along with that, I have a heightened awareness of showing up again and again for the possibility of softening preconceptions and being absorbed in a love beyond bias.

 These everyday moments can be anywhere and with anyone.  Accompanying our interactions with nature, there are our COVID-masked greetings in the store and along the street.  Also, there are the choices of what and how much to consume in food or ideas, and possessions.   And, our thoughts, speech, and actions.   Living and ancient sages and saints like Rābiʻa remind us to boldly walk the path of love and trust that little by little, light will permeate the haze and enfold us in love. 

Practice 
This short practice invites awareness of the path of  love. 

Prepare – 

• Find a comfortable seated position.   
• Slowly lean your right ear toward your right shoulder.  Smile gently and take few easy breaths.  Then, gently bring your head to center and pause.  When you are ready repeat on your left side. 
  • Note:  If you have a condition that is irritated by taking your head to the side, e.g., positional vertigo, please make adjustments that are suitable for you.
• Pause with your head to center.  Invite a few easy breaths.

Practice – 

• Hold your hands in front of you with your palms upward, slightly cupped.  Imagine your hands are holding a boundless amount of love.  No matter how much you receive or give away there is still an overflowing abundance of love.
• As though washing your hair and showering, bathe yourself in this love from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet as well as the back, front, and sides of your body and head.  
• Pause with your palms cupped in front of you.  An abundance of love still pours you’re your hands.
  • Lightly touch your sensory organs – nose, mouth, eyes, skin (choose one place, e.g., skin on your face), and ears. 
    • If you are uncomfortable touching your face during COVID-19, please feel free to hover your hands over these sensory organs. 
• Pause with your palms cupped in front of you, again holding endless, pure love.
  • As though the love were rose petals, gently toss them upward and out into the space around you – in front, to the right, behind, and to the left of you. 
  • Repeat this one more time.  Imagine as you release love in all directions that it is traveling the distances of the world from nearby to the farthest lands and people. 
• Pause with your palms cupped in front of you still holding boundless love.
  • Bring one hand over your heart and the other on top as though you are sealing in the awareness of eternal love within your heart.  Invite all its expression of equity, kindness, and compassion to inform your thoughts, actions, and speech. 
  • Bow your head slightly.  Invite all your sensory engagements to arise from your heart through your nose, mouth, eyes, skin and ear.  Invite them to be free of grasping and clinging and free of the conditioned filters that bring harm and injustice to others.    

Transition back into your day – 

• Relax your hands into a comfortable position, e.g., turned downward onto your knees. 
  • Allow your eyes to rest in a soft gaze.  
  • Invite an easeful, calm breath.
• Stay as long as you are comfortable, perhaps following the rhythm of receiving and releasing the breath with each inhalation and exhalations.
• When you are ready, return to your day.    

This poem appears in Mala of Love: 108 Luminous Poems, page 105, edited by Ravi Nathwani and Kate Vogt and published by New World Library.  Photo by Alexander Kaunas.  H E A R T H is posted each new and full moon.  KateVogt©2020. 

Fall virtual class Support Wisdom in Your Life. (6 Thursdays, 3:10-4:30 p.m. PT, Aug 27-Oct 1).  For more information, please visit the College of Marin Community Education.