What if our religion was each other


If our practice was our life

If prayer, our words.

What if the temple was the earth

If forests were our church......

If holy water - the rivers, lakes, and oceans

What if meditation was our relationships

If the Teacher was life

If wisdom was self-knowledge

If love was the center of our being



~ Ganga White

I Love You

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this.”
― Pablo Neruda

Love and Commitment

"Love does not put everything at rest; it puts everything in motion. Love does not end all risk; it accepts every risk which is necessary for its work. Love does not separate the good people from the bad, bestowing endless bliss on one and endless torment on the other. Love seeks the reconciliation of every life so that it may share with all the others." -Daniel Day Williams

When I Die

I know how it will be when I die,
My beauty will be so extraordinary that God will worship me.
He will not worship me from a distance, for our minds will have wed.
Our souls will have flowed into each other.
How to say this: God and I will forever cherish
Myself.

I Want Both of Us

I want both of us
To start talking about this great love
As if you, I and the Sun were all married
And living in a tiny room,

Helping each other to cook,
Do the wash, weave and sew,
Care for our beautiful
Animals.

We all leave each morning
To labor on the earth's field
No one does not lift a great pack.

I want both of us to start sining like two
Traveling minstrels
About this extraordinary existence
We share,

As if
You, I and God were all  married
And living in
A tiny
Room.

Hafiz

Relationship

"all the advice you ever gave your partner is for you to hear"
— Byron Katie

If It Is Not Too Dark

"Go for a walk, if it is not too dark.
Get some fresh air, try to smile.
Say something kind
To a safe-looking stranger, if one happens by.

Always exercise your heart's knowing.

You might as well attempt something real
Along this path:

Take your spouse or lover into your arms
The way you did when you first met.
Let tenderness pour from your eyes
The way the sun gazes warmly on the earth.

Play a game with some children.
Extend yourself to a friend.
Sing a few ribald songs to your pets and plants.
Why not let them get drunk and wild!

Let's toast
Every rung we've climbed on Evolutions ladder.
Whisper, "I love you!"
To the whole mad world.

Let's stop reading about God-
We will never understand Him.

Jump to your feet, wave your fists
Threaten and warn the whole universe.

That your heart can no longer live
Without real love."

Hafiz

Making Love

"Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new." -- Ursula K. LeGuin

Love

"When you love someone, you grant them total freedom to be who they are, for this is the greatest gift you could give them, and love always gives the greatest gift." Neale Donald Walsch

Wholeness

"The path to human wholeness is the inner marriage of masculine and feminine values.   When each value system is held in equal esteem, when we love and respect both, harmony within the individual, health in the culture, and peace on the planet become attainable."   Elizabeth Lesser

Marriage

"The biggest mistake people make is to think that marriage is a rational arrangement rather than an insane attempt to give life form and stability.   It is not a surface change in living arrangement, but rather a shift in being, in your identity, and entire outlook."  Unknown

How Many?

How many people who believe they never dream are sleepwalking in their marriage, in their job, in their church, blindly adhering to ideas they never question, with no heart in what they are doing?"  Marion Woodman

Sacred Marriage

This is the sacred marriage; the coming together of two who have each met themselves on the road."   Oriah

Relationship

"The soul of relationship is not goal-minded, nor is it any one narrow, clearly defined entity.   A friendship may not have to endure throughout life in order to leave its eternal mark on the soul.   A marriage may not have to live up to its promises of lasting a lifetime in order to generate an eternal union.   A family may be riddled with betrayal and misunderstanding, and still offer the soul the cradle it craves.   A partnership may dissolve and yet continue to feed each of the members with gifts of remembrance."  Thomas Moore

Broken Open

"My untested heart was broken.  What I thought was certain - my marriage- became uncertain.   What I thought was beyond reproach showed signs of humanness.   What I wanted to believe was different from the rest of the world- wasn't.   Thus begin my descent.   On the way down, I turned and met the friendly forces, and felt the hands of transformation begin to work on me.   I would not trade those years for anything, but had I never stumbled down the mountain of my ideals, had my ego not been humbled by loss, and my heart broken open by pain, I would not have discovered the secret treasure that lies waiting for each of us at the bottom of our most difficult times."  Elizabeth Lesser

Spiritual Marriage

"In a spiritual marriage there is not bondage, but freedom.   Where both recognize that in marrying they are setting each other free.   The ability to set the other free and each live his own individual life and yet share with each other without demanding....Neither husband nor wife has any rights; they have only the privilege of giving, but they have no right to demand anything of the other."   Joel Goldsmith "The Infinite Way"