I Want to Know What Love IS

It is silent in my home now. It wasn’t early this morning when my 9 month old son was screaming. His sobs shaking his little body so hard that he went limp. The intensity of emotion was inconsolable from the outside. Nothing I could do would make it better. It was 2:00am and he had to go back to sleep. This wasn’t playtime and he wasn’t going to surrender easily.

My son and @KrishnaDas have a special connection. The chants filled the air, Zander bounced up and down. Still sobbing. As the words, “I want to know what love is” gently stroked us, he began to calm and steady. “I want you to show me” the chant continued. Zander began to quieten and listen. His body illuminated in the moonlight our hands touching.

Sometimes all we can do is wait for the storm to pass. Our hands gently intertwined as a symbol that we are here. I’ll sit with you even if there is nothing else to do. It was simple moment in the darkness and my heart opened as I too wondered. What is love?

In the Buddhist wisdom tradition love states are called the divine abodes. These mind states of compassion, loving kindness, equanimity, and joy are a what provide the support beams of life.

I find it interesting to contemplate these heavenly homes in each of us and how through practice we can cultivate accessibility while giving space for it to arise spontaneously-without inclination.

In order to do this though, we must be willing to walk through the dark basements of our homes. To look into the corners and dust the cobwebs. To really chant into the darkness, “I want to know what love is” and to be willing to sit in the muck when “I want you to show me” starts unwinding our souls.

We melt with love into a million pieces-or fractals of the mystery. We look around and begin to see each other as something more. We are the divine abodes and here are our hands.