I have been reflecting on the concept of love lately, considering the unending news of hate throughout our world. I can think of no other person who struggled with and challenged the concept of love than Nina Simone. Although one could say that she is singing of a romantic love, I think that she would agree that there is a fine line between the love experienced by two human beings and a more universal or divine love. She seemed to use music as an expression of her spirituality as is evidenced by her words, music is as close to God as I know. There was another musician, Rabindranath Tagore who lived in the Indian state of Bengal. Born in 1861, Tagore was a poet and artist, as well as a mystic, activist and composer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature, composed the Indian National Anthem and was also a social activist.
Unending Love
I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times,
In life after life, in age after age forever.
My spell-bound heart has made and re-made the necklace of songs
That you can take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms
In life after life, in age after age forever.
This poem highlights the universal nature of the divine…the numberless forms…numberless times…life after life…age after age. Tagore speaks of the necklace of songs to be worn around the neck of the divine in its many forms. He says that this necklace has been made and re-made by the heart…hence the name of this poem, Unending Love.
I have been reflecting on the concept of love lately, considering the unending news of hate throughout our world. Tagore seems to say that this love has been with us from the beginning and will go on forever. I hope he is right. He continues his poem…
Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain,
its ancient tale of being apart or together,
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.
He continues, speaking of the ancient tale of being apart or together. He also recognizes that love also involves pain. Yet, he finds that even here…amid the pain and suffering, love pierces the darkness of time…and is remembered forever. We know this to be true, as did Nina Simone. Both light and dark are necessary for this love. Tagore continues…
You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount
At the heart of time love for one another.
We have played alongside millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell –
Old love, but in shapes that renew and renew forever.
Tagore reminds us that we are in this together…we float together on the stream of life, along with millions of lovers, sharing the sweetness and distress…resulting in a renewal. Is this renewal part of what may be happening for us in this time of tumult? Are we ready to change the paradigm from hatred and violence to the recognition of peace and love found in each of us? Tagore’s final verse says ‘yes’…he says that it is this recognition of our oneness that is our salvation…the balm in Gilead…the warmth of love. He writes…
Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you,
The love of all humanity’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life,
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.
This love is heaped at our feet…it has found its end in us. He says that its end is in the love of humanity’s days both past and forever. Tagore seems to be speaking of the universal love…the love that is formed when we recognize our unity…our common ground.
Tagore tells us that the memories of the oneness…the merging with this oneness are the songs of every poet past and forever. We must continue this search on a daily basis…the search that Thurman spoke of…The Search for Common Ground.
This search has led me to the wisdom of so many poets…so many writers from so many traditions. I am thinking of Valerie Kaur, who wrote the profound book See No Stranger. She opens the book with a quote from Guru Nanak of the Sikh tradition.
If you want to play the game of love with me,
step forth with your head on your palm.
A wonderful framing of the game of love, Kaur goes on to define the love of which she speaks as a revolutionary love…one that calls us to our most authentic self…a self that is not afraid of the intensity of this love. She says that the opposite of love is not rage, but indifference and that love engages all our emotions, including joy, grief and even anger. She writes that anger is the force that protects that which is loved. I think most of us know this to be true. We do not experience anger regarding something that we don’t care about. It is always about something for which we care deeply. Kaur says that we cannot access the depths of loving ourselves or others without this anger…without this rage. The anger is an indication that there is something that we love! This is quite a revolutionary way to view anger when we consider classes in anger management (which I have previously taught). The previous idea was to extinguish anger…to get rid of it. Could this be what is eating away at humanity…a covering up or a denial of one of our most important emotions…an emotion that is so deeply related to the emotion of love?
One spiritual teacher that had a lot to say about anger and how to manage it was Thich Nhat Hanh. His poem entitled For Warmth, was written in response to the bombing of the town of Ben Tre during the Vietnam War. He wrote…
For Warmth
I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep my loneliness warm –
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.
Holding his face in his hands…what a beautiful, poignant image, reminding us of the words of Guru Nanak. It also hearkens back to the words with which we began from Tagore…speaking of the ancient tale of being apart or together…universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life. Thich Nhat Hanh goes further in this consideration of anger. He writes:
Recognize and embrace your anger when it manifests itself.
Care for it with tenderness rather than suppressing it.
This is the idea that has taken hold in many schools throughout the country…an acceptance of the anger rather than a suppression. In psychology, it has been taken on as a way to achieve wholeness and healing. Again, Thich Nhat Hanh echoes this…
Anger is like a howling baby, suffering and crying. Your anger is your baby. The baby needs his mother to embrace him. You are the mother. Embrace your baby.
This is good advice that we would be wise to follow in this time of violence and seeming absence of love. Our emotions are part of the vulnerable part of ourselves…meant to be nurtured and cared for. And we can do this for others as well. It is called love. May we all find within us and among us - through the power of the Great Spirit of life who embodies this love - a love that is so strong, yet so tender…a revolutionary love that responds to our search for wholeness. Let’s Wake Up Everybody!
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