LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE

fri., SEPTEMBER 5 / 7-9 p.m. - Taking Refuge in the Sangha of Your Heart -

“Remember who you are, remember where you come from. Every in-breath is a time for waking up. Every out-breath is a time for letting go. Don’t hold back, ‘cause this is it. Return your mind to your body, return your heart to love.” -Brian Kimmel
excerpt from “Return to Love” available at CDBaby.

DEAR FRIENDS,

The greatest threat to America, to humanity may have already been realized. This morning I awoke with an awareness of intense anger and fear. We have been at war, not for just seven or eight years, we have been at war for many millennia, and may be at war for many more millennia to come if we are not aware, awake and clear in our vision of reality…Throughout human history those who have been called to, have walked on the path of kindness, humility, Great Compassion, love, joy and equanimity—not as soldiers, but as peacemakers, as friends to life and all living beings. I encourage every one of you to dismantle the bombs that are in your heart, and that are detonated within your daily life and in your relationships.

Love is the Ultimate. Never let your heart, your body, your mind, your world be filled with anger, hatred, anxiety, or despair—you may already be consumed. You may already have the virus of society embedded in you: Over-consumption, greed, lust for things more than what you need, and a disregard to the lives—human and other—that have been neglected or destroyed in order to provide you your “needs.” We may not have thought for a moment that what we have consumed or are consuming may have injured us, or may have caused harm to us, as an individual, and as a collective society.

Everyday we consume the fear that is in our heart. We fear being separated from our loved ones, we fear war, we fear not being liked, not being loved, and being under-appreciated; we fear bankruptcy, we fear not having enough food to eat and not enough clean water to drink and bathe in, we fear our desires, we fear the planet heating up, and we fear our own destruction. Maybe we can let some of our fear drop away, and begin to let ourselves be consumed with the energy of love. But what does love feel like? What does love contain?

In love, there is no-fear, and non-discrimination. Fear has already been realized, but fear, revenge, nuclear bombs, even a trillion dollars is not the Ultimate—Love is the Ultimate! The next president may not be able to save you unless you can save yourself. We watch movies about heroes, and have memories of wars in which America and the Allies saved a lot of people; we may expect our savior to come again to spare us from the world of hells.

My family may not have made it without the Allies, whom saved my grandmother and her immediate family from starvation, after having been imprisoned, then abandoned by the Japanese Forces in Indonesia during WWII. It was not only the Allies that saved her and my family, it was her love, her compassion for the Japanese Soldiers, whom also had a family to feed and protect that ultimately lead her to safety. She had to look into her heart to forgive, and to release herself from the bombs of anger within her. Her anger was killing her, even several years after the war, she struggled to survive. She had to stop putting her anger on those who imprisoned her, and to release her anger to God.

Millions of lives were destroyed, and taken hostage by the Allies during WWII as well. The big bombs America dropped weren’t just detonated on Japanese soil, on “enemy” territory they were detonated in the hearts of Americans, and on America’s soil too. In our deserts—millions of living beings were instantly destroyed, plants and minerals, and people subject to the poisoning of radiation during the tests of nuclear weapons prior to and post the dropping of the bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And we are still being poisoned, not just by nuclear fallout of test explosions in our deserts, but by our thoughts, by the conviction that there is something that can be called an enemy, and the thought that we should not be friends with those who cause us harm. Even for some on the peace movement those who cause us harm may include our government. Everyone is worthy of our love and no one should be remiss of our compassion.

You may want to hurt the person who hurt you. You may want to destroy the person or thing you think is the cause of your sorrow, your pain, your anger, and your despair. But looking deeply, your sorrow, your pain, your anger, your despair may be the one causing more harm to you—not the other person or thing.

I asked this morning to be released—for the fear, despair, greed, hatred, jealousy, and the obsession with finding someone or something to blame to be removed from my heart. I asked, “May I continue, with all beings, wholeheartedly, on the path of kindness, humility, generosity, sharing, compassionate listening, and deep looking. May I and all beings never return to the world of darkness, the world of hells, of forgetfulness again; may I be a servant to love, a messenger of light and awareness, life, resilience, and beauty.”

A Buddha, a Bodhisattva isn’t just a ball of light in the sky or phenomena on a heavenly altar somewhere above us, way beyond our reach. A Buddha, a Bodhisattva can be you. You can live in awareness, too. You can live awake and clear. You can open your reality to love, beauty, and never return to the reality you otherwise have known. Your true home is already inside of you. Flip the switch, turn on the light, and the Buddha in your heart can be liberated, born in this dimension within your daily life, and everything you touch, see, feel, taste, hear—everything you come in contact with through your body and mind will be a Buddha-Field.

Today’s Practice: Offering Incense

I offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time; may it be fragrant as the earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness and the fruit of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; may we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home

SPECIAL FRIDAY NIGHT EVENT:

TAKING REFUGE IN THE

SANGHA OF YOUR HEART
First Friday in September

Dharma with Brian and the Treasure Root Sangha

At the Pink House
Fri., SEPTEMBER 5, 2008
7-9 p.m.

For those of you, who are searching for something to do on The First Friday Night of September, search no more! If you already have plans, but not till later in the evening come to the Pink House for an appetizing few hours of Dharmic Activity. The evening will certainly include silent sitting, walking meditation, maybe a Dharma Talk, and a circle for Deep Listening. Bring your open heart, and your open mind--if you need help opening your heart and mind come and the Sangha (community of practitioners) will support you.

"Everything we cherish and hold dear today, we will have to let go of and be separated from in the future...I urge you to practice being an island unto yourself...Practice taking refuge in the Dharma...Meditate on the body in the body, nourishing Right Understanding and mindfulness to master and transform your cravings and anxieties. Observe the elements outside the body in the elements outside the body...That is the way to take refuge in the island of self, to return to yourself in order to take refuge in the Dharma, and not to take refuge in any other island or thing."
-Shakyamuni Buddha
Samyukta Agama 639 Taisho Revised Tripitaka 99
excerpted from the Plum Village Chanting and Recitation Book pg 273 (Parallax 2000)

(702) 461-8422 / brian@briankimmel.com
www.voicefromthesource.com