THE LOVE SECRET EXPOSED:

Let us presume that I have been to Mordor, and I have successfully cast the Ring of Power (which was in my possession, baby, OH YAH!) back into the Flame.

If I had done this -- and you, being a tenacious student, were sharp-thinking -- you would realize that I might have a few things to say about the Journey. Things which might aid you in understanding this rascally path we are all on. And of course, you would remember at all times that I am just another kraZy bLogGer&#->with<-nothing->to_,say.

Ok.

Here we go.

They tell us it is ONE LOVE. This is so true it'll knock your socks off. (I really mean that. Oh it might actually seduce your socks off, if you are playful like me, haha...and really, I mean, go ahead, exercise your nasty minds, but uhmmmm, well, don't forget the math => it all comes back to ONE LOVE, and that is you. 1+1=1. You. (Who the hell are you anyway??) )

So how 'you' LOVE is a rather IMPORTANT QUESTION.

Most of us tend to externalize ourselves. This is often refered to in eastern philosophy as seeing only the Veil of Illusion. Oh, the veil is real, and it will kick your ass as quickly as it will kiss it -- if you spend all of your time in analysis of this mystery, you have not even but stepped out upon the Path:

The Path of Self-Knowing.

Gnarly, ya'll, gnarly process. We are wired to love and love and love and love and love it all -- all our idiot-blind friends, our ball-breaking employers, our cursedly manipulative families -- we love it all with such a phoenix of stamina and passion, that, shit, we don't cry about it most of the time, we just laugh. That is our potential as Lovers, and as much as we are designed to do it that way, the fine print -- yes, the FINE PRINT OF LIFE -- is that we are mortal beings with a strange array of complexities, taking shape in the form of personality, physicality, sexuality, and *I*dentity.

In order to cross the void, and reach the heart-cave of another human being, you basically have to be the fucking bombest-ass heroic, persevering, keen and creative warrior, mother, and lover that has ever been known to mankind. Period.

Hollywood scandalizes this private adventure for us, making us think we need to look a certain way, talk a certain way, blah, blah, blah, just to be this caliber of Love Samurai. That is a damn shame. Wake up, little children, wake up! Each and every one of us may reach our dreams, we may be fulfilled entirely. We may be the Captains of our Heart!

Once you get to really start getting to know your SELF, you begin to have a sense of sympathy for all creatures, great and small. You have sympathy because you have recognized their plight is as your own, and you are affected by this to such a level that, out of the fire, rises something called COMPASSION.

Now you're really cooking! The heat is on because there is no where to hide. Every nuance of every glance of every insect is communication aimed directly at you. I think it is possible to vanish into thin air at this point. In fact, it might be preferable, but the irony is...now that we are really tasting the magnitude of this fantastic amusement operation we have started for ourselves some several millenia ago, it is rather difficult to extricate ourselves from it entirely. It is both an attachment thing and an occult thing.

So now begins the real work. Years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years and LIFETIMES of work. Disassembling the illusion with the care of a farmer, of a christ. Because, even though you may be stumbling on to the Eternity of it all, all of your fine brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers are still very much convinced of...everything. And it is One Love, so, who is to say they are wrong? Drive that nail in with a smile, baby, and pray for your Easter Sunday.

During this work, cycles will become apparent. First the very smallest cycles, like day to night. Then seasons. Then lifetimes, and by that, I mean the time it takes for us to make it from one major transition in life to the next. Seven year cycles? I don't know, some people are speed demons and others are stoners. They say that people like Ramana Maharashi were at such an advanced state of understanding that they could cycle through these lifetimes at will.

The underlying fuel to these cycles is, surprise, Love. Love in the mortal world is a two-headed beast. Sorry to break it to ya. It is what you WANT versus what IS. The more disparate and detached these two things are from each other, the more you are going to suffer.

The LOVE SECRET, then, is outrageously simple. Hahaha! You really just need to work it out! Your desire and vision of love is pretty much AWESOME. I know it is. And I also know that 'what IS' loves us with an unbearable depth of soul, so much more than we know!

So, if I'm saying anything at all, it is this: Go for it. Put 'em together! Make peace, surrender to what is because you KNOW it has been a product of your dreams that brought this all to you in the first place. Go for it with a new dream, securely concentrated in your heart! Go for it with Love. And go for it knowing that it is all coming to you.

God Bless you and look out!

Miracle Streak!

I have realized what I live for: The Daily Miracle. Yes, the more I make myself available to participate in these small moments, the more they happen to me.

For example, yesterday's miracle: As I am walking back from dinner the long way (to get exercise I guess), I end up approaching a parked car as two older ladies are getting out. Right as I pass, I realize the woman in the passenger side, the side I am on, is having a hard time pulling herself out of the car.

Instinctively, I approach to help, though I become suddenly worried that she will be insulted that I have assumed she needs help standing up. In her hands she is holding a coffee and a a banana, so I figure the best way I could help is by holding her stuff to give her a free hand. But as I reach to take her items, she hessitates. I think, "Oh great, she is worried I'm going to run off with her damn banana!"

At this point I am pretty out-of-my-comfort-zone, so I turn away, figuring I have made enough trouble. But she calls out to me, "Just grab my arm!" Ah!

I return, hold her by the forearm and we rather easily pivot her out of the car. She exclaims, "You are strong! Thank you!" I politely decline her compliment with a, "Naw, I just lean into it," and proceed on my way. Back into my dark thoughts and self-loathing.

But above the regular mental din, my mind keeps repeating those words of a stranger: "You are strong!"

How great is that?

Made a Miracle!

Sleep deprivation is sort of like a drug, and I can dig it. So I'd been up for nearly 30 hours. I'd stayed up all night to finish a job. It was done. I was feeling like celebrating, if only by walking among people on the boardwalk and feeling the intensity of their lives. My job was in Venice, I drove over to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

I caught a movie, bought a cool belt buckle. Drank more coffee! Drifted, looked at people, felt the heat, felt myself sweating. I smoked my last cigarette. Listened to a brilliant musician playing a harp-like guitar instrument. I hung out at the soup kitchen for a while, overlooking the ocean, chatted with homeless folks.

On my way back to my car, I hear my favorite variety of street performance: It's the one where a drummer has assembled a set of pots and pans, buckets and other items, and is freeeeeking ROCKING it. Well, I heard this dude's rhythm and I had to immediately j-walk just to get closer.

I could immediately tell that the few people hanging around were all on the same tip. We all knew this guy was the bomb-diggity shiz-nit. The rhythm was captivating. I danced on the street like a crazy man. I talked with this dude about church and how this is like how church should be.

When I look back to the drummer, I see that a four or five year old little boy has befriended him, acquired a set of drum sticks and is testing out the kit! The wise street performer shows the boy a couple of things and they begin playing together.

There is no way to describe this experience! This relationship between master and student, this pride that I felt in seeing the little boy instinctively understand the rhythm and play along. The joy I felt when he would get self-conscious only to hear everybody in the crowd say, "KEEP GOING!!" It was the most beautiful thing ever!

When they got tired, I approached. I gave the guru a five dollar bill for his trouble. Then I turned to the boy and gave him a single. Everybody said, "Ahh! Your FIRST DOLLAR as a musician!"

I don't think I need to explain the significance of such a moment. For every witness, for myself, and most profoundly for the developing consciousness of this young boy's talent -- it was perfect. We all played our parts perfectly. I felt myself to be a perfect tool for a divine agenda so much larger than myself. It made me feel humble and bigger than the entire universe at the same time.

I only wish my lady had been there to experience it with me...

Depressed when I am tired.

Working graveyard shifts -- darkness. My true love is broken. This product of my passion is the cage in which I now suffer. Beware, Dreamers!

All that you desire is to be had, actually, quite easily with patience and persistence. This is why they say, "Becareful what you wish for."

Karma is a law of nature. Though the details are, of course, wildly different, energetically every action begets an equal and opposite re-action. Love is the the variable. Where and how you spend your love is where you will be taxed.

Self-honesty is the meter by which you may moderate your behavior along the way, hopefully making your payment more bearable. But desire is desire is desire, and what we want often supercedes the reality of our love affairs.

You may escape these lessons for your entire life, if you desire. You will not go to a christian hell -- nay, you will realize that you chose to live an entire life IN hell. And then you will be gone.

All the Beautiful People

I drift as I walk among you, my fellow human beings...
You show me who I am, by inflection, by expression
Every broken moment and curt conversation...
Another lesson.

I no longer hide my own humanity -- I am free to be!
and speak as I feel about anything and everything:
alas, every word, a mile further from my true identity...
Another lesson.

Love is what I have, Love! Love! Just Love coming in!
Love is what I want to give, to all, my true Love...
But she is just like me, blessed with everything...
I have nothing to give.

Another lesson.