Robert Holden - Finding Love Everywhere: 67 1/2 Wisdom Poems and Meditations

ALSO BY ROBERT HOLDEN

Life Loves You (with Louise Hay)
Holy Shift!
Loveability
Shift Happens!
Authentic Success
Be Happy
Happiness NOW!

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Copyright 2020 by Robert Holden

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com

Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au

Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk

Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Cover design: Amy Grigoriou

Interior design: Bryn Starr Best

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible 2009 by Zondervan.

Rumi and Hafiz quotes are used with permission by Daniel Ladinsky.

Quotes from A Course in Miracles, copyright 1992, 1999, 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, 448 Ignacio Blvd., #306, Novato, CA 94949, , used with permission.

God spoke today in flowers is used with permission by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-5880-0

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-4019-5906-7

e-book ISBN: 978-1-4019-5881-7

To my parents,
Sally and Alex Holden

And to everyone
whose work is
loving the
world.

What brings your eyes to any image, to a page, and your ears to sounds? Or your hands to touch? It is really a beautiful wanting: the processing of life and hopes the best we can. In a way, all we do is try to mount a horse (a Pegasus) that will take us higher into the sky (or deeper within) where beauty is so apparent we can stop for a while and rest, and be renewed in awe and thanks.

I doubt very much one will ever come to find... love everywhere if they are in a rush. What one can see from a speeding car, especially if they are driving it, and what one can see walking are worlds apart. And a mad rush can surely occur, be going on, if one is just sitting; that is, the mind can be in a rabid state overwhelmed by misunderstood relationships, or fear. And our relationships can surely include places and things, past events and anxieties about the future.

Once someone asked me if I knew of a Rumi poem that was worthy of a New Years contemplation and resolution. And I then recited them this one from my book The Purity of Desire: 100 Poems of Rumi. It goes:

Being in a hurry throws the key on the ground to a door
I want you to enter.
If you read my words slowly and out loud, they will
help to pick the lock.

Yes, we want to pick the lock on our vision and on our heart so that we see and feel, receive and give more. Our every cell craves freedom. And what do we want to enter: marriages, friendships, and valued commitments more deeply; and to be able to immerse more in our work, our play, and our surroundings, and benefit from efforts. I put in some geraniums the other day, and every time I walk by them they kiss me. What a deal! Gardening, the real gardening, is refinement, cultivation, unearthing the Self, compassion, the joythe kingdom of heavenwithin.

All is part of a swaying, a movement, a dance within some inconceivable (to most) divine luminous current or breeze. Fine for the leaf floating in the middle of a rushing river, and now even going over a waterfall, to think: I might travel upstream for a while where things seemed less intense, and my destiny not so precarious. A sweet delusion would that then not be? There is really a physics, a metaphysics to everything. One can put in motion actions that begetdesiredreactions. You can set yourself up to where not only a whole blooming orchard is throwing you smooches, but all the mountains, the rivers and fields, the stars, and all in the whole universe. In other words: Finding Love Everywhere.

I have been working with The Dhammapada lately for a project, offering a modern-day version of it. Some scholars might say The Dhammapada is the essence of Buddhism in words; it is 423 short verses that date back to the 5th century B.C. And if I were to distill Buddhism, and most all esoteric paths, into just four words they would be:

Sit until you know.

It does seem fair to say that if Buddha was asked how he became enlightened, he could have said, I sat until I Knew.

Sitting until you know. That is really the Herculean feat of all feats. And there is a marvelousand vitalhumbling in that process, and an exquisite control/balance gained, that then allows God to fit into your hand, or glance, and be imparted. Otherwise, one cannot truly bless and deeply change the life of others. Though of course one can still do some fantastic good.

To repeat a little differently, the above paragraph, that I feel is at the heart of all transformation: sitting, contemplation. I think it is a very, very rare one who finds any great truths about life (or their self) and can share that treasure with others unless they have let solitude remove some of the veils from their eyes, and have given extraordinary service to humanityor to our wondrous Earth.

And in that sacred knowing, in those greater truths, what does one experience? I think, some great and profound, blessed-cherished independence! A magnificent, radiant sovereignty. An eternal coronation of the soulof selfby Self.

The sun wants nothing more than to be what it already is and could be satisfied with that for eternity. And look how beautiful a moon can be to share in that. Like the wise student, around the true teacher.

There is a precious sphere ever rising on a pristine world within, and ever rising in all space, if we can really, really be present. If we can accept and find the grace to see. And as Hafiz says in one of my books:

It rises,
a glorious sun,
if one can sit quiet long enough.
Seeing it, one feels, I now have everything,
everything I could
ever want.

Yes, yes, and yes: Gods Beauty is that great, that astounding: that seeing Him, She, It... can make you completely satisfied. Just the miraculousnessthe pure magic of existenceas perhaps a true scientist might who is not even a so-called spiritual-oriented person. But really, all is the Holy Spirit... manifestingthough incognito to most.

And I think we need everything. To feel an overwhelming treasure in our heart or handand the ecstatic gratitude that comes with that, or... a divine peace. Oneness. Wholeness.