Yoga and The Art of Working with Love

Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is hatred healed.
This is an ancient truth.
Many forget that we here must die.
For those who remember, hatred ends.
-- The Buddha, from the Dhammapada

During this month of February when we celebrate (perhaps in some cases, endure) Valentine’s Day, I’ve always returned to the theme of using love as a guiding force for our yoga practice. I’ve always found the above teaching from the Buddha to be a powerful and guiding force in my life, particularly the reminder that one day I too will die. Though I am just shy of turning 62 and my life has been full and wonderful in so many ways, I also realize that relative to the vastness of the Universe, my life is but a molecule. I hope it’s been a useful molecule though.

I know we all know inside our hearts that it’s true – hatred can only be healed by love. The difficult part is that it’s easy for us to forget. And so, I hope that any little reminders you can receive along the way will help you to come back to that realization from time to time.

As far as our own lives (and yoga practices) are concerned, we can try to discipline ourselves with hatred, but the more difficult and more fruitful path is to discipline ourselves towards enlightenment by using the power of love. Practically speaking, when I falter in my life, I try to “love myself” back onto the Path. Hopefully, you can try doing the same. And don’t think that because you can’t do a particular yoga pose that you are “less than.” You are already whole, and just practicing to stitch together remembrances of that. 

The Buddha also taught:

If you truly loved yourself, you would never harm another.

So, the by-product of using love as our ‘weapon-of-choice’ is that the beings outside of ourselves will not be harmed, if what the Buddha is saying here is true.

The teachings of the Indian Mystic and Spiritual Master, Meher Baba, also ring loudly in my mind. He said:

Love has to spring spontaneously from within... it cannot be forced on anyone, it can only be awakened in him through love itself.  Love is essentially self-communicative; those who do not have it catch it from those who have it.  True love is unconquerable and irresistible, and it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.  

I know we all have tendencies to want to control other folks. Meher Baba is suggesting here that that the best way for us to help others change is to control our own capabilities for being love, and letting that spill out. It will affect those around us in profound ways, if we let go of any desires that they must change in order to receive our love. They will change automatically if we drop our expectations that they change. For what J. Krishnamurti taught here is undoubtedly true:

What brings understanding is love. When your heart is full, then you will listen to the teacher, to the beggar, to the laughter of children, to the rainbow, and to the sorrow of man. Under every stone and leaf, that which is eternal exists.  

It’s so easy to forget the love that exists under every stone and leaf around us. And our job, as yogis, is to keep finding love in the most unexpected places. And in finding love in hidden spaces, our hearts can remain open and become fuller. And In such places, we can find it in our hearts to forgive others, even if we don’t fully understand their karmic baggage and the suffering they evoke with it. 

Life can beat us down to the point where we are so emotionally closed off that we literally cave in physically around our chest area. So as yogis, let the heart-opening yoga postures help you to keep your chest open, and may the result be that your heart can be restored to its natural fullness. Even if it’s just a short while, it will have an inward and outward effect.

If we practice faithfully, we may one day reach this ecstatic state that Rumi describes this way:

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.

You know in your heart what that sacred dream of yours is. When you’ve been touched by it, you come to see it is your life’s mission. And when you are moving in that space, you will experience true and divine love. 

Stay open, and as someone famously said: “dance like no one is looking.” If you can do that, truly, love will spring forth naturally and easily from within you, and truly, it will help heal the world.

May you be happy, …
May you be healthy, …
May your heart remain open, …
May your heart be full, …
May you take steps without feet, …
May love spring forth gracefully from within your being, …
May you dance like no one is looking, … 
For the benefit of ALL beings everywhere.

Aloha, with Metta,
Paul Keoni Chun

The wedding cake-topper on my husband, Ed, and my wedding cake. As Lin Manuel-Miranda said in his 2016 Tony Award acceptance speech:
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We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger
We rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love
Cannot be killed or swept aside
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