UNIVERSAL LOVE

Before I am born, before I am 5 years old, 49 years old, 84 years old, before I die

Before I am a student, before I am a teacher, before I am an artist, a shopkeeper, a doctor, a monk, a priest, a farmer, a scientist, a spiritual seeker

Before I am a Christian or a Buddhist
Before I am good or bad, right or wrong
Before I am a success or a failure
Before I am enlightened or unenlightened
Before I am a man or a woman

Before I am this body or that body
Before I am anybody

Before I am “the one who knows”
Before I am this or that

Before I am something
Before I am anything

I am.

This no-thing that allows every-thing
This wide open space,
Unlimited, incomprehensible,
In which every thought, sensation, feeling,
arises and subsides,
Like waves in the ocean,
Ever-present,
Unchanging.

I Am.

Being. Life itself.

This mystery. Creation, destruction.

Like a cloudburst in the vastness…

I am born. Absolute is relative. Time. Space.

Expansion. Contraction. I breathe in and out. I suckle my mother’s breast. I am 5 years old, 49 years old, 84 years old. I grow and learn. I am a student, teacher, artist, dancer, shopkeeper, doctor, mystic, monk, priest, farmer, scientist, adventurer, murderer, thief. I am a man. I am a woman. I am gay, straight, black, white, rich and poor. I am every mother, every father, every son, every daughter. I am a slave in ancient Rome. I am a child on the streets of Calcutta. I am the dying sun. The birth of a star.

I cannot ever be something without being nothing at all.
I cannot be nothing without being all there is.

This is crucifixion and resurrection.

This is love beyond understanding.

This is the heartbeat of the cosmos.

I am That.




- Jeff Foster

Jeff Foster (www.lifewithoutacentre.com)

“The best people are like water

They benefit all things,

And do not compete with them.

They settle in low places,

One with nature, one with Tao.”

— Tao Te Ching

(Source: sacredgraffiti, via wordslessspoken)