All in

Love is

my funeral pyre

Where I have laid my living body.

All the false notions

of myself

That once caused fear, pain,

Have turned to ash as I neared God.

Hafiz

_______________________

It is an odd thing

The more one invests in one’s self

The more one loses one’s self

Jesus warned us

And Hafiz too

And Buddha three

This thing called self can be a problem

All those efforts to define

To protect

To satisfy and pleasure

Can leave us struggling

Angry

Fearful

And sad

Unsure of our worth

Or too sure of our worth

Unable to draw boundaries

Or isolated behind emotional walls of our own making

Unless

Unless

This search for self takes place

In the context of Love

In the context of God (who is love)

It is the divine paradox

That the more we let go of the self and seek God

The more we find our self

The more we open ourselves to Love, and the less we seek to protect and exclude

The freer we are from fear and hate

The more we give the more we get

The more we die, the more we find life