This love and that love

love
I don’t know why, but most mornings, at the start of my meditation, I have some small epiphany.
This morning was again one of those mornings.
I began my thoughts of loving kindness (metta) with my Mother and with Bhante Sujatha. These are both people who have shown me the purest examples of unconditional love in my lifetime.
Then the epiphany came.
My Mothers unconditional love had a very strong attachment, while Bhante Sujatha’s love is devoid of attachment. Yet I can see that both are pure and both are unconditional. There is no “this love” and “that love”, anymore than there is “you” or “me”.

As I continued in my loving kindness, a flock of geese began flying by and honking loudly as they flew.
Instead of their sound disturbing my meditation, I honked with them. I flew with them. I felt I was no more separate from these birds than I am from my breath.
We were simply living beings, talking and soaring through the sky. There is no separate bird in the sky and person on the ground. The sky is not theirs, nor is it mine. The earth is not mine nor is it theirs.

Now if this sounds as though I had some out-of-body experience, you would be mistaken. I was fully present and awake. The breath cooled my nostrils as I inhaled, and warmed them as I exhaled. Each breath was taken in lovingly and each was released lovingly.
This was only a few moments of connectedness that I was fortunate to observe. But without clinging (upadana) to it, I allowed each breath to simply be the breath. No “this breath” or “that breath”, no “this being” or “that being”, no “this love” or “that love”.

We are all connected so intimately and lovingly. May each of you experience this for yourself today, if only for a moment.
And may you be always well, happy and peaceful.