I didn't just randomly remember it either. I was reading Osho's Book of Woman and I seriously cannot read that book without thinking about you. It's great. Seriously. The material is great and furthermore his writing makes me joyful, inspired to apply it. His talks on sexuality are amazing, you must read them. His views on marriage are controversial, but if you accept them as idealistic and not try and filter them practically for our real world, I feel like he captures the essence of humanity and shows it in beauty. Also, I like how he cuts the bullshit. His language is simple and doesn't add flavor to the words, they are pure meaning. I wouldn't be able to read a book on love any other way :P. I recommend the read. I wish I had the capacity to type out all the passages I loved out here, but they are just too frequent. I did manage to choose a passage though. It's on his conception of what is really love, and it ends the chapter on Marriage.
"...So never misunderstand love for something else. If love is really love..."What do I mean when I say 'really love?' I Mean that just being in the presence of the other, you feel suddenly happy, just being together, you feel ecstatic, just the very presence of the other fulfills something deep in your heart...something starts singing in your heart, you fall into harmony. Just the very presence of the other helps you to be together. You become more individual, more centered, more grounded. Then it is love.
Love is not a passion, love is not an emotion. Love is a very deep understanding that somebody somehow completes you. Somebody makes you a full circle. The presence of the other enhances your presence. Love gives freedom to be yourself; it is not possessiveness. So, watch. Never think of sex as love, otherwise you will be deceived. Be alert, and when you start feeling with someone that just the presence, the pure presence - nothing else, nothing else is needed; you don't ask anything - just the presence, just as the other is, is enough to make you happy...something starts flowering within you, a thousand and one lotuses bloom...then you are in love, and then you can pass through all the difficulties that reality creates. Many anguishes, many anxieties - you will be able to pass all of them, and your love will be flowering more and more, because all those situations will become challenges. And your love, by overcoming them, will become more and more strong.
Love is eternity. If it is there, it goes on growing and growing. Love knows the beginning but does not know the end."
DUDE! Holy shit! This is just a tiny bit at the end of the Marriage chapter but I thought that was okay, how much can you really say about love without repeating yourself? It is incapturable. So I justified the shortness. This book is supposed to be about women already, and love is technically a digression (though its not). But, I'm feeling romantic. And amazingly, the next chapter is titled 'Love'. How great. Now I will go read it, and if I like any of the parts as much as the one I typed out, I may type out another few paragraphs. This is fun. I miss you.
Hey baby,
ReplyDeletei know blogging isn't your thing- because you have all that "flow" issue. ;) You don't have to post, but hey, i can still love what you do post! I think what you say about his views being idealistic and capturing the beauty and essence of humanity is a really important point. In the beginning of reading Freedom, I really felt like I was getting mindfucked- He said things that he countered himself, he made points that I wasn't sure how I would follow, his statements were sometimes extremely generalized. But that all happened only if I shook myself out of the flow he creates. And I realized that if I take the book as it is, see what he's doing, let it change me- as an individual- without worrying about the world and don't argue with it but see what he's trying to capture, it puts me at ease and I realize it is all so beautiful!
"'I Mean that just being in the presence of the other, you feel suddenly happy, just being together, you feel ecstatic, just the very presence of the other fulfills something deep in your heart...something starts singing in your heart, you fall into harmony. Just the very presence of the other helps you to be together. You become more individual, more centered, more grounded. Then it is love."
I totally know this feeling! :D :D Way back, before I was with you, I really thought that is what it would be like - just being with the person, you don't know why and you don't have to be doing anything special, you feel grounded and together, in sync. Then, when I was with Ikram it all went weird, by day 3 I was like- what? so now its just him cooking pasta everyday and then watching a movie and making out and going to sleep- this is so fucking boring. Which is exactly what I told him when I broke up with him. And then it happened for real- and it happened before you liked me back- I was so happy with just the feeling of being with you.
I read over this and I keep thinking- woah! How did he know! - like a fool.
I really really really like this bit though: "then you are in love, and then you can pass through all the difficulties that reality creates. Many anguishes, many anxieties - you will be able to pass all of them, and your love will be flowering more and more, because all those situations will become challenges. And your love, by overcoming them, will become more and more strong."
Its said so many times- and I was worried that in all these versions of love, you were never supposed to have these "challenges" or something- it seemed to untouched by reality. This makes me feel great about us.
Please please write me a little bit from what you read on Love- even if it doesn't apply to us! If its not too much of a hassle...and if its actually really cool.
And about presence- I wonder if it can mean your non-physical presence- I know its not all in the "present" if this is the case- but I feel your presence on the phone and on Skype or chat- and without you- in thinking of you. Its no where as brilliant- and yes, we don't get to enjoy our silent presence- plus we're so pressed for time and all that crap- but I think you're there....
or I'm probably just trying to justify. :/
I love you sweetheart. I miss you a lot.