Creating Heaven on Earth

 

Rumi, the Sufi mystic wrote, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Reaching out in love is our greatest calling, and when we do, we create heaven on earth wherever we are.

Martin Rutte has asked hundreds of people to tell him about a time they experienced heaven on earth. He writes that no one ever asked him what he means. Why? He believes that like love, peace and joy it’s hard wired into us. We don’t have to ask, we know what it is. It isn’t necessary to have an earth shattering event to experience heaven on earth. Every day we see acts of love and kindness being expressed all around us but we need to slow down and be present with the moment. For example, years ago my wife and I were in a grocery store as we were in the checkout line I realized I had for gotten my wallet, I whispered to her, “I can’t pay for these I don’t have my wallet.” The woman in front of us overheard and said, “That’s ok I’ll pay for them.” In that instant I felt so blessed at a total stranger’s act of kindness. As it turned out my wife had her wallet but nothing could diminish the beauty of the moment.

Ernest Holmes wrote, “If we make ourselves receptive to the idea of love, we become loveable, to the degree we embody love, we are love. I think he is speaking about unconditional love. Love where we have no expectation of getting anything back, pure simple love free of all conditions. The kind of love we all long for and can receive when we begin to practice it.

Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist teacher writes about his father’s death. His father was a difficult person but Jack stayed with him through his passage into death. They talked and held hands until his father slipped into his next experience. Kornfield wrote, “Perhaps this is the best we can do; to help when we can, to witness each other with kindness, to offer our presence, to show the trust we have in life. Spiritual life is not about knowing much, but about loving much.” Sounds like a great description of heaven on earth to me.