INNER GAME OF LOVE

Copyright 2014, Kevin Zucker

Eros

ros harmonizes chaos in a cosmic love that unites the universe. He hovers over gods and men, taming beasts and breaking the thunderbolts of Zeus. His golden arrows kindle sensual love; or they may be leaden and cold. I have felt the breath of this god fluttering near, encouraging me to drop the ego and merge with my beloved.
We might take time to consider just what the real object of our desire is and which kinds of pleasure offer lasting and deep satisfaction. Desire has its own intelligence.... Over time we will become clearer about what the soul is seeking. 1 We may feel polluted if we engage in adultery, but we defend ourselves, offer explanations, and hope for a cleaner future. The Greeks, like many other cultures aware that Eros is divine, believed that sexual misconduct has much deeper consequences. Transgressions in the erotic realm are not mere mistakes calling for resolutions and explanations; that are a form of sacrilege requiring a deep cleansing that goes beyond reason and psychology. 2 Pollution calls for an absolute cleansing. A halfhearted expression of remorse will not do, although remorse plays an important role in the psyche. In ancient times people restored their purity through fire, water cleansings, chasing scapegoats from the community, impressive ceremonies, and symbolic expulsion of the polluting element. The sense of invasion and the profound need for renewal that accompany pollution hint at its depth.3

1 Thomas Moore, The Soul of Sex, p. 274. 3 Thomas Moore, The Soul of Sex, p. 291.

2 Thomas Moore, The Soul of Sex, p. 293.

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INNER GAME OF LOVE

Copyright 2014, Kevin Zucker

n the modern mind, Eros has been reduced to one thing ('the erotic'), instead of the living presence of the god who unites hearts and minds as well as genitals. When you give someone a gentle hug for three long breaths, feeling that the other person is very real in your arms, Eros is there. When there is sex without love, without oneness, Eros is not there.
What, then, does it mean to live our ordinary, daily lives erotically? It doesnt mean to exaggerate the importance of sex; thats what happens when we repress Eros. It doesnt mean to abandon our spiritual and moral sensibilities. If they are based on the repression of Eros, which is another name for the life principle, then they are fundamentally inimical to a vital and vibrant way of life. It doesnt mean to create a sentimental philosophy that denies the dark and difficult aspects of everyday living. Eros is involved in our pain and struggle as much as it is in happy moments, and ultimately it makes a tougher and more demanding life than one based on intellect.4

According to the Greeks, God created androgynes, with four legs, four arms and two faces. The gods were displeased with these beings and Zeus split them in half. Now walking on two legs, our lives are a desperate search for the other and wholeness. People who incarnate together in groups help each other evolve. After many incarnations among the same soul companions, gathering knowledge, wisdom and purity, we must work on the mistakes of past lives to reach toward higher levels of love. Your family situation provides the means of evolution by confronting you with your unresolved karma. The people close to you need your love, patience, and forgiveness. We have many soulmates but may fail to recognize them. Only after becoming free of karma does the soul finally recognize her twin.
The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along. Rumi

4 Thomas Moore, The Soul of Sex, p. 294.

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INNER GAME OF LOVE

Copyright 2014, Kevin Zucker

umans exist on three planes: the body, soul and Nous or divine consciousness. Love is the energy that draws us on the search for completeness and a return to our original state union with God. People seek out beauty of spirit, mind, and body as they search for glimpses of the divine. Sexual love is the beginners path, but few of us move on toward the ultimate.
Society and culture and the conventional moralistic pattern often do not acknowledge the sacredness of sex but regard it as a superficial act. We are somehow indoctrinated into this view. We fail to see the sacredness of sex, the actual communication quality. Once someone begins to regard the sexual act as a frivolous thing, the whole approach toward sex becomes very cheap. The attitude of people toward each other becomes frivolous as well, as though they were using each other purely as property, purely as a functional element.5

On the physical plane, beauty is the visible attribute of the divine.

As you progress higher from the first dhyana state toward the fourth, each of these realms has less solid bodily substance than the one below. There is less and less solid body until eventually everything is based on the meditation body, the body connected with the highest trancelike state of absorption ... The higher you go the less ego-clinging there is. In the realm corresponding to the first or lowest of the four states, the way the gods communicate sexually is by means of sexual intercourse. In the second realm, sexual communication consists purely of holding hands. Beyond that, in the third realm, sexual relationship consists of smiling at teach other. And finally, in the highest realm, sexual communication is purely gazing at each other.6

Soul mates help each other toward the ultimate: physically, psychologically and spiritually complementing each other on all three tracks, ascending toward bliss. Their love is a divine madness, a flight to the highest stage of love.

5 Trungpa, Work Sex Money, p. 103 6 Trungpa, Work Sex Money, pp. 100-101 .

Eros |

INNER GAME OF LOVE

Copyright 2014, Kevin Zucker

Do things with your whole heart, with all the intensity you can find. Anything done halfheartedly never brings joy to life. It only brings misery, anxiety, torture, and tension, because whenever you do anything halfheartedly you are dividing yourself into two parts, and that is one of the greatest calamities that has happened to human beingsthey are all split. The misery in the world is not surprising; it is a natural outcome of living halfheartedly, doing everything only with one part of our being while the other part is resisting, opposing, fighting. And whatever you do with half of your being is going to bring you repentance, misery, and a feeling that perhaps the other part that was not participating was right. If you had followed the other part, the result would have been the same. It is not a question of which part you follow, it is a question of whether you go totally into it or not. To be total in your action brings joy. 7

7 Osho, The Book of Understanding, p. 20.

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