Working from the heart

Remy was standing outside the hospital and just like the first time we met, I felt the pull of his spirit. A spirit who loves endlessly, fully, generously, sometimes addictively...but who is always looking for more opportunities to love. In a situation where he is literally surrounded by insanity I find it amazing that he has found hope and friendship, and is constantly reaching out to those around him in the mental hospital to disconnect them from their minds, and bring them into some aspect of the real world.

This time we met we spent a short time together having coffee; all the baristas know him and he proudly showed me the Costa t-shirt one of the staff has gifted to him! I could see that his heart was back in the game. His head, as ever bright and articulate, is still clouded by confusing circumstances. There is a deep desire within him to find real peace, a direction and a destination, but it is a desire that is aggitated by the numerous practical and medical questions he is facing.

It is clear that it is not my purpose to provide money, a job, a place to stay. I am here because he trusts me, he knows I am writing this and he knows that what I have seen in him is his true self. It is necessary to drop fear, drop agenda, drop personal interest and to just stay open-hearted, offering to listen with love. I hope that what I hear will in some way reflect back at him and he will see it is the same perfect love in play, because in fact, we are no different.

The end of the A line

This is about seeing anger, letting it play its role and letting it go without judgement.

As I listened once again to the angry story of my friend from the street, now in a central London mental hospital, the destructive quality of his repetitive belief in a quite probably fabricated situation came home to me. I stopped him, again, and again, and again.

I know stopping him isn't going to cure the schizophrenia but it is going to disallow it from being what I see in him. As I have said before, I don't see the story, its truths or lies or where its landed him, as being what frames how I came to know this man. I see that it is a shared compassion, a shared connection with something beyond all the ideas. It is a deep calm gentle space, but in order to get to that space anger has a role to play.

It can burn off the illusion, and can quiet the ego; its impact can be forceful enough to fight with what is dark and untrue. This is the anger I am learning about, but I also see that there is an end to any anger, shortly after it has come into play. And in the wake of anger, it is important to reconnect with love and remember the deep calm gentle space that lies beyond it. That is real.