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Look lovingly at an object

     … So what is one to do? When you look lovingly, what are you to do? The first thing: forget yourself. Forget yourself completely! Look at a flower and forget yourself completely. Let the flower be; you become completely absent. Feel the flower, and a deep love will flow from your consciousness toward the flower. And let your consciousness be filled with only one thought – how you can help this flower to flower more, to become more beautiful, to become more blissful. What can you do?

     It is not meaningful whether you can do or not; that is not relevant. The feeling of what you can do – this pain, this deep ache over what you can do to make this flower more beautiful, more alive, more flowering – is meaningful. Let this thought reverberate into your whole being. Let every fiber of your body and mind feel it. You will be transfixed in an ecstasy, and the flower will become a person.

     DO NOT GO ON TO ANOTHER OBJECT… You cannot go. If you are in a love relationship, you cannot go. If you love someone in this group, then you forget the whole crowd; only one face remains. Really, you do not see anyone else, you see only one face. All the others are there, but they are subliminal – just on the periphery of your consciousness. They are NOT. They are just shadows; only one face remains. If you love someone then only that face remains, so you cannot move.

     HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OBJECT – THE BLESSING. And when this is the case you are absent, not concerned with yourself at all, not selfish, not thinking in terms of your pleasure, your gratification. You have forgotten yourself completely, and you are just thinking in terms of the other. The other has become the center of your love; your consciousness is flowing toward the other. With deep compassion, with a deep feeling of love, you are thinking, ”What can I do to make the loved one blissful?” In this state, suddenly, – THE BLESSING. Suddenly, as a by-product, the blessing comes to you. Suddenly you become centered.

     This looks paradoxical because this sutra says to forget yourself completely, not to be self-centered, to move to the other completely. That whenever you are praying, pray for others – never for yourself, Otherwise the prayer is just useless.