The heart is made up of four chambers and the kanji for “heart” is a schematic for it. What I love about the script is the openness, the way it rolls off the brush to sit on the paper, an upright bowl ready to hold anything. In our mindfulness courses, I describe a 3-stage breathing meditation that begins with allowing everything in the sense perceptions to fall into awareness, into a bowl. Let it all drop into the well of awareness without judgment of or preferences for it. A spacious containing of all that is present in that in- and out-breath.
When we let the entirety of our experience sit in the bowl of awareness, we begin to develop an understanding of what these perceptions, experiences are. Usually though, we tend to push it away at first twinge or consume it ravenously at first delight with barely a sense of what it was. Letting all the elements of our experience show themselves, their true nature, is an invitation to intimacy.
This is love.
Simple, bare awareness that is already open, accepting, and encompassing.
Love is the first of the Four Divine Abodes or the Four Immeasurable Minds. It is known as maitri or metta. It is not sentimental or cloying. It is an honest, courageous willingness to be open (vulnerable) to the whole tidal cycle of our life – moment by moment.
Favourite books on metta:
Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg
Eight Mindfulness Steps to Happiness by Bhante Gunaratana
Happiness by Mathieu Ricard
108zenbooks 
Exquisite post! I will print this out and have this be my practice this week… sitting in the bowl of awareness. Love that! Such beauty in everything you said here. Thank you for the View!
Totally love you!
Love you too! 🙂
I’m going to reprint some of this on my post tomorrow with a link to your blog! Thanks!
Reblogged this on MindMindful and commented:
Love ………. who can get enough? I really l o v e this ‘take’ on it ……
Take it all! 😀
Great answer! Thanks……….. I enjoy your blog.
This is beautiful – it made my day!
😀 + ❤
<3…Thank You!
Nice to read you here again, Leslie! 😀
love-ly post on the essential meaning of love and a lovely practice to explore. love how the script mirrors the heart and expresses that openness.
Thanks for the shout out! 🙂
Oh, this post is lovely, and so very resonant for me right now. I have been really been noticing my experience around love, giving and receiving… my experience of sacred space and openness. Creating a nest.
I have been doing a daily metta practice since the beginning of the year… and am hoping to dedicate part of the year to each of the four abodes. This idea came to me suddenly, without premeditation, and continues to feel very alive and rich for me. Your post has added elegantly to the pot… thank you, a thousand bows.
Namaste,
Stacy
Welcome, Stacy! You have a beautiful website. A year long metta practice is a wonderful commitment. Enjoy!