This is a poem I wrote for my teacher, David Truman, when I first met him, 6 years ago. He taught me to love, to be myself, and to see the goodness in others. Thank you, David. Forever, I am much obliged to you.

To David Truman

I know a man
who makes flowers grow,
whose hands create warmth
even in snow.

He works in the garden,
planting young seeds
and with gentle caring
he dresses and feeds.

I know a man
whose music is sweet,
he brings joy to my heart
and dance to my feet.

I know a man
who beats on love's drums.
I've heard his song
and I have come.

I know a man
too lovely for me,
but he’s patient and gentle
so our friendship can be.

I love a man
and I'm glad that I do.
I love a good man
and that good man is you.

My teacher, and closest intimate, David Truman, is hardly known by anybody. And he’s not similar to anything that anyone would usually recognize as a teacher. He’s not an ascended master, he’s not like a traditional guru of any kind.

He's not any different than an ordinary person. He is what EVERY ordinary person feels themselves to be in their heart, but is too afraid to live. He does the things that everybody REALLY WANTS to do. He loves people openly, uninhibitedly, passionately, deeply, intimately, honestly. He speaks the truth. He creates abundantly. He is every man. He is every human being, as they dream to be in their heart.

That is why I say, he is not like a Guru, not in the usual sense. He is a human being, who is actually BEING a human being. And that is a rare thing. But it is extremely beautiful.

His relationship with his students is incredibly personal. He wants to be a friend, and support people’s soul nature. He wants to support ALL that people are. He wants people to know that their feelings are okay, their sensitivity is okay, their passion is okay, their strength is okay. All that people are, he wants to validate. And all that people are, he wants to relate to. He wants to relate to people, he wants a relationship with people.

The one thing that could be considered esoteric about my teacher is that he has an incredibly intimate, intense, and beautiful relationship with the Goddess. He and the Goddess are together every day. He is married to Her. They work together on trying to help the humanity, and help Amadon’s friends. She helps him and comforts him. He gives her his heart, his all.

But even that is not really esoteric. The Goddess wants a personal relationship with everybody. And that is something that She and he are trying to teach people.

Since I have been with David, She and I have developed our own relationship a great deal, to the point where She is always with me now, too. And I am feeling, more and more, like I AM Her. We are not separate. And I feel Her love for everybody, and speak Her words to everybody, and that is deeply personal. It is in no way separate from who I am, because who I am IS Her, and what I really feel are actually Her feelings (that is, if I am not being reactive or egotistical).

What I have felt is that she REALLY LOVES every single person, SO personally, SO passionately, SO unconditionally, and doggedly. The Goddess’ feelings are completely devoted. She is absolutely DEVOTED, to every single one. Because She knows who you are.

I want to tell you all about David because every day, when I feel the way he lives, my soul is so happy, so healed, so inspired. We grow up in a world where most people can’t get along; there’s a 50% divorce rate (in this country anyway), countries are warring against each other for the sake of greed, people constantly hurt each other emotionally to protect themselves. All of these things are SO ugly, and the heart is so broken by them. And, conversely when you live in an environment, where somebody is constantly loving people, with so much vulnerability, so little self-protection, so much emotion, so much dedication, so much care and passion and uninhibited devotion, that really heals the heart. I can’t explain this very well in words, except maybe to say, if you’ve ever had the experience of looking at something REALLY beautiful, and feeling your heart fill up, and somehow your feeling about the world and everything becomes more beautiful, you’ve experience maybe 0.0002% of what I’m talking about. The ongoingness of real love, in the context of real relationships goes much deeper.

David inspires me to love. Living around David fans the flame of my heart’s desire to serve and love people SO much. I want so much for people to be themselves, I want so much for people to experience the reality of who they are. I want so much for everyone to wake up and love one another, SERIOUSLY, with commitment, with heartfelt passion and desire and self-sacrifice. I want people to stop making excuses as to why they are not. I am, and when I got started I had been being self-centered ego. That didn’t stop me from getting started. It just goes to show! There is no preparation you can do for love. Because the fact is, you will always be a self-centered ego, as long as you’re not loving. You can’t start loving until you actually start loving.

When I first met David I was incredibly dissatisfied with life as the world offers it, because it felt SO small. I felt that all the friendships I had were way to small to be able to even breath in. I loved my friends, and they loved me, but none of us knew how to love freely, and honestly. I was also incredibly mental, and socially scared, and self-centered, and moody.

I had my good qualities; the main one being that I was dogged. And that’s why, when I met David, and fell completely in love with him, as a human being, I wouldn’t give up on it. My ego yelled blue murder against what my heart required of me when I met him. My heart wanted to give itself to him entirely, love him, learn from him, accept his guidance, and help him with the work that he has to do, which is to help people see who they are, and feel secure about that, and BE that for each other. My ego, on the other hand, wanted to kick and scream, make accusations against him and everything he said, fear him, avoid him, etc. Luckily, I was dogged ENOUGH in my heart’s desire to really get past the egoic lion that stands at the gate of love, and truthfulness.

All I had going for me at the time was the fact that I loved him, and couldn’t think of anything else. That caused me to do the work needed to get past my ego.

But, while it was definitely useful, my focus on him was so intense that he encouraged me very often to broaden out, to love more people, personally, and passionately. He saw that that was needed. Obviously the fact of my total focus on him, to the relative exclusion of others, showed a certain selfish orientation. He was the person I really wanted, and who could offer me the relationship and the love that I really wanted, and who could bring out the best in me. These things were all wonderful. And there is no harm in wanting those things. But when it comes to love… love is much much more than that.

As I have broadened out in my love, and begun to form personal and honest relationships with more people, I found that it actually has not taken anything away from my focus and love for him. It has actually made it more intense. But it has ceased to be EXCLUSIVE. That is what he had a problem with. And actually, I also had a problem with it; just as everybody has a problem with the things in their lives that are wrong. Now, I see people. I see my friends. And I love my friends. And more and more, my heart is becoming theirs.

These are just things I wanted to share with you.

Love,

Mana
P.S. If you want to see David's profile here on Zaadz, here is a link to it: http://loveishere.zaadz.com/

Beloved ones, God did not create beings who need to be  punished. None of you are of the nature that you need to be punished. You may act and think, at times, as if you were,  but you are not.

When you relate to one another, remember who each other are. Remember, that each person is good, truly good. Do not act as if they TRULY are the person who would act in ways that are reprehensible, for that is not who they are. Sometimes, when people do things that you don't like, or which hurt you, you want to punish them, or hurt them, you are angry. You want them to get what they deserve. But ask yourself this: WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Are you talking about the child of God that that person is? No. You cannot be, for God did not create children who are bad. My children are perfect. And ALL are God’s children.

When I look at people, and see them doing things that hurt others, and themselves, I still know who each one is. I still see your vulnerable hearts. I still see the one who needs love, who needs to be seen, to be known. You are a human being, you are innocent. I do not ever become convinced that you are the one who you are acting like. That is not you. That is the result of false ideas that you have believed, about yourself, about others, which cause you to act in strange and fearful ways.

So, remember who people really are. Remember that each one around you is like yourself, with all the same heart needs, and with all the same fear that causes them to act in strange ways, that they DO NOT actually agree with. See that there is really no difference, and forgive.

What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is not saying that it is okay that a person should act bad. Forgiveness is not overlooking. Forgiveness is seeing who the person is no matter what they do. Forgiveness is to not form a negative idea of who a person IS based on how they act, but to remember that they are a child of God, a magnificent person, a vulnerable heart, a human being. Forgiveness is to say, "I KNOW YOU. In spite of all that you have done that suggests that you are of bad nature, I know that you are a child of God, a heart full of love and feeling. I see you, through all that you do. I continue to see you, for who you are, and I continue to love you AS YOU ARE, no matter how you are acting. When you act differently than a child of God, than a sensitive, loving, feeling heart, I know that that is not you, but the result of false fears and ideas that are causing you to act in unnatural ways." And furthermore, forgiveness says, "I will help you to let go of your ideas, so that you do not fear me, others, God, the world, or yourself; so that you are able to relax, and be who you are, and not be burdened by this false identity, which alienates you from your fellow man, from God, and from your true feelings." This is forgiveness.

I do not mean that you should only memorize the above statements, but that you should KNOW these things. It is a feeling, a feeling.

Forgive, my dear ones, forgive one another. This is the only way to stay in touch with reality. For when you bear grudges you forget the truth of who people are, who God is, and who you are. For example, if you forget who people are, and think that they are bad, you relate to people as being something that they are not. Then you are living in a false world, a world of false entities. You are relating to the world as something that it is not. My dear ones, this is a very confusing and depressing state to be in.

The same is true of God. If you cannot forgive, you cannot see who God really is.  You need to forgive God for the things that you think God is, and for the things that you think God has done to you, so that you can see who God really is, and have a true relationship with God.

So you see, dear ones, you need to forgive. And, as I said, when I say forgive, I don’t mean that you should forgive a bad world for being bad, I mean that you should forgive a good world, by seeing that it is truly good. By forgive, I mean SEE. See the truth of who people truly are. Let go of your personal hurt, so that you can see who people truly are. Then you can forgive.

If you hang onto your personal hurt you may want to take revenge on people, or you may relate to them as if they are bad, in your anger. When you do that, you are convincing people, further, of the false ideas they already have about who they are. BY relating to them as if they were bad, you are agreeing with who they THINK they are. And by doing so, you are creating a miserable world for yourself, and everybody, to live in. If you reinforce the goodness in people, the heart sensitivity in people, the divine, loving nature in people, then you will live in a better world. The world around you will be happier, and eventually, the whole world will be happier.

You get to have the world that you relate to my dear ones. If you relate to what you perceive to be a bad world, you bring out badness, wherever it can be brought out. If you relate to the true goodness of all, you bring out that goodness, wherever people are willing.

Therefore, loved ones, forgive, and see.

Love is for the beloved. It is being willing to transcend oneself for the sake of another. It is SEEING another person for who they are, and being willing to work your butt off to help them become who they are. Love is feeling heartbreak for the myriad beings who are suffering all over the world, as well as right next door, or in your own house. Love is crying for those. Love is wanting to fix the broken hearts. There is no self in love.

"The lover is but a dead thing, the beloved is all that lives."  - Rumi

Love is not “ordinary” in the sense that we generally understand the word “ordinary.” Love is greater than anything that this world has to offer. What this world calls love, for the most part, is not enough to keep any heart feeling alive and happy.

My dear ones, the point of your entire existence is to love. Learn to love, transcend yourselves for the sake of love, for the sake of others. That is the whole reason that you are here, to love. Many people go through their whole lives pursuing other things. When they die they are unfulfilled. No person can be fulfilled until they learn to truly love, to love from the heart, without self-protection, without fear.

Love means that you are aware of others around you, that you care about them from the depths of your heart, with all the emotion and attention that you feel for yourself and your own life. Love means that the spiritual emotional wellbeing of others means everything to you, and you will commit your being and your life to enriching the lives of others, to uplifting their spirits, to reminding them of who they are, to helping them let go of false ideas, and fears, and to love.

This may seem out of reach my dear ones. You may be thinking, “That’s far ahead of where I am. I’m just a beginner in the spiritual path. I’m not saint.” You may then think that you are invalid. My dear ones, you need to understand, that you learn to love by loving. And since there is no other purpose to being here, on this planet, you may as well start now.

It is true that love takes learning to love. It is true, that you will have to go through many cycles of learning what you are doing that is unloving, and adjusting to be more loving. You see, this part of the love itself, to learn, to adjust, to transcend yourself.

There may be many things that you do now that you call love, but you will come to find out that they are not done out of love, but out of fear or self-protection. Love requires that when you see that truth, you face it with courage, and adjust. The ego requires that when you see that fact you collapse, feel terribly ashamed, and fail to make the adjustment, fail to love, because you are too busy feeling bad about yourself. Or else, ego will require you to deny it, or become defensive. Either way, love will not be fulfilled.

Love will be fulfilled when you are willing to be honest. Yes, this is one of the first requirements for love: Self-honesty. When you are self-honest it is because you hold something, or someone, as being more important than defending your bad habits or negative beliefs. When people are willing to look honestly at themselves it is almost always for love’s sake.

So, my dear ones, look around you, at your beloved ones, your friends, your family, whoever is most near to you, and love them. Learn from them what you are doing what is unloving, either by asking them, or by paying attention to their responses to what you are doing. Learn to love them better. Commit yourselves to this task of loving, truly loving.

And also, look at those who you do not consider your friends, and love them too, despite everything that causes you to feel distant from them, or angry or unhappy with them. Love them despite these things. See past their negative attributes and bad habits to the soul that they are, and love that soul, and pray for their release from the bad habits that have bothered you and hurt you for so long.

My dear ones, this is love. Love is to see. Love is to see who people are, and who God is, who God REALLY is, and who people REALLY are, and to love them. And to see what everything really is, and to love everything, as it really is. And also, love is to see what people are going through, and to care, and to respond honestly, without letting self-protective or fearful feelings get in the way.

This is love. Love is to transcend oneself for others. Love is to adjust for others. Love is to see others, and love them. And by means of true love, others feel less and less like others. You come to feel like every man and woman, and God, and the whole earth is your own, your own child, brother, sister. And then, further, you come to feel that these ARE you, part of your own body, your own soul. Your desires are not separate from those of God, or from the true heart’s desires of others. When this comes to be, you will have found inner peace, and there will no longer be any need for struggle.