When we think of desire, we tend to think of the “object” of our desires when, in fact, what we are engaged in is a dynamic reciprocity. Eros asks us to adjust our view of nature—that all things are not only equal to, but are alive and communicating with us. In that realization is our deliverance: an understanding that what is longing and what is longed for is one and the same.
The mother tongue of Eros speaks to reality as a process, an interactive movement, a verb before the rational mind grabs hold of it and makes everything into a static noun. Eros speaks to the magnet between, the push and pull of all life that is a process not unlike kissing where both poles are at once subject and object creating a mutual experience, a melting away of separation. What Eros asks of us is complete, unequivocal, and impeccable respect for everything.
To say yes is to drop the superiority where we hold back and stay cool so we do not warm and melt into our lives. Everything becomes significant, and we recognize the neglected beauty in what has seemed most ordinary or even repulsive, impure, or unskillful. We build our capacity to include and engage with all of it with unwavering attention. We are moved. We acknowledge we cannot remain unchanged—and we surrender to that.
