At the
peak of his destructive cycle glen was so consumed by addictions, that on any
given day saw the abusive consumption of cocaine, MDMA powder, special K,
ecstasy, crystal meth, marijuana, prescription drugs (anti-depressants,
sleeping pills) and alcohol.
A time
that saw him attempting and failing to out race police cars through the streets
of a Melbourne suburb one night, to
experiencing a near death experience while bleeding out from a glass injury
when holidaying overseas, a time of daily self-harming with the prospect of
suicide never being far out of reach.
However,
through the unconditional love of his parents, glen found himself backpacking
though South America where a collection of events and direct experiences with
the local people and Mother Earth herself, triggered the beginning stages of
what would later become known to him as the shattering and dissolving of the
false identity of the illusionary mind-made-self and its “poor me” story.
An
inner-journey that awakens the spirit of love, known as glen, to not being a
personal identity as such but rather a way of being, a way of simplicity, a way
of the heart, a way that embraces and dances with the perfection of the present
moment like no other.
You can
visit the author’s website at www.spiritoflove.com.au or his
Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thespiritoflovebook.
Title:
THE SPIRIT OF LOVE
Author: the spirit of love, known as glen
Publisher: Aurora House
Pages: 196
Genre: Spirituality/Poetry
Author: the spirit of love, known as glen
Publisher: Aurora House
Pages: 196
Genre: Spirituality/Poetry
The
Spirit of Love is a collection of short writings, poems and phrases written by a man
who took himself into some of the darkest and most destructive depths that one
can go with drug and alcohol addictions back in his early twenties.
The
collection of writings contained within The Spirit of Love are the
result of one man’s healing journey within himself and the deep questioning
that has arisen from within it.
With the
love, support and guidance of his dear friend Edwina, in helping to bring these
writings from the handwritten scribbles on paper to how they are presented
today, The Spirit of Love is a reminder that no matter how dark,
desperate, alone, helpless or trapped one believes they may be, the sheer
beauty of the perfection of life in its totality is silently and patiently
living within us all, and its love is so powerful that it can heal anything
that has come to pass.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
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Please
accept my deepest thanks and gratitude for creating a little slice of cyber
space to be here with you now, at My Bookish Pleasures, I am most honoured that
you have allowed this space to be filled with this interview.
Tell us a little about yourself.
This is a most interesting question to contemplate,
I am not much for words these days, as in silence is where one feels most at
home and from such a space there is not a lot that one can say about
oneself.
For at one time, when attached and identified with
the thinking mind’s perception of who it thinks it is, I answered such queries
with a little story about what I did or had done in the past, whether it be a
profession, job title, father, etc, however this is no longer the case, as
giving such an answer is not the true nature of who one is.
There contains a writing within the book The Spirit of Love that reflects what
has just been written above, in a simpler yet more honest way of answering the
request “Tell us a little about yourself”, it reads as follows:
Acceptance of being beneath
and beyond one’s thoughts
Humbly I disappear from view
Knowing I
never existed in the first place
What does this writing mean?
Or, where is it pointing too?
There is a question that may be of value to anyone
who is journeying deep within themselves along the awakening path, the question
being:
Who am I before I was given a name by my parents?
Journey back to one’s birthing into this world,
journey back to those first few days of being held by your mother and father,
journey back to being held there in the arms of love, without yet having a name
labelled upon you by someone else.
Your little heart beating away, those first few
vital breaths of air, the breath of life filling your tiny lungs, be there now,
feel it deeply within you.
You are vibrantly alive in these earliest moments
of life are you not?
You are
life in this moment are you not?
Did you come out of your mother’s womb shouting out
loud “Sally is who I am”, or “Hello world, you may call me Steven”.
At your birth and earliest moments of life, did you have or need a name or mental
identity to be who you are?
So, the question is, if I am not the name and
identity that I think I am, who am I?
Who am I before I was given a name by my parents?
What was your enlightened moment when you knew poetry was a good way to
get your messages across?
I am yet to experience one directly.
A little background in to the writings, Volume 1
was written around ten years ago, Volume 2 around eight years ago and Volume 3
around two years ago. At no point when
the volumes we’re being written was there any intention to have them published
into a book, so I wasn’t trying or attempting to get any messages across to
anyone else, except within oneself.
They are a collection of private writings, that
were being written as a way of exploring and releasing what was being
experienced within oneself, through that particular time of one’s inner
questioning and awakening journey. The “you”
that gets spoken of throughout the writings a lot is not directed towards
anyone else, even though there may be some that look or read this way to the
reader’s perception.
When the writings are read from this perspective,
they take on a new light in terms of the how and why they came into being, as
originally they were never meant for anyone else.
How did you get the idea for the book?
It was not long after finishing the third volume of
writings that I was sitting up one night at home and what I refer to as the
voice of the heart spoke through as an impulse feeling, asking that I was to
make an effort to have the writings published.
That was it, just to make an effort, so with the
beautiful help and support of Edwina I honoured and followed what the voice of
the heart had asked for.
We transferred the writings onto the computer in
their most basic of forms, and then I searched the internet for any publishing
companies that I felt might be open to such writings. I came across two
companies (Aurora House Publishing and Barker Deane Publishing) and posted off
a printed copy of the writings to each publisher.
It was around a couple of months later when we
received an email from Linda, of Aurora House Publishing, saying that she was
interested in publishing the writings and that was it.
The process from when I received the feeling
impulse to make an effort, to having the book published and released has all
happened within a year.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?
To be honest, there wasn’t one, as I was never
trying to write a book throughout the entire writing process.
The challenge came with the proofreading and
editing phase of the book, as both Edwina and I have spent very little time
looking at computer screens or being on computers over the last five years or
so.
What projects are you currently working on?
Just being and doing one’s best to remain as the
awareness of this moment right now, and dealing with the day to day
challenges/opportunities that life presents along the way.
Parenting and raising children in this ‘modern day’
way of living is a journey all unto itself and I wish to share with all the
beautiful spiritual beings out there that have taken on the role of parenting, “YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB”, let the
tears out when they want to come out, one is taking on a most sacred duty.
Although parenting is certainly with its own
challenges, there is one challenge/opportunity that Great Spirit has presented
to all, a challenge/opportunity that involves no one outside of oneself.
“To free oneself from the great imposter that lies
within, no greater task will be presented before you”.
What advice would you offer to new or aspiring poets?
Let go of the mental idea of trying or aspiring to
be a poet/writer, it will just get in the way and block the potential of what
is possible from within you.
Go inside your heart, feel it, open it up
completely to a force greater than yourself, yet it is within yourself, and see
what wants to come out, just write, no concern about correct spelling, no
concern over correct grammar, just let the hand start moving and don’t look
back at what has been written, keep writing. Anything that wants to come out
let it out, forget about what anyone else may think about it.
When Volume 1 was written, a great portion of the
writing came out as one big chunk of words.
I just kept letting the hand move forward, I didn’t stop the hand from
moving until it decided to stop for itself.
Volume 2 was very similar in nature to Volume 1, I
just let the hand move however it wanted to in the moment it was writing and
whatever words wanted to come and appear, came and appeared.
It wasn’t until much later (maybe years) on that I
actually went back into those first two volumes of writings and started to read
through them in detail. It was when doing this that the writings started to
separate themselves into their own forms.
I’d be reading them and one line would just jump
out all on its own, so I would take that one line and leave it as its own
writing. Just reading them until it felt
right to stop the writing at that point and let it be its own writing. This is
how most of the first two volumes came to be what they are today.
Volume 3, was written in a slightly different
manner than the first two volumes, around seven years of life experience had
passed between finishing the writings of Volume 2 and beginning writing Volume
3. During these seven years between the volumes, one had come into a more
peaceful acceptance of one’s true nature and the writings within Volume 3 came
in a more patient and relaxed manner than the first two volumes.
One night at home, I experienced a heart-centred
impulse to pick up a pen and writing book and begin to write. This time the writings came in a more
individual way, one by one, slower. Around eighteen months or so passed when
writing Volume 3; where as Volumes 1 and 2 were written within a couple of
months.
Thank you to My Bookish Pleasures for accepting
this interview, thank you to all the readers out there and too everyone for
being here on Mother Earth in this moment, love knows the way home.
One appears into this world in perfection
One lives through this world in perfection
One disappears beyond this world in perfection
One is such perfection
the spirit of love, known as glen
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