During every retreat with Amma, one of the highlights is the second-afternoon hour-long Question and Answer session. Questions range from the philosophical to the practical or the delightful and innocent.

This year’s first Q&A session, held outside on the lush green lawns of Pacific Lutheran College, where the Northwest Area retreat was held, was the opportunity for all sorts of questions—questions ranging from how Amma maintains connection with our ordinary world, to what to do for those who suffer not so much the hunger of the body as the hunger of the soul, to what kind of life there might be in the “other worlds” referred to in the Lokah chant (“May all the beings in all the worlds be happy.”) The very last question of the day was asked by a young man wearing a lightening-bolt emblazoned baseball cap, and prefacing his question with a declaration of love: he had met Amma two days before, and was admittedly “in love”. People laughed, recognizing fondly their own experiences.

Then the young man posed his question. First he read aloud from his retreat identification wristband, a quote from Amma.

Fill your heart with love and then express it in everything you do.

“Amma,” he said, “I really want to fill my heart with love. But I don’t know how.”

Applause, and rueful laughter: again, so many people in the gathering knew exactly what he meant. And so many, like him, sincerely wanted to know Amma’s answer.

“Is there a simple way to do it?” he asked.

Those who were watching Amma’s face while he posed his question must have doubted her claim to know no English, her persistence in relying on a translator—for her expressions throughout showed that she understood him perfectly. Nonetheless, she waited while Swamiji translated, giving everyone a chance to speculate: How can I fill my heart with love? Is there a simple way? What will she say?

Her answer was not about doing but about being.

Looking directly into his eyes and smiling, she said just this:

“You are love.”

After a small pause to let that sink in, she continued, with Swamiji translating: “The sweetness of love is already present.” Then a pause, followed by: “But there is a little too much salt. We can’t experience the love we already have because of the salt. Only by giving love can we experience love.”

So: love isn’t something to go out and get and stuff into our hearts till they are full. No, the filling of the heart is an accomplished fact—we are love. But we need to experience that truth ourselves. And how to do that? Not by getting but by giving—giving love.

It sounds so simple, but it is such a reversal of our ordinary assumptions. Imagine: what we want we already have, and to get it we need to give it!

This boggles the brain. The fantastic tool: the brain! The intellect! A fine tool, but not the only one—something people tend to forget. “If white sand and sugar are mixed together,” Amma said, elaborating on the limited effectiveness of the intellect, “an intelligent human being cannot separate out the sugar from the sand. But a tiny, insignificant ant without an intellect can easily glean the sugar from the mixture.”
Amma’s purpose was not to deride intellect nor to champion ignorance—there’s a place for using the brain: “Office. Intellect in the office,” Amma said. “At home, heart.”

The trouble with the intellect, Amma explained, is that it is more like scissors: it cuts things apart. The heart is more like a needle: it joins separate things together. This is what love does. “The sweetness of love is already there within you,” Amma said. “But too much interference from the intellect prevents us from fully experiencing this love.”

The questioner and the people seated on the grass there in front of Amma had been given a simple, clear answer. They burst into spontaneous applause.

Next comes putting the understanding into action. With constant contemplation and practice some day this would also become simple.

- Janani & Rachel Purcell

Tsunami Relief Efforts

Amma in the west

Meeting Amma

Events Calendar