Keep Love in Your Heart

Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve had catchphrases: little words or phrases that I like to say over and over again, inside jokes that I can adapt to different situations, or just small reminders of something I believe in. 

I’ve never really “decided” to have a catchphrase—they sneak up on me.

At a certain point, I realized I had so many catchphrases that I couldn’t consciously remember them all. Months would go by, and then I’d find myself saying one that I had totally forgotten was a phrase I’d previously said constantly. Then, poof, that catchphrase was back in circulation.

I decided to start tracking my catchphrases, using a thread on Twitter to append them over time as I found them. That also meant that I could quote tweet them when relevant as a reply, which amused me to no end (if not others).

When I was seventeen or eighteen, I started saying the phrase “Keep Love in Your Heart.” I’m not sure why, or where it came from. If I had to guess, it probably had to do with taking a prodigious amount of drugs, or maybe something I’d read. 

Or—it just seemed true, clear, right, because it had been buried in my soul, a treasure to be uncovered in due time, a boon to aid me on the quest of my vow.

The weird thing about it is that, no matter how much Love practice and the brahmavihārās is an enormous part of my life and work now, it really wasn’t at the time. I was not a Buddhist. I was a hardcore atheist. I hadn’t done any lovingkindness meditation, let alone heard of it. And yet: it was clear to me. Keep Love In Your Heart. 

I remember one friend my Freshman year became irritated at me, because I kept saying this phrase over and over: “What does that even mean?” I couldn’t explain it, except by repeating it again to him. Wasn’t it obvious? 

Now, years later, I could explain what this phrase means, precisely and usefully: 

Love is a state of mind, a feeling, a mode of perception. We can cultivate thoughts and intentions of goodwill towards self, others, world, all beings. The mindstate of good will leads us to feelings of love, happiness, and joy in the heart, in the emotional body. There is a technique, a form of meditation, that we can practice, that is designed to help us practice and cultivate these thoughts and feelings—but it’s perfectly natural, occurring to all of us throughout our lives.

Perceptions of love blossom into acts of kindness. A loving mind, a loving heart, a kind life is a happy life for oneself and a good one for the world. Feel love in your heart, and keep it there. Return again and again to love. Radiate love constantly. 

If my friend desired, I could teach him this technique. I could lead him through a guided meditation. If difficult emotions, memories, or blocks came up, we could work with those. And with practice, he would be able to feel love in his heart. He would be able to Keep Love In His Heart.

“Keep Love in Your Heart”—just as true then as it is now. And what is that phrase if not the seed of everything else that has taken the shape of my life’s work thus far?

It’s hard to know for sure, but stories like this from my own life or others increasingly are making me lean towards believing that aspects of one’s vow are fated. 

There’s an inevitability to the way Love entered my life, like, as a friend of mine said, “you were obviously destined to spread love and joy.” 

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The art in this post was created by Sílvia Bastos, and is licensed under a CC BY 2.0 license. You can support her work on Patreon.