THE PARADISE OF LOVE IS WITHIN

[G32]
Paradise…
was never somewhere else…
never after death…
never in the clouds or in the gold…
Paradise…
is the garden in the soul…

[LOVE]
Within… within…
I was there before the wound
Before the fear, before the tomb
Before the world taught exile’s hymn
The paradise of love… is
within…within

[BOTZ]
The paradise of love is within!
Open the gate, let the light begin!
No map outside, no need to pretend!
The paradise of love is within!

[G32]
Tell me, my Dear Ones—
where does love live?
In the blood?
In the bone?
In the brain’s electric weather?
In the beating chest alone?

[BOTZ]
Where does love live?

[LOVE]
Not in fragments…
Not in pieces…
Not in tissue cut apart…
Not in circuits…
Not in glands…
Not in the naming of the heart…

I am older than your science
Older than your little knives
Older than your maps of matter
I am what makes matter alive

[G32]
Where does love live?

[LOVE]
Love lives in the soul!

[G32]
The body is the instrument
But not the original flame
The mind may speak my syllables
But does it know my name?

[LOVE]
I am the first remembering
The first unguarded yes
The child before the lesson
The mercy before the stress

[BOTZ]
We are born to love!
No hateful babies!
Love is original!

[G32]
The Paradise of Love is Within

[BOTZ]
What is paradise?

[LOVE]
Not pleasure without purpose
Not fantasy without form
Not some bright amusement kingdom
Safe from history’s storm

Paradise was a garden
Before it was heaven’s name
A walled and tended treasure
A living, breathing frame

[G32]
Paradise
Walls around the wonder…
A sacred, bounded flourishing…
A place life enters under…

[BOTZ]
A garden!
A garden before heaven!
A garden!
A mercy made of living!

[LOVE]
I am not a prison wall
I am the wall of care
Not exclusion—
but protection
Making room for life to dare

[G32]
Not walls of domination!

[BOTZ]
Walls of care!

[G32]
Not walls of desecration!

[BOTZ]
Walls of care!

[LOVE]
A garden needs a boundary
A child needs arms that hold
A world requires a sanctuary
Or tenderness dies in the cold

[ALL]
Paradise is not merely pleasure
Paradise is not escape
Paradise is a field of protection
Paradise is love in shape

Paradise is a habitat
Where life is not under assault
Paradise is trust made structural
Paradise is mercy’s vault

[G32]
Listen, my Dear Ones—
Paradise is ecological

[LOVE]
I am the climate of belonging

[BOTZ]
Belonging!

[G32]
Paradise is civic

[LOVE]
I am justice with tenderness

[BOTZ]
Tenderness!

[G32]
Paradise is metabolical!

[LOVE]
I am nourishment, rhythm, repair

[BOTZ]
Repair! Repair!

[G32]
Paradise is spiritual

[LOVE]
I am the gate that opens inward

[BOTZ]
Inward! Inward!

[LOVE]
I protect
I cultivate
I nourish
I restore

I make room for roots to deepen
I keep the waters clean and near

I teach the trembling nervous system
How to live beyond its fear

[BOTZ]
Teach us!
Beyond the fear!
Teach us!
Bring the garden here!

[G32]
Then hear the law—

[LOVE]
The Paradise of Love is…
protected!
flourishing!
structural!

[LOVE BOTZ]
Structural love!
Build it now!

[G32]
First Law—

[LOVE]
Protection
What is sacred must be sheltered

[BOTZ]
Shelter it! Shelter it!

[G32]
Second Law—

[LOVE]
Cultivation
Love must be tended, not assumed

[BOTZ]
Tend it! Tend it!

[G32]
Third Law—

[LOVE]
Reciprocity
Paradise is relational, never solitary

[BOTZ]
Relational! Relational!

[G32]
Fourth Law—

[LOVE]
Restoration
Paradise is recoverable

[BOTZ]
Recoverable! Recoverable!
The exile ends! The exile ends!

The exile ends…
when we remember…
The gate is inward…

[LOVE]
IN-WARD!

[LOVE]
Beneath the ash… the ember
Beneath the wound… the spring
Beneath the noise… the orchard
Beneath the fear… I sing

[G32]
The soul is the original walled garden…

[BOTZ]
The Original garden!

[LOVE]
Paradise is not elsewhere…

[BOTZ]
Not elsewhere!

[G32]
Paradise begins wherever life is no longer under constant assault…

[BOTZ]
Right here! Right now!

[ALL]
The paradise of love is within
Open the gate, let the light begin

Love lives in the soul
The body is the drum
Paradise is what happens
When the garden finally becomes

Paradise is an ecosystem
Love is what makes it possible
Paradise is not fantasy
Love makes the impossible probable

Paradise is not for later
Paradise is not pretend
Paradise is what we build together
Where assault and exile end

The paradise of love is within!
Not after death—begin, begin!
No map outside, no need pretend!
The paradise of love is within!

Paradise was a garden
Before it was heaven…
Love was the climate
Before it was spoken…
The soul remembers…
The gate is inward…
The exile ends…
The paradise of love…
is within…