Imagine When We All Do This! (From Hartford International University for Religion and Peace)
… although the ideas of “love” and “neighbor” seem self-evident, they are also more complex than we often realize … “love thy neighbor” is hard work, and at times complicated, but is fundamentally important. Joel N. Lohr, President, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (from a blog posted Oct 12, 2023 – read it here)
Several times this week I’ve been reminded that life here on planet earth is complex, challenging, and, yes, that we humans often make it more so. We do so, it seems to me, as a result of our far too long separation from Nature, forgetting (or ignoring) Her ways, and our separation from one another born out of conflict, fed by the systems of mankind’s win-lose world.
Yep, here I go again, writing about that. I do so not because I’ve figured it out and have a great track record in practicing loving kindness toward those with whom I disagree, but because I haven’t. And my heart tells me that I, and we, must. That this is our evolutionary path, our potential, our true path to freedom.
I write remembering my reaction to an appeal from a local activist group to ‘convince’ those who support the current presidential administration how ‘wrong’, unconstitutional, etc. the administration’s actions are. Having just encountered someone who holds that view that the administration is ‘right’, indeed, “has the guts to change things” and who I experienced as having no openness to dialog, exploration, much less another point of view, I knew that this was not an appeal I could engage in.
Convincing ‘the other’ that you are ‘right’ is its own form of conflict. Sadly, we don’t recognize how it furthers separation, seeking to ‘win’ so that ‘they’ will ‘lose’. Convincing puts conditions on love.
How, I wonder, do I hold true to my values without feeding the fruitless fray of separation? It’s not a new question for me or for The Pivot. It’s a question that as I ‘be’ with it, exploring possibilities, embracing the mystery of unknown expressions of me that seek to come forth, I touch that place in that knows the answer is love.
How do we love new ways, new awareness, new connection, new tolerance and acceptance into form? Into becoming how we live? How do I? Asking, wondering opens me to an awareness of my deep desire to nurture peace into the experience of life. Peace within. Peace in the world. I remember the invitation to ‘Love thy neighbor as thy self’ that is held and spoken in most every religion. Common ground that sounds oh so simple and makes me wonder how it is expressed in these different traditions.
A quick search gives me that information and more: the essay quoted above which reminds me that the work of finding common ground and nurturing peace is deep, hard, hearty work. Worthy work. Work that requires commitment and consistency. I honor my many friends and associates who walk this path. I honor those whom I know of, who do the same. They are the way-showers, and I bow in gratitude to them for their commitment.
Sitting with the Sun gently kissing my face as it rose over the mountains this morning, it occurred to that when we truly love ourselves, our true, capital ‘S’ Self, not the small self of the personality and the ego, it will be impossible to not love another, indeed to love all sentient beings, including Mother Earth herself.
As we call a new world into being, may that love be integral to our path.
Robin Visits Calling in New Growth