At the desk, 8:07 a.m.
When I look around the world today, it seems like hate won. Again.
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I become as sounding brass or clanging gong. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Corinthians 12:1-2
I picked this quote because so many people who brandish hate right now, brandish hate in the name of Christianity, in the name of the bible that speaks over and over again about love - love for your neighbor, love to the poor, love for the struggling and indigent, love for all.
But in these terrible times, we must learn to love. We must love because hate only brings more hate.
"Hate is the first and most obvious enemy of love. Hate hardens the heart. It holds tight to our pain and our anger so that the other is case as inhuman. Hate disfigures our spirit" - Jack Kornfield
But how do we love when there is so much hate it the world? How do we love when those who we task to represent us refuse to do the job we tasked them with?
I don't know about you, but I want to brandish the sword of my words, my power, my deeds and slay the haters. My instinct is to thrust my own spear into the center of their hateful agenda! I want to conquer in the name of love. I want to match their hate with my own hate and let the clash be heard to the heavens.
But this I know for a fact:
"Hate breeds hate
Love destroys hate;
This is a universal law." Buddha.
What do we do? How can we restore our own love so that we can destroy hate with love?
"If only it were all so simple. If only there were evil people somewhere else insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were simply necessary to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The way I restore my own loving temperament is through the Loving-Kindness Meditation.
May I be filled with lovingkindness,
May I be safe from inner and outer dangers,
May I be well in body and mind,
May I be at ease and happy.
That's where my mind will focus today.
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