Lama Yeshe on Love & Compassion
"With true realisations, the mind is no longer egotistically concerned with only its own salvation. With true love, one no longer behaves dualistically: feeling very attached to some people, distant from others, and totally indifferent to the rest. It is so simple. In the ordinary personality the mind is always divided against itself, always fighting and disturbing its own peace. Check up inside now and discover how you look at your neighbours. Visualise first a friend and then an enemy and see how your mind reacts. Instinctively we feel attachment for the one called 'friend' and aversion for the one called 'enemy', but such reactions are the opposite of peace. They are negative and do nothing but produce suffering.
"The teachings on love are very practical. Do not put religion somewhere up in the sky and feel you are stuck down here on Earth. If the actions of body, speech and mind are in accordance with loving kindness, you automatically become a truly religious person. The mere thought of hatred automatically destroys your peace. Similarly, true love does not depend on physical expression. You should realise this. True love is a feeling deep in within you. It is not just a matter of wearing a smile on your face and looking happy. Rather, it arises from a heart-felt understanding of every other being's suffering, and radiates out to them indiscriminately. It does not favour a chosen few to exclusion of everyone else. This is true love.
"Furthermore, if someone hits you and you react with anger or great alarm crying, 'What has happened to me?' this also has nothing to do with a mind knowing the meaning of true love. It is just the ignorant preoccupation of the ego with its own welfare. How much wiser it is to realise, 'Being hit does not really harm me. My delusion of hatred is an enemy that harms me much more than this'. Reflecting like this allows true love to grow."
----Lama Yeshe
posted by Anatman @ Monday, March 13, 2006
1 comments
1 Comments:
This piece is a nice enough affirmation.
I have worked a bit with metta meditation, loving-kindess, etc. and found it to be quite pleasant.
Some of the questions I have regarding this kind of practice involves moving beyond the "affirmations" stage of it. Simply thinking to myself that a situation or person does not "really" harm me, seems to be at times, merely wishful thinking.
How many of us, when punched or kicked, are going to actually feel that we are not being harmed? I value the idea of moving beyond concern for myself, but practically speaking, I don't see a lot of use for this type of practice unless it can move deeper.
A lot of Zen-types and New Agers talk a big game about loving kindness and letting go of the ego, but it doesn't ring very true to me. It seems to me, that first I would need to come to a very deep understanding of what "I" really am in relation to the world before simply parroting these kinds of statements. It may feel good, but just because it feels good doesn’t make it reality.
-Aaron
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