I feel resistance to the concept of unconditional love. (No conditions at all? Like, no reciprocity? Loving people that have deeply hurt you? It feels like this path is only for saints ) But would love to explore it through your vision. Your concept of grief felt potent.. grief as inherent to this expierience... this year as my heart broke with this type of grief it turned briefly into deep compassion to everyone that is alive. It relaxed my ego so much, but this feeling wasnt easy to sustain. It became more conceptual than felt. Curious about your next explorations.
I really appreciate this comment. It set off a whole inquiry within me - thank you!
I found myself turning over the line "it feels like this path is only for saints" - and concluded that perhaps that is true - and for those that this path calls to we don't have to be saints but we invoke the sainthood within us. In that we devote ourselves to walking the path of unconditional love. Not a destination to get to, but like a living prayer or a living meditation. A practise. So it's not to bypass the very real and very many parts of me that don't feel unconditional love (for example if someone hurt my child!! I would have very little or no access to that kind of love). And it's not to make those parts bad and wrong but it's to say there is value in holding this prayer - can I love.. even this? can I love.. even them? Maybe not today, maybe a little more tomorrow, maybe never - but the question opens things.
Maybe that's the devotion - to the inquiry - can I love life.. even here?
The other thing it leads me to - is that so much of our societal and pyschic structure revolves around righteousness and justice. The underlying belief somehow that if we "let someone get away with it" things will be worse and we need to maintain fairness and justice to create the world we dream of. But when I look around at the world I see so much pain already - and I think, this paradigm isn't working. I truly believe that a radically changed world, requires paradigm shifts so great that they seem illogical. And one of them - I think - might just be that if we let go of our righteousness, concerned ourselves less with what is fair and equal and instead loved *even* that - we might just get the world we dream of. It doesn't fully make sense to my mind, but somewhere in my heart I get it.
Yes! Like maybe the practice of unconditional love could be awakening the inner saint without annihilating other parts. A higher percentage of sainthood in our interactions seems wise and generative. ⚘️❣️
I feel resistance to the concept of unconditional love. (No conditions at all? Like, no reciprocity? Loving people that have deeply hurt you? It feels like this path is only for saints ) But would love to explore it through your vision. Your concept of grief felt potent.. grief as inherent to this expierience... this year as my heart broke with this type of grief it turned briefly into deep compassion to everyone that is alive. It relaxed my ego so much, but this feeling wasnt easy to sustain. It became more conceptual than felt. Curious about your next explorations.
I really appreciate this comment. It set off a whole inquiry within me - thank you!
I found myself turning over the line "it feels like this path is only for saints" - and concluded that perhaps that is true - and for those that this path calls to we don't have to be saints but we invoke the sainthood within us. In that we devote ourselves to walking the path of unconditional love. Not a destination to get to, but like a living prayer or a living meditation. A practise. So it's not to bypass the very real and very many parts of me that don't feel unconditional love (for example if someone hurt my child!! I would have very little or no access to that kind of love). And it's not to make those parts bad and wrong but it's to say there is value in holding this prayer - can I love.. even this? can I love.. even them? Maybe not today, maybe a little more tomorrow, maybe never - but the question opens things.
Maybe that's the devotion - to the inquiry - can I love life.. even here?
The other thing it leads me to - is that so much of our societal and pyschic structure revolves around righteousness and justice. The underlying belief somehow that if we "let someone get away with it" things will be worse and we need to maintain fairness and justice to create the world we dream of. But when I look around at the world I see so much pain already - and I think, this paradigm isn't working. I truly believe that a radically changed world, requires paradigm shifts so great that they seem illogical. And one of them - I think - might just be that if we let go of our righteousness, concerned ourselves less with what is fair and equal and instead loved *even* that - we might just get the world we dream of. It doesn't fully make sense to my mind, but somewhere in my heart I get it.
Just some thoughts! With love, H xx
Yes! Like maybe the practice of unconditional love could be awakening the inner saint without annihilating other parts. A higher percentage of sainthood in our interactions seems wise and generative. ⚘️❣️
Yes! Gorgeous - thank you.