Day 7 Practice: Love
“Turning towards what you deeply love saves you.”
Love can be a loaded word in our society, entangled with so much assumption and expectation. Throughout my life I have often thought of love as something I get from someone else, a quality received from “out there.” But when I'm a little more grounded, seeing things more clearly, I recognize it as a quality that can be generated from within, something that I can give to myself. Sharon Salzberg states, “Love is not a feeling but an ability.” Certainly, love is a feeling we long for AND it is something we can also generate from within.
When we are lost in the emotion of love it can easily become a commodity that is lacking but when it is an ability, we know it's within us. Certainly, others may inspire or threaten love, but ultimately love is up to us. Sharon Salzberg goes on to add, “If love is an ability, maybe it's also a responsibility.” Maybe we have the responsibility to bring it forth into our difficult moments, to ourselves and to others. In moments of misunderstanding, moments of grief, moments of judgment and moments of fear, can we be more loving, the love that is so desperately needed in the world right now?
People change when they feel cherished and that most certainly includes us. So, may we love greatly, loving ourselves so that we can love others. As Joann Macy said, “We must love big in this human realm or else we will suffer tremendously.” There is no real change in the world without love so I invite you to practice your ability and responsibility today.
“Love is not what we become but who we are already are.”
“Understanding someone’s suffering is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love.”
“You do not have to improve ourselves; we just have to let go of what blocks our heart.”
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”
“I pray for all of us, oppressor, and friend, that together we may succeed in building a better world through human understanding and love, and that in doing so we may reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings.”
“Crying is one of the highest devotional songs. One who knows crying, knows spiritual practice. If you can cry with an open heart, nothing else compares to such a prayer.”