Welcome to Brothers and Sisters, the weekly meetup for prayer* and community at Daily Kos. We put an asterisk on pray* to acknowledge that not everyone uses conventional religious language, but may want to share joys and concerns, or simply take solace in a meditative atmosphere. Anyone who comes in the spirit of mutual respect, warmth and healing is welcome.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask about this or that. If you've seen a few of the diaries, you get the idea. The main thing is to open the space for people to gather, share, and meditate.
Someone wiser than myself once said to me-
You don't have to like everyone, but you do have to love them.
This is an aphorism to which I try desperatly to adhere, yet fail more often than not. It reminds me of the central Buddhist concept of Maitrī or Mettā (not our fave Dkos tag, meta) which can be roughly translated as "loving kindness".
The object of mettā meditation is loving kindness (love without Upādāna, that is, attachment). Traditionally, the practice begins with the meditator cultivating loving kindness towards themselves,[7] then their loved ones, friends, teachers, strangers, enemies, and finally towards all sentient beings.
The key word in that sentence for me is "all". Not just those sentient beings we like; ALL of them.
It's an idea I would like to think is at the core of most if not all belief systems in the world.
Love.
It's the only thing there's just too little of.
According to Idries Shah, the Sufi philosophy is universal in nature, its roots predating the arising of Islam and the other modern-day religions; likewise, some Muslims consider Sufism outside the sphere of Islam,[1][9] although generally scholars of Islam contend that it is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.[1]
The chief aim of all Sufis is to seek the pleasing of God by working to restore within themselves the primordial state of fitra,[14] described in the Qur'an. In this state nothing one does defies God, and all is undertaken by the single motivation of love of God.
One of the best prayers I have come across is the Prayer of Saint Francis.
Its words ring true in a way that transcends all faith:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith ;
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.