Since we are soon coming to the close of our Monday evenings together, I’ve been thinking about just what I want to put on the table for the closing sessions of our three years meditating together. This week what keeps returning to me is a Rumi quote that I shared very early on when we first started meditating, so tonight we will start with that and then take it a little further.
Good evening and welcome to the second to the last Monday Group Meditation. We will be sitting from 8:00 to 10:30 PM Eastern Time. It is not necessary to sit for the entire extended time, which is set up to make it convenient for people in four North American Time Zones; sit for as long as you like and when it is most convenient for you.
Note: You are also welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10:00AM for the Dkos Sangha Open Threads which are hosted by davehouck.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.~Rumi
The argument against love and acceptance for many people is they believe it means for one to be passive. Another reason for the argument against love and acceptance is people cherish their anger, and use it to fuel their activism.
What humans frequently fail to understand is everything matters, it all goes into the creative soup we are making of our daily lives. If our actions are energized by hate and anger, they can only generate more hate and anger, and in fact will lead to responses filled with hate and anger.
If we claim to value peace and love and want to see them in the world around us, our activism needs to arise from these qualities as well. It is like baking a cake, we cannot substitute vinegar for sugar and expect the outcome to be sweet. It really is that simple.
And there is no need to think a peaceful, loving and accepting person is necessarily a passive person. Activism energized by love and acceptance is inspired and often fits a situation perfectly in a way that generates no resistance. It simply fits the situation.
A heart that is filled with love cannot remain inactive or silent in the face of pain, injustice and suffering.......LOVE ACTS.
LOVE SPEAKS UP. It must. It is compelled to. Authentic spirituality is an engaged spirituality.~Francis Bennett