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God is love
betaboy
Veteran
The gospel of John: God is love.
Does that mean we must love everyone, including those who harm us? How? Is this similar to metta meditation?
BB
Does that mean we must love everyone, including those who harm us? How? Is this similar to metta meditation?
BB
0
Comments
I don’t think we have to cultivate artificial feelings of wanting to kiss and hug every peace of scum.
It’s more like feeling connected – much like the thing parents feel towards their children. Whatever they do, wherever they go, for as long as they live you feel connected.
That doesn’t mean you can not be mad at them occasionally, it doesn’t mean you take everything they do for granted. But deep down you never give up on them.
When I think of people who would be considered evil by most of us, I visualize them as babies and I remind myself that no one is born evil. I believe that evil people fall into evil gradually as a result of exposure to malignant influences in their lives, possibly exacerbated by certain genetic predispositions. If their lives had been different, perhaps they wouldn't have fallen into evil ways. When I find myself wanting to hate them I remind myself of the phrases typically used in metta meditation:
May they be safe and protected.
May they be peaceful and happy.
May they be healthy and strong.
May they have ease of well being (and accept all the conditions of the world).
If those who would harm us felt peaceful and safe and had ease of well being, they would be less likely to feel a need to harm us. I realize that redemption is unlikely for many evil doers, but even in such cases, we don't have to allow ourselves to fall into hatred. We can simply hope that a way can be found to prevent them from harming others and do our best to keep ourselves safe.
Regarding the Buddha's teaching on redemption, take a look at the Angulimala Sutta:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.086.than.html
Alan
However, it was the Buddha who redefined "God" as "love".
Please refer to the Tevijja Sutta at the link.
http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/2Sutta-Pitaka/1Digha-Nikaya/Digha1/13-tevijja-e.html
Regards
...another thing in common (if the BodhiDharma were theist).
Yes, you should cultivate metta for everyone, including those who harm you.
Simultaneously, where there is no separation and the hymns of one-ness are sung, the 'love' boat has also sailed.
Things are probably a bit easier when we leave 'love' and 'God' to others and just develop a clear and constant practice.
The "Buddha" thing to do would be to take the harm without flinching, ill will, negative thought, etc. Just understanding everything. When you become so interconnected with everything, striking out at the person who harms you is like striking yourself. You are creating suffering in another being. How do you justify it? Tit for tat? To what ends? When will the cycle stop? Who will be the one to stop it?
Would this "union with Braham" then be synonomous with Non-returner status?
God is a figment of our imagination.
"Love" is a practice and "god" is an unattainable extension of self and other. The only thing that they have in common is that they are both choices of belief.
If there were a choice, amongst the believers, my choice would be to believe in neither, because if there is a "god" then god is love and hate. Love and hate are two unnecessary passions. And people make that difference not "god."
Namaste
Traleg Rinpoche says this. I think it's insightful:
"If you have a certain feeling of the presence of another being or another mind in meditation, it has to be understood as part of oneself. We might say that it has something to do with glimpsing one's Buddha-nature, or something like that, rather than automatically thinking, 'I am in the presence of some greater being that is separate from me.' It may be that one is gradually accessing a part of oneself that one is not familiar with. If one sees God as part of oneself, that would be much more similar to the Buddhist idea. If God is seen as totally other, where there is some kind of unequal relationship: that is quite different to the Buddhist view."
having some scholars, such as Grombich, and some poor scholars, such as Leigh Brasington, regard it as synonynous with Nibbana :wtf:
Buddh'ists are such an uptight group sometimes...
don't insult me, mind is not brain... head is just a place.
Hunab Ku (the [anatta]Brahma[/anatta] of this [anicca]Galaxy[/anicca]) exists.
There are Christians Dhamma who do practice this love. Not all are evil. It seems to me that there are people in every religion that practices love. And I have seen a lot of unlove in Buddhism as well.
So nevermind, actually. I agree that such an attainment would be "mundane." Nevertheless, in comparison to the struggling masses of beings trapped within the lesser spheres of existence, such a "union with Brahma" is still one heck of an achievment, no matter how much it pales in comparison to that of the stream-entrant or particularly the Buddha.
How in the world could these "scholars" equate such an attainment to that of unbinding and release? You would have to be a complete fool to make that assumption. :banghead:
I have no reason to think a god exists, much less the Christian one. However, if "God is compassion" then then also, "Compassion is God." Insofar as I "believe" in compassion, then that is a "god" I can "believe" in. But that isn't usually what Christians mean by their god.
BTW, is this the Hunab Ku you are referring to? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunab_Ku If so, apparently this is a psuedo-Mayan deity conceived by Christian missionaries. Not sure of the Buddhist connection?
Namaste
Matthew 10:35-36
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,
and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
Luke 12:51-53
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two,
and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father;
the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother;
the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Luke 14:26
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 19:27
“But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign
over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”
I'm not so sure that "god" is love.
To answer your question, in my humble opinion, I would say yes; to find the strength to show compassion for all of those who hurt us.
Is that not what Jesus demonstrated?
"Forgive them father for they know not what they do"?
Could you have it within yourself to forgive a murderer who killed your son? Even if that murderer wasn't sorry?