This Tuesday is May Day, traditionally a day of labor activism combined with celebrations of springtime. This year, the Occupy Movement is calling for a general strike on May Day, to demonstrate the economic power of the 99 Percent.An alternative plan comes from the Love Foundation, which is proposing that May 1 be observed as Global Love Day. The group explains that Global Love Day is dedicated to “universal recognition of our innate oneness through love. When we come from this limitless love we naturally and easily embrace ourselves and our fellow humanity. Opening our heart, we allow unconditional love to be our guide and compassion to be our gift to life.”
Will Global Love Day bring about the growth of a worldwide surge of love that overcomes hate and violence? This isn’t an abstract question. So far, the empirical data suggest that Global Love Day isn’t likely to create change on anything close to a global level. There have been eight annual Global Love Day observances so far, and still, global love has not arrived. There’s loads of hatred and war, and a lot of grumpy resentments.What if we could have global love, though? What if it was possible to obtain unconditional love between all human beings?Read it at Irregular Times
Can we have a Day of Global Love?
By Rowan
Surprisingly to me, Rowan responds not only that he regards it as impossible but he also rejects it if it were possible.
I agree it seems impossible given the present evolutionary age of humanity, which has not progressed past adolescence yet, and many are still at the childhood stage of selfishness.
But not desirable? All sages from time immemorial have said that universal love is the goal. When asked about the "great command" of the Law (Torah), Jesus responded, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding — this is a first and great command; and the second [is] like to it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; on these -- the two commands -- all the law and the prophets do hang." Matthew 22:36-40.
""Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding — this is a first and great command" is a reference to Deuteronomy 6:5, which is immediately preceded by shema yisrael yhvh eloheynu yhvh echad, which is literally Hear, O Israel, YHVH [is] our God, YHVH [is] one. YHVH is usually rendered Adonai, meaning Lord, since out of respect, the Name is not uttered aloud. It is the Name revealed to Moses in the desert. The nearest meaning of YHVH in English is "existence." According to Zohar, this means the existence is one but not in number, that is, "only one is." This is the idea that Paul asserts in quoting Epimenides in Acts 17:28 "‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
This is also found in Rig Veda 1.164.46: ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti, meaning "The Existent is one, the sages express it variously," as well as in the Holy Qur'an Allah ho ahad, meaning God is one, interpreted by Sufis (al 'Arabi) as "existence is one," or "only one is." Unity of being is also fundamental to Buddhism, and it is the basis of the Mahayana teaching on Pali metta/Sanskrit maitri, meaning lovingkindness or compassion.
If only one is, then the command to love that one and all in that one follows naturally as the way to unite with the one and with all in that one though unconditional love. The cost of true discipleship is one's own separate self to discover one's true nature as unlimited. This is the perennial teaching.
It appears as a hard teaching because everyone loves their separate self, which manifests as individuality (ego), and identifies themselves with their personality, mind, and body. The path of transformation is one of transcending these limitations and discovering who and what one really is.
See Meher Baba's discourse on The New Humanity for a contemporary elaboration on this timeless theme.
3 comments:
Hey Tom,
from Meher Baba: "The new humanity"
From Paul: "20 Now you did not thus learn Christ,
21 since, surely, Him you hear, and by Him were taught (according as the truth is in Jesus),
22 to put off from you, as regards your former behavior, the old humanity which is corrupted in accord with its seductive desires,
23 yet to be rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind,
24 and to put on the new humanity which, in accord with God, is being created in righteousness and benignity of the truth." Eph 4
Do "great minds think alike"?
Resp,
Tom - I don't know if unconditional love between human beings is possible, but I do know unconditional Love is possible - because it already exists. Relevant to us - in every human heart. On the planet.
But it has to be felt - not thought about. It has to be uncovered to be discovered. It has to be recognised and welcomed; not ignored. All it takes is to be a human being - and understand!
There are two types of learning: one of the mind, one of the heart. Understanding in the mind dawns only when the heart has found what it seeks. The heart already knows, and will not rest until it is reconnected back to its source. The heart is always way out in front of mind; but we are not able to understand.
There is no mystery. Wherever there is longing in the human heart for something 'more', there is a door.
The human heart has ever carried the seed, kept alive by the energy of Breath! It just needs watering; that is all .... it is in the province of the heart that the seed blooms. The best that mind can do is fall silent and appreciate as gratitude and understanding flows!!!
First step has always been to recognise the hiatus between the mind and the heart, the thirst that arises from within it - and the decision to seek out the truth about your own existence. So many have gone before and so many will come after; they have had help. This is the real story of the coming and goings of this earth.
The rest is not a play. Real people are suffering and real people are losing their lives. This where mind needs to undo the problems created. For me at least, it is in feeling whatever measure I can plumb, of unconditional love, that Peace and Intelligence flow - there is no other source that I know of!
It's an 'energy' thing!!!
JR,
"Real people are suffering and real people are losing their lives. This where mind needs to undo the problems created."
Agree here... there are huge problems being created by the mindless morons who have found themselves in current poitions of authority... they all have to go, along with their policies.
It has to be more than just mopping up the messes of morons....
Resp,
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