"Hatred never ceases by hatred. It is healed by love alone.
This is the ancient and eternal law."
This is the ancient and eternal law."
-- Buddha
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your strength and with all your mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love your neighbor as yourself.”
-- Jesus of Nazareth
As the candy-coated, commercialized carnival of Valentine's Day fades in the rear view mirror, I still find myself musing about True Love.
I don't know how it plays out in other languages, but it seems to me that in English the word "love" is astonishingly imprecise.
The very same word is used for both the ultimate self-sacrifice that Jesus spoke of when he proclaimed, "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life...,"AND the most possessive and jealous form of desirous, grasping imaginable. The very same word, love, casts a net that includes both the enlightened activity of the Bodhisattva Green Tara -- and the painful, jealous flailing of folks ensnared by the Green Eyed Monster!
Yet, we have it on "good authority" (see introductory quotes above) that the key to the Real Deal is Love. So, what does the word "love" really mean?
Mean?
Yikes. Here we go again: What does the word "mean" really mean?
Its "meaning" runs the gamut from ultimate significance and purpose, to simply being nasty!? It reaches from the perfection of Aristotle's (and Buddha's) Golden Mean to the obnoxious underwater antics of the Blue Meanies.!?
WTF?
It's Only Words...
Love? Meaning?
These words certainly seem important. Conditioned
as we are in a culture that stresses the importance of conceptual
thought, much of our awareness is tied up in the stream of words that dominate our attention. Yet using these word to get at the Truth can be problematic, no? Words
can be quite sloppy. Their meanings even paradoxical. Perhaps, words are not always that useful in our quest for fundamental clarity.
The Zen tradition points this out. Repeatedly.
During a teisho in sesshin years ago at the Rochester Zen Center, Bodhin Kjolhede Sensei asserted, "Every time I open my mouth, I'm lying!" He had obviously -- and very passionately -- just opened his mouth.
The Zen tradition points this out. Repeatedly.
During a teisho in sesshin years ago at the Rochester Zen Center, Bodhin Kjolhede Sensei asserted, "Every time I open my mouth, I'm lying!" He had obviously -- and very passionately -- just opened his mouth.
