Loving each and every living being.

[Spirit of Light]

How is that even possible you might ask? Some will think "How can you say that, look at Hitler, or Saddam or others who do only evil toward others????

No no, you do not love their actions or orders they gave. You can love them for teaching you how not to behave or be toward others. You love the lesson each person can give you, both the good ones and the bad ones.

The good ones teach you what you can become. What to do with your life.
The bad ones teach you how to not become. What not to do with your life

 

[ChristineM]

How is that even possible you might ask? Some will think "How can you say that, look at Hitler, or Sadsam or others who do only evil toward others????

No no, you do not love their actions or orders they gave. You can love them for teaching you how not to behave or be toward others. You love the lesson each person can give you, both the good ones and the bad ones.

The good ones teach you what you can become. What to do with your life.
The bad ones teach you how to not become. What not to do with your life

No i cannot love the person who raped me or the lesson he taugh that i am vulnerable to violence.

And welcome back, I've missed you

 

[Ashoka]

I would have agreed years ago, but now? I can't. There are people I hate. My cousin who abused me, for example. I'll never forgive her. I'll never love her.

 

[Spirit of Light]

No i cannot love the person who raped me or the lesson he taugh that i am vulnerable to violence.

And welcome back, I've missed you

To love or forgive certain aspects of our experience in life, is not easy, not many can no it i would think.
Only speaking for my own life, i believe it is possible to hold love toward all beings, not saying i am there yet

Thank you, nice to be back too.

 

[SalixIncendium]

The only way, in my experience, to love each and every being is recognize in them the divine nature I and the other being share.

A greeting I use, "namaste," pragmatically means, "I bow to the divine in you."

I don't only use this greeting with people, but with animals and even plants.

 

[Spirit of Light]

The only way, in my experience, to love each and every being is recognize in them the divine nature I and the other being share.

A greeting I use, "namaste" pragmatically means, "I bow to the divine in you."

I don't only use this greeting with people, but with animals and even plants.

It is possible to learn in every aspects of life, especially when one step wrong and find teaching right away.
But also to learn over time.

 

[Viker]

How is that even possible you might ask? Some will think "How can you say that, look at Hitler, or Sadsam or others who do only evil toward others????

No no, you do not love their actions or orders they gave. You can love them for teaching you how not to behave or be toward others. You love the lesson each person can give you, both the good ones and the bad ones.

The good ones teach you what you can become. What to do with your life.
The bad ones teach you how to not become. What not to do with your life

I simply can't love everyone. I also can't hate everyone either.

 

[RestlessSoul]

It’s not hard to love those who love us, nor does it require much effort to be kind and generous to those who are themselves generous and kind. Learning to love and forgive those who have wronged or offended us, is one of the most challenging - and powerful — things of which humanity is capable.

 

[F1fan]

A person has to love themselves before they are capable of loving others. The ego gets in the way, the need for meaning gets in the way. I see some folks define love as some ideal to attain when it is an expression of a balanced and stable self that engages with the world. Virtues come easy once we eliminate the things that interfere with it.

 

[Estro Felino]

I agree.
That's a very good thread. Awareness can be achieved through mistakes, only. Ours and others'.

 

[PureX]

It's unrealistic, and ultimately meaningless to claim love for everything and everyone. I think it's far more realistic and effective to 'love the good', and 'hate the evil'. And to understand that we humans, ourselves and others, will embody them both in some ways and to some degree at some time.

I would never suggest that anyone love their abusers. That would be insane. But we could understand that even though we did not experience any good in them, there almost certainly is some. As there almost certainly is some good in everyone. Not for their benefit, but for our own.

 

[JustGeorge]

I simply can't love everybody.

I can do as @SalixIncendium suggests, and bow to the divine in all, acknowledge that spark... but that doesn't bring up love for me. Acceptance, perhaps. Reverence, in some cases(admittedly, more often when greeting the divine in plants, who seldom distract by sticking their roots in their mouth).

What is love in this context, anyways? Pleasant feelings? Hope for a positive future for someone? Attachment? Well wishes?

 

[RestlessSoul]

In Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, it’s only when the sailor felt “A spring of love gush[ed] from my heart”, for the water snakes and slimy creatures which had previously repulsed him, that his first curse was lifted and the albatross fell from his neck.

 

[Link]

It's unrealistic, and ultimately meaningless to claim love for everything and everyone. I think it's far more realistic and effective to 'love the good', and 'hate the evil'. And to understand that we humans, ourselves and others, will embody them both in some ways and to some degree at some time.

I would never suggest that anyone love their abusers. That would be insane. But we could understand that even though we did not experience any good in them, there almost certainly is some. As there almost certainly is some good in everyone. Not for their benefit, but for our own.

I would agree with "good" in everyone, but its not through their own good, but that God channels whatever light he can to them. If they equate darkness with the light, they made the gift of light meaningless. And if they belittle the light and heighten the darkness, that's even worse.

Really goodness in a real sense of a word, is when there is still some sincerity towards God left in a person. God will make anyone with good in them hear and hold to his light and not equate darkness with it.

Sincerity - at any level, will get you to paradise. Lack that, there's no reason for God to accept people for having some light he channeled to them through his grace yet didn't recognize God and his Guides through that and equated petty desires with higher sustenance, and went away and travelled away from the light their whole lives.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I simply can't love everybody.

I can do as @SalixIncendium suggests, and bow to the divine in all, acknowledge that spark... but that doesn't bring up love for me. Acceptance, perhaps. Reverence, in some cases(admittedly, more often when greeting the divine in plants, who seldom distract by sticking their roots in their mouth).

What is love in this context, anyways? Pleasant feelings? Hope for a positive future for someone? Attachment? Well wishes?

Definitely not attachment imo. Those other things though, yeah. And compassion, forgiveness and a genuine desire that they should know peace. Praying for the people we are angry with, often reluctantly and through gritted teeth, can be very liberating.

 

[Link]

I simply can't love everyone. I also can't hate everyone either.

This is a balanced view. I like it.

 

[The Hammer]

No i cannot love the person who raped me or the lesson he taugh that i am vulnerable to violence.

And welcome back, I've missed you

I can understand this. I don't love my rapist either, nor could I. But I did learn a lesson from the experience to be careful whom one trusts.

 

[Link]

The only way, in my experience, to love each and every being is recognize in them the divine nature I and the other being share.

A greeting I use, "namaste," pragmatically means, "I bow to the divine in you."

I don't only use this greeting with people, but with animals and even plants.

I believe this with addition that Imam (a) lives within plants and all things and is the light of those stuck in the darkness. However, if people equate the light with darkness, yes, the light is still with them, but their actions are meaningless at that point.

 

[The Hammer]

What is love in this context, anyways? Pleasant feelings? Hope for a positive future for someone? Attachment? Well wishes?

Serenity maybe?

 

[Spirit of Light]

I simply can't love everybody.

I can do as @SalixIncendium suggests, and bow to the divine in all, acknowledge that spark... but that doesn't bring up love for me. Acceptance, perhaps. Reverence, in some cases(admittedly, more often when greeting the divine in plants, who seldom distract by sticking their roots in their mouth).

What is love in this context, anyways? Pleasant feelings? Hope for a positive future for someone? Attachment? Well wishes?

I would say it means unconditional love. Being that no matter how someone treat us, there are always part of that one can learn from and use in a positive way toward others. Learning from negative experience means we would not put others in that situation by our self.

So one use each experience to become a better human being.