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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Love Beats Hate (#lovebeatshate)

Cover of "Love Is Stronger Than Death"Cover of Love Is Stronger Than Death
Welcome to the Love Beats Hate blogging event. Participating in this event is a no-brainer: of course love beats hate! I want to be one of many that remind, discuss and proclaim this today.

When I signed up for this blogging event, I had two ideas in my mind:

The first was a title of a book, Love Is Stronger Than Death by Peter J. Kreeft, a book I read a while ago that really struck a chord with me.

The second was this quote, author unknown: You only love (insert your favorite word for God here) as much as you love the person you love the least.

And wouldn't you know it, as I was trying to figure out what to write about, the Universe directed me over to the TED website where I found this talk by Tibetan Monk Robert Thurman on Expanding Your Circle of Compassion:



This is the ultimate lesson in how to allow love to beat hate and I found it enlightening. He explains why we need to expand our compassion to our enemies and the seven step meditation method he suggests to accomplish this is some pretty powerful stuff. I especially liked the insight on why you want your enemies to be happy.

As for me, I think the lessons of love that I am trying to learn include:
  1. Even the people acting the most unloveable have some small thing you can love about them.
  2. You can love someone and not like them.
  3. Love doesn't mean putting up with all the crap someone dishes out.
  4. Love means accepting someone as they are, warts and all.
I am sure there are others that I am forgetting in this moment, but that is where you come in. Leave me a comment and let me know what lessons of love this lifetime is teaching you.

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6 comments

Lisa said...

Great post, I think remembering "love doesn't mean putting up with all the crap someone dishes out" is very important. While I have people in my life that have been unkind to me over and over again I find I must cut them from my life but that doesn't mean I can't forgive them and still love them. We can still protect ourselves and being loving. :)

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic post... so simple and true. I love point number 2 you make about not having to like the people you love. It reminds me of something a friend once told me "you may not be able to forgive an action but you can always forgive the person who did it". We don't have to like what happens in our world, but loving means to see beyond the obvious to the small, scared person/people/events behind it all.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us all today xx

Jannie Funster said...

Ah, so this is where I come in?

Love is something you do, action.

Love is choosing kind words to say.

Love is quiet knowing.

Love is you.

xo+

Hayley Cafarella said...

I have been reading a lot, recently, about love and compassion from a Buddhist perspective and it has been incredibly enlightening! Loving and forgiving don't mean that one abides bad behaviour or tells the culprit that what they did was ok, they simply mean that we choose to go on wishing the person well, in spite of what they might have done to us. In most circumstances, two people who have had a falling out aren't in contact, any hate that they choose to fester is always only going to hurt the hater, the hatee(?) won't be the one carrying that anger... thanks for an inspiring post!

Jeanne said...

Selena,

Thank you for this wonderful post for Love Beats Hate!

The Vancouver Peace Summit in 2009 was available for viewing live streaming and we watched it from start to finish that day. It featured 5 Nobel Laureates including the Dalai Lama.

The Charter for Compassion was mentioned throughout that summit. The reference at the end of the video here (to Karen Armstrong) was in regard to the Charter for Compassion. (I believe it would be fair to say that she spearheaded the Charter for Compassion).

If you didn't see the Peace Summit and if archived video of it is available online somewhere, I'm sure you would enjoy it. TED Talks might have footage? If not, you might be able to find video clips through the Fetzer Institute. (Their video channel on YouTube is one of the ones I'm subscribed to and there is a great deal about compassion on it).

In any event, since the Fetzer Institute and the Charter for Compassion were mentioned throughout the 2009 Peace Summit and since compassion was truly the word of the day for that summit, it would be worth looking for info/footage... given that you picked this compassion video to post here. The summit was really powerful and I'm sure you'd like it based on this post.

Thank you again for a lovely post. It's nice to "meet" you.

Jeanne

WinnyNinny PooPoo said...

Finally getting to read all the posts with downtime today. What a great quote! I am going to have to read that book. This is very inspirational!!! Going to expand my circle of compassion!