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What is Love asking from us?
Opening Meditation Song: Gabriel Fauré - Apres un Reve, Cello and Piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTOkWD6xvTI
Opening Prayer: Be still. Breathe deeply. Relax into the embrace of love. Be.
Reading:
If we are to contribute to a pathway toward peace, we need to feel, to truly let in the pain of others, and to grieve. I led a meditation gathering for Israeli therapists who had been tending 24/7 to those most traumatized, and for a group of 2400 Israelis who practice mindfulness. Each group had time to share their losses and grief. One person’s three-year-old son was taken hostage, another recalled watching a parent killed, and another, whose brother lost his whole family. Many talked about how a gripping existential fear is now a constant part of their daily lives. Since being with these groups, I’ve talked with Jewish friends in the US who are afraid for themselves and their children, so strong and toxic is the spike of antisemitism. Many shared a crushing sense of betrayal by friends for not recognizing the horror of Oct. 7th and the threat to Israel’s existence as a state…for not caring, for abandoning them.
In recent weeks I’ve also heard from and connected with many students and friends who are anguished by the genocide in Gaza. We’ve shared our heartbreak at images of mothers carrying the bundle that was once a living child from wreckage, the children without parents, the cruelty of being entrapped, without food and water, and the terrifying helplessness against indiscriminate bombing. My Arab and Muslim-American friends talk about their desperation and despair at the racism that dehumanizes the Palestinian people—the devaluing of Palestinian lives that lets the occupation, the injustice, and now, the carnage, go on.
Our society is so polarized into a sense of “us against them” that, for many and especially for those who are themselves traumatized, it’s not possible to empathize and grieve the losses of those considered on the other side. Rather, they are objectified and perceived as bad others. This bad othering locks us in limbic reactivity, and our views and actions become shaped by fear and hatred. Othering also brings indifference to the unspeakable torment that so many humans—mothers, fathers, siblings, children—are living with right now.
Friends, the only hope for a more peaceful, loving world is for us to open our hearts to all who are suffering, to value and cherish all life. From that inclusive and compassionate presence, we will naturally seek to relieve suffering. It is our caring, not fear or anger, that can guide us in expressing our inner spirit with wise action. And act we must. We belong to this world, and we impact others with our silence or words, our passivity or activity.
In contemplating how best to serve, it helps to pose a deep inquiry to our own heart: What is love asking from me here? Let me share what has emerged for me from this question.
• My heart knows that I need to keep connecting inwardly, so I’m aware of habitual fears and biases, and intimate with loss and grief. When there’s an awake tender presence with my inner life, there’s a natural compassion and feeling of belonging with other beings.
• My heart asks that I continue to deepen my understanding of the historic trauma, causes and conditions leading up to conflict, violence and suffering. And that I remember that humans are not the enemy; it is the universal forces of greed, hatred and delusion that take over and lead to violence and suffering.
• My heart asks that I recognize and name as harmful, any actions that violate others and create suffering. This would include, in recent days, the terrorist violence by Hamas against Jews and Israelis on Oct. 7th and the current and ongoing indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank perpetrated by the Israeli government.
• My heart asks that I recognize and name as harmful, antisemitism, islamophobia, racism and any dominance hierarchy that leads to hatred and/or violation of other beings.
• My heart does not conflate Jewish and Israeli people with the actions of a right-wing Israeli government. My heart does not conflate the Palestinian people with Hamas.
• My heart honors the rights of Israeli and Jewish people to exist and seek safety; and honors the rights of Palestinians to seek liberation from oppression; to pursue justice, equality and dignity.
• My heart realizes that how we seek what we long for determines what unfolds in the future. Martin Luther King and so many spiritual leaders have expressed what is also found in the Buddhist texts: Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed. This is the ancient and eternal law. If Israel, in the process of trying to destroy an enemy that has committed atrocities, kills and displaces a huge portion of the population in Gaza, it is creating a whole new generation of traumatized terrorists and undermining its efforts toward safety.
From these understandings and from deep caring, I feel called to use my words and actions in support of an immediate and complete ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank, a return of all hostages, and expedited and meaningful humanitarian aid for Gaza—as a pathway toward more true eventual safety for the Jews and Israelis, and liberation for the Palestinians.
At this time, this is what seems wise to me, and in all humility, I realize I have my own conditioning, biases and places of not seeing. As I continue to pay attention, my understandings and views will evolve.
My hope for each of you is that you will pause and keep connecting inwardly to presence, to your awake and tender heart—that you will consciously include the suffering of all in your heart, and then inquire deeply as to what love wants from you.
We belong to this world; may we be blessed to speak and act from love, may we plant seeds of peace.
I am deeply grateful to each for your company on the path of awakening.
With love, blessings, and prayers for our world,
Tara
Affirmations and Intentions:
May we look for your goodness in others when it hides beneath layers of coldness.
May we behold your radiance in the ones we neglect or spurn at home or work
May we discover your love in our deepest self when we feel unloving and irritable.
May we embrace you in the persons whose faithfulness we take for granted.
May we see your empathy in those serving the wounded of the world.
May we recognize your courage in the valiant people who speak out for justice.
May we notice your non-judgmental acceptance in those who keep an open mind.
May we search for your gentleness when the harshness of another hides it.
May we reveal your mercy when we pardon someone for having turned against us.
May we convey your compassion when we visit those with illness and poor health.
May we unit with your peace hidden beneath the layers of humanity’s disharmony.
Silence to add your own intentions.
Closing Prayer: Jesus you came into our world in the form of a newly emerged child, fresh and fragile like all of us at our birthing. You came a cherished one filled with the radiance of eternal light. As you grew in humanness, your life and teachings revealed the vast goodness of your inner being. We now carry your Spirit of Radiance with us. Let us reflect our beauty within for the world.
Closing Video: War what is it good for? By Edwin Starr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOLH8WfCaY
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