How Do I Love Those That Hate?

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I was feeling distressed this past day with voices rising up from our world which promote hatred and a form of individual rights which trample the rights and needs of others. The thoughts about radio personalities and the wavers of an outdated battle flag have spun around inside of me. How will our world ever evolve if it is always about Us and Them? Yet I was thinking in terms of us and them. 

Then I asked a deeper question while meditating this morning. And then some answers came from the One I only know as Mystery and Beloved. I wrote it all down in my journal. I thought maybe these musings would also provide some insight to someone else, like you. Perhaps this would be helpful in finding your own answers to:

How do I Love Those that Hate?

 

How do I love those that hate?

How do I remain true to the ethics of healing without hating or dismissing those that know they are right?  How do I remain true to the wonders you have revealed to me without demeaning the people so wrapped in maya (illusion and suffering) that they openly carry weapons to kill and words to maim?

How?

· By Grace and Gumption (will).

· Just be kind to them anyway.

· You do not have to fight anyone if you only say what you are For.

· When you revel in what you are against you join with the dark.

· Go into the fiery den of those that hate if you must and then come fully out.

· Stay Not in The Pain by carrying such a message around through your rejection, resistance. Resistance and rejection are the energies of connection with that which is disliked. A shadow.

· No doubt the revilers and cynics can harm the body and destroy the civility in society. But they cannot touch the spirit. Only You can consign your spirit to hell or heaven here and now.

· Either I am all, or I am some, or I am none. (You decide which level of wonder to believe)

· Yes is the word of your dharma (Life work/calling). Yes to what is right and just and loving all at the same time.

· These trials and conflicts (in this world) will remain as mystery while you dream this life.

· Soon you’ll know what is beyond your questions of Why.

· Soon you’ll realize who you always are.
Love,
Rick


(c) Copyright Words and Image, Richard Sievers, All Rights Reserved, August 2015

Look! What Do You See?

This was a dialogue I had within myself as I sat at the cabin window this morning. I ask you, dear reader, who is it that dialogues within the body, within the soul?:

Out in the garden the untrained eye sees peace and tranquility. Is that all there is out there? The mind says Look! 

I see how the chard pushes out the kale. The Scrub jay hunts the Sparrow's chick. The black spot stains the tender green tomato leaf. The mole hollows out the new potato. The mind retorts: Peace, really? I speak with the thoughts. I say: Yes, there is some peace. But there is more fire raging out there than the morning mists show. Such is life. Right?

Now the mind says Look again!

I see the purple swallow pirouetting in a cloud of blue. A sunflower, taller than shed, redder than the sunset, is sheltering a weaving spider. The carrots are waving like sea grass above their treasure of golden swords. The earth wafts a perfume of loam and dew, heady with all the lives that live within its dark womb.

See the darkness ebb at dawn? See the daylight fall like leaves all around the rising full moon?

And I saw for moments: This world and its mysterious ways were no longer good or bad... only ruthless in its beauty. Mysterious and Wondrous. 

Then I looked one more time. Then, even the words and description fell away.

What do you see out your window today? And what stories do you weave about the little moments of time that filter through your view? What are we really experiencing here, gentle reader? And who is sharing this view with us?
 
Love,
Rick


(c) Richard Sievers, Words and Image, June 2014, All Rights Reserved.

Days 9-10 You Say...I Say

If you receive a version of this blog sent by email press the title link to see the blog in its full format. This posting is a segment of my ongoing series Two Weeks in an American Ashram begun in November 2012. To see the previous entries just scroll down or click on Journal Archive at the right. 

Heard in Prayer:

Child of mine:

You say that you have not done enough to match my grace.

My Grace is sufficient; that's why it's called grace.

You say that you have mostly failed in your callings.

I say that by Grace you serve 

and by Grace you offer what you will.

You say that your mind wanders too much, 

that you are too much a hermit and too little a friend.

I say that my Grace fills the space between your words.

I say that you are beloved on earth.

I say you are wholly mine.

I say you are a strand 

in the very fabric of my purpose 

here in this world of now.

Peace,
Rick

(c) Copyright Richard Sievers, February 2013, All Rights Reserved.