|
Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 29:39) In a moment what was now is not. A city was here and now it is gone. A mother, father, brother, sister, strangers, friends once pulsating with life are in an instant dead, gone, finished—a heartbreak beyond any concept of heartbreak. The devastation in Haiti is simply beyond comprehension. Thousands of people are trapped in collapsed buildings and untold thousands more are dead or dying while countless bodies line the streets in what was on Monday a thriving vibrant city. The world is responding with what we all know as humanitarian aid, but the deeper truth is that the world is responding with the essence of life itself—the world is responding with Love!
Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 29:39) When an emergency arises you naturally you stop and simply love your neighbor. Most of us have no clue what the people of Haiti are experiencing. We are simply witnesses to the unfolding news of devastation and heartbreak. It can fill you with a sense of hopelessness or helplessness or it can be just another tragic news blip that you would rather ignore. Many Christians view this as a sign that the return of Christ is near and Pat Robertson went to the unbelievable extreme of saying that the people of Haiti made a pact with the devil—the most heartless comment that could be made in the context of this profound tragedy. His callus comments and this unfolding tragedy in Haiti present you, regardless of your religious or non-religious beliefs, with the most profound challenge. What is this challenge and how can the heartbreaking events in Haiti help you to understand the teaching of Jesus on and even deeper level?
The core teaching of Jesus is Love. Love cannot be thought. It lives only in the vast realm of your heart. Who you are is love, a Love so vast it is beyond comprehension. Most people on the planet have completely forgotten this fundamental truth. Many Christians miss this truth entirely because their attention is focused on an event in the future—the rapture, the return of Christ, and in this postponement fail to realize that he never left! Jesus is Love—Where could he go? He is here!
The events in Haiti are offering you the greatest challenge that life has to offer—to recognize the truth of who you are. It is extending an invitation for you to immediately, directly, intimately, discover the Love that you are at the core of your being. In this profound and often painful discovery, when you inquire into the depths of yourself and see that who you thought you were or who you a striving to be is unreal it is changing and impermanent—this is a painful seeing.
If you continue with your inquiry into the profoundly deep emptiness of yourself, you have the opportunity to recognize the vast indescribable Love that you are. When you open to this Love, you are like a rose that has bloomed in the sunlight, naturally exuding its eternal fragrance. Like an open rose the Love that you are is beacon of Light, the sweetest nectar, the eternal balm. The events in Haiti are calling you into your heart, calling you into the heart of compassion and love—in this recognition you will naturally love everyone as your very own self—Love! Whoa!
It would be easy to digress into a conversation about the end times or the ridiculous claim of Pat Robertson, but the core teaching of Jesus has no beginning and no end. Love is simply always here, you are just so busy thinking that this fundamental truth is easily overlooked. It is easy to throw stones at Pat Robertson or people who have different religious beliefs than yours or a different nationality or politics and that is not the answer. In life there is only one true answer—Love.
Pat Robertson is also love at the core of his being—he has forgotten this truth. What he thinks separates him from love and what you think has the power to separate you from love. Turning your attention to the truth of yourself releases this power. It is simple, Pat Robertson’s thoughts and your thoughts are simply not loveable. Who he thinks he is, simply is not loveable and who you think you are is not loveable. But, and this is a very big but, who you are at the core is always loveable. How can you not love Love? It is impossible.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Stop everything for a moment and really think about this—Love your neighbor as yourself—is Loving as Love—it is the essence of life. Loving your neighbor as yourself begins with deeply knowing who you are. It is loving yourself, accepting yourself exactly as you are with all your perceived flaws. Accepting yourself is loving yourself right now—not waiting to achieve something or to be something—it is right now—it is shutting the door on all of the ideas you have about yourself, it is shutting the door on both the future and the past!
Accepting what is, accepting yourself right now, opens your heart to the love that you are—it is not a postponement, it is not a waiting for things to improve or achieving some ideal that would make your life better. It is stopping this endless conversation of ‘If then.’ You know this conversation well, ‘If only I had more money, then I would be happy’ or ‘If only I had the perfect job, then I would be happy’ or ‘If I find the perfect lover, then I would be happy.’ It is an endless conversation about the future that hides what is here right now!
Once you fully accept yourself with all of your perceived flaws, it is natural to love and except everyone else just exactly as they are with no movement to fix or change them. Love is stillness. Love is silence. There is no movement in love. It is simply an opening, an intimacy, a vulnerability. The fear that arises is that if you open you could get hurt and it can hurt to love. Love is the essence of life, don’t miss the chance to love as love, because you are afraid, everyone is afraid, and everyone wants to love and be loved. Life hurts, your body hurts, it hurts to live this is the nature of life. Don’t give in to the fear of hurt, you hurt anyway, so why not love and hurt?
Jesus says, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:22) What does ‘let the dead bury their own dead’ mean? How can someone who is dead bury someone who is dead? If you are born into this world death is certain. If you believe that you are your body you are already dead, you are a walking corpse—you are the dead that can bury the dead. It is your identification with your body that is the root of all suffering.
Death is in the air in Haiti and death is everyone’s deepest fear. In one way it is uncomfortable to meet death on such a massive scale and in another way it depersonalizes death. Death is in Haiti, but it is not here. This is a mental postponement of death. Do you think that the people lying dead in the streets today thought last Monday they would be dead on Tuesday? Of course not! They thought they had time, they all thought they had a tomorrow, but tomorrow never arrived and in truth, tomorrow can never arrive, because it is only an idea of the future—only now is here! As Jesus illuminates, "Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)
One day your body will become lifeless as a stone. Naturally, death is what you fear the most. The ultimate challenge in life is to meet death before you die. To meet death is to truly live. Who is it that dies? Check it out and see. Ask yourself, “Who am I?” Ask yourself, “What is looking through the lens of your eye?” Avoidance of the deep-seated fear of death is the endless movement to the future. Tomorrow I will do this and that, or tomorrow I will have this or that, or be this or that, but what if tomorrow never arrives? What remains after your body dies?
Meeting death is looking into the profound depth of yourself. When you stop and look into the depths of yourself you can discover directly, immediately, openly, intimately that who you are at the core can never be touched by death. Who you are is pristine—it is a vast emptiness free of all definitions, the closest word to describe this emptiness is vast Silent Love, but even your ideas of silence or love fall away in this vastness. Welcoming this death before death is a deep welcoming of Love—it opens the door of true fulfillment.
God is Love. Jesus is Love. You are Love—No separation! When you deeply know you are this vast love is completely natural to love everyone as yourself. This does not mean that you have to love what someone is doing or saying, it means that you have the power to look beyond the surface level ideas you have about yourself and the other and simply love.
When recognize that you are nothing, you are emptiness, you are this vastness that can only be described as Love, then and only then can you realize that there is nothing to protect, nothing to hide, nothing to fear. You are simply open and be eternally free as Love.
The shock of the devastation in Haiti has worn off and people are faltering, they are suffering, one women in her anguish over the death of her children cried out, “God, I can’t do this anymore!” Love bears all things. You can help this woman and the many untold thousands experiencing this same intense pain simply by opening to Love. Love uplifts you and everyone!
The people of Haiti need your Love, your prayers, and your financial assistance. It is my deepest prayer that this article has inspired you to stop, and open to the Love that has the capacity to bear it all—even this horrific and heartbreaking tragedy.
Jesus says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” ( John 13:59) Stop is a most holy word. Stop and open to the Love that you are and Love as Love itself!”
How will you share the Love that you are today?
|