Happy Friday!
I usually prefer to share just two or three thoughts from our teacher of the week in the daily message, but every so often it’s too difficult to choose, and today this is true for Byron Katie’s thoughts on love, so here’s a whole bunch!
“I see the goodness and beauty in everyone, and everything is a gift given for me and for all of us. If you don’t love it, question your mind until you do.” – Byron Katie
“I love the world, because I love the mind that created the world.” – Byron Katie
“We’re all looking for love, in our confusion, until we find our way back to the realization that love is what we already are.” – Byron Katie
“To exclude anything that appears in your universe is not love. Love joins with everything. It doesn’t exclude the monster. It doesn’t avoid the nightmare – it looks forward to it.” – Byron Katie
“When we love what is, it becomes so simple to live in the world. The world is exactly as it should be.” – Byron Katie
“A lover of what is looks forward to everything: life, death, disease, loss, earthquakes, bombs, anything the mind might be tempted to call ‘bad.’ Life will bring us everything we need, to show us what we haven’t undone yet. Nothing outside ourselves can make us suffer. Except for our unquestioned thoughts, every place is paradise.” – Byron Katie
“Our job is unconditional love. The job of everyone else in our life is to push our buttons.” (so we can realize where we don’t have unconditional love yet) – Byron Katie
“When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.” – Byron Katie
Byron Katie suggests that we challenge our own thoughts and beliefs about love until we dismantle the barriers that prevent us from experiencing the world with open hearts. It’s about accepting and embracing all aspects of life, including the challenging ones.
The takeaway message for me, reminds me of something I read in Shantaram a lifetime ago. Living in a slum in India he came to a conclusion that has stuck with me ever since:
“It doesn’t always help us to love the world… but it does prevent us from hating the world.” – Shantaram
Are you going to wait for the world and the humans around you to first be perfect before you start loving? Love starts right now, by loving everything that is!
A few mantras for Self-Reflection:
- I choose love as my response to all of life’s experiences.
- I am willing to question my thoughts and beliefs about what I see.
- I embrace all of life, including the challenges, as opportunities for growth.
- I cultivate gratitude for everything that is.
- Love starts now.
Of course, this is never to say that we should ever put up with abuse in the name of love. There are often good reasons to step away from a situation and “love from a distance”. But even in the worst situations when the best decision is to step away, you can live with love in your heart or you can live with hate in your heart, and clearly only one of those options leads to health.
Have a happy Friday peeps!
– pierre –
Today’s LIVE meditation is: Sharing love.