Lovingkindness
by Nyanaponika Thera
Love,
without desire to possess, knowing well that in the ultimate sense
there is no possession and no possessor: this is the highest love.
Love, without speaking and thinking of "I," knowing well that this so-called "I" is a mere delusion.
Love,
without selecting and excluding, knowing well that to do so means to
create love's own contrasts: dislike, aversion and hatred.
Love, embracing all beings: small and great, far and near, be it on earth, in the water or in the air.
Love, embracing impartially all sentient beings, and not only those who are useful, pleasing or amusing to us.
Love,
embracing all beings, be they noble-minded or low-minded, good or evil.
The noble and the good are embraced because Love is flowing to them
spontaneously. The low-minded and evil-minded are included because they
are those who are most in need of Love. In many of them the seed of
goodness may have died merely because warmth was lacking for its growth,
because it perished from cold in a loveless world.
Love,
embracing all beings, knowing well that we all are fellow wayfarers
through this round of existence -- that we all are overcome by the same
law of suffering.
Love,
but not the sensuous fire that burns, scorches and tortures, that
inflicts more wounds than it cures -- flaring up now, at the next moment
being extinguished, leaving behind more coldness and loneliness than
was felt before.
Rather,
Love that lies like a soft but firm hand on the ailing beings, ever
unchanged in its sympathy, without wavering, unconcerned with any
response it meets. Love that is comforting coolness to those who burn
with the fire of suffering and passion; that is life-giving warmth to
those abandoned in the cold desert of loneliness, to those who are
shivering in the frost of a loveless world; to those whose hearts have
become as if empty and dry by the repeated calls for help, by deepest
despair.
Love, that is a sublime nobility of heart and intellect which knows, understands and is ready to help.
Love, that is strength and gives strength: this is the highest Love.
Love, which by the Enlightened One was named "the liberation of the heart," "the most sublime beauty": this is the highest Love.
Source: The Four Sublime States (excerpt). For free distribution.
