23 April 2019 — LOVE and KINDNESS

Sometimes it’s hard to know how well we have loved, ‘truly’ loved. Romantic love is one form of love but sometimes it can be a quite selfish form of love. The ADVERB from LOVE is ‘lovingly’ and how often with our nearest and dearest do we respond ‘lovingly’ when we ourselves are irritated or unhappy about something?

How often do we ‘allow a smile’ to lighten us up? And yet when walking along the street sometimes, we do find that smiles from strangers do often ‘lighten’ us up and make us feel good.

But it is the act of kindness which can send us soaring, if only momentarily: that feeling that someone cares about us and is concentrating on us. If the act of kindness is a spontaneous random act from a stranger it is especially welcome; (if we have enough self esteem to accept it gracefully and not to feel that we don’t deserve it).

Buddhists practice what is known as a LOVING KINDNESS MEDITATION which starts off by feeling love for one’s self. And unless we love our ‘self’ of course we can’t really love others. AH AND THERE’S THE RUB — when we find our ‘self’ feeling angry at others we are probably, in truth feeling angry at ourselves having sensed on some level that they remind us of our ‘self.’