Thursday Thoughts...

“When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.” 

Thich Nhat Hanh 

I found this quote on page 42 of my quote-collecting document which is now sitting at 108 pages, so I must have had it there for a while.  Now seems as good a time as any to sit down with it and ponder life.

The first sentence is something that I feel many of us understand and try to do - we oftentimes find the patience, the emotional IQ, the community-mindedness, the family-focussedness to keep things calm and smooth and orderly in their way (except of course if the other person's proposition is abominable).

I must admit however I haven't often though of that process as being about bringing my mind of compassion to the situation; more I feel as if I bring my ability to put up with things, to the situation. So that is a much nicer way to think about it.

The second sentence was a bit more of a challenge as I really sat with it - that sense of understanding that like many religions suggest, we should love people despite their unpleasantness. Tricky, especially with people in politics for example or in power, whom I despise.  I clearly have a long way to go on this part.

I can relate to the second part with say children, where I am very happy to say I love the child, but I don't like the behaviour (same goes for some adults I guess). Love not being contingent on the other person being loveable is a big thing to try and do...

This is one of our rainbow of kindness posters and it is a reminder to me to act in a more positive way than I might feel; but the quotes seems to ask me to feel the way I should feel, not just act it...