Let Love Live
I’m sure you, too, are amazed at scenes like this: You’re watching your child at play, or a puppy running around the yard. Or you’re walking in the woods and see a kit (baby fox) or a butterfly.
Or—I am sitting in bed, a magazine on my lap. My wife is next to me, doing a puzzle. In between us, near our feet, are two cats, sleeping. I look at them, at all of us, and feel awe. Ok, the cats are simply sleeping, my wife, puzzling. But there is such trust on that bed. These beings want to be here, with me, with each other. They care. Or we care.
One of the cats, Milo, starts twitching, as if dreaming. He wraps his front paws around and over his head, as if to hide. I lean over and touch his back, and the shaking stops. He relaxes, releases his head and turns over, showing me his belly. There is such vulnerability there, delicacy. I give myself to you, and you give it back, enhanced.
I am reading an article in the September issue of Lion’s Roar: Buddhist Wisdom For Our Time. It is a wonderful conversation between two Buddhist meditators and educators, Sharon Salzberg and Bell Hooks, about “The Power of Real Love.” Sharon talks of growing up thinking that love is something given by others, but she now realizes it is an ability, a capacity, maybe even a responsibility we have in ourselves. Bell Hooks talks of love as residing in our actions, not just in our feelings. But in this day, in this political climate, where fear and hate are so frequently in the news—How do we love? How do we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and care when the forces of domination seem to surround us?
Actions taken out of love can be the most difficult and painful in our lives—and the most liberating. There is more power in the touch of love than can be conceived and dreamed in fear and hate. Fear can be a message to wake up and observe more closely or to turn away. But it is built on opposition, and is unstable. It lasts only as long as we maintain a threat or an enemy, and a wall. Those outside the wall are rejected; those inside the wall are suspect. Such fear needs our compliance with it in order to succeed.
And this is our choice each day. You, me, all of us still have this choice. Will we touch and be touched by what is happening to those who share the earth with us? Will we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and learn what is going on, to care and to act? Will we allow love to live in us, or will we cover our heads and hearts with fear?
**And thank you to Bell Hooks and Sharon Salzberg (and Lion’s Roar) for the conversation and teachings.
Elaine Mansfield
Exquisite, Ira. Reading this was heart-opening. Thank you.
Ira Rabois
And thank you. Some moments are just startling.
Joan
Lovely words and thoughts, Ira. I have the same feeling of awe when my husband and I sit with our cat, Lilli, and our Max dog.
We must have faith that the great divide we are feeling now will someday be healed.
Ira Rabois
Thank you, Joan. And, yes, may the divide be healed, and the suffering reduced.
Eileen AIN
Hi Ira:
Sharon Salzberg is at the Rubin Museum today doing a meditation program!! And a Palestinian Israeli will be doing a workshop on vulnerability as a means to connect us. Synchronicity!
I love your blogs!! So glad the book is bringing good will to so many.
Ira Rabois
Thank you, Eileen. Glad you could attend those programs.