By no means am I an Emotional Cretin, but I hope that one day I will have the state of mind to look beyond I, Mine and My. I hope that one day I will be able to see Reality and live in wisdom, not creating Pain and suffering for anyone.
The world is a tough place, until we are able to see it all with an enlightened mind, it is the 4 sublime states of Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity which helps us cope with the daily interactions of life. The Buddha taught us to utilise these states in ALL Interactions. We are all travellers on a long journey, it is this same 4 sublime states which makes the journey tolerable.
Ultimately, we will realise that all human interactions that comes with love and joy also has an element of separation and pain; hence I always say pls make sure you choose wisely so that the pain is WORTH the pain! Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you;
you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
Until we are enlightened we will still think in terms of you and me and a dog named Boo, separation, ego, me, mine; hence we will think of "I love you" or "You love me"
At higher levels of realisation, we will see that all these are only transient states, not ultimate reality. It is when you see the end of I, Me and Mine, that we will realise why this Person to Person, Being to Being classification is relative truth. But we all live in relative truth everyday, eg I "own" this land, house, car. Its just convention and social acceptance in truth. So we need the 4 sublime states as we need to function here and now.
Pls LOVE and Be LOVED! Until you reach a state when you Love not ONE, or a Clan or a nation BUT ALL because you know there is NOT ONE OR TWO or a clan or a creed!
"You" will then LOVE "ALL" which makes a "person to person" love meaningless as there is No ONE person in reality for you to love!! Then we will truly understand why the Mind can be in Objective and Calm detachment because All that we are attached to is merely a protoplasm in evolution that we conventionally classify as he, me, you, they, etc, but that we are all part of a whole.
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Love (Metta)
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.
And what is the highest manifestation of love?
To show to the world the path leading to the end of suffering, the path pointed out, trodden, and realized to perfection by Him, the Exalted One, the Buddha.
The Four Sublime States
Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity
By Nyanaponika Thera © 1994–2011
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