Love
Your Neighbor
"The
hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the
self - to encounter another human being not as someone you can use,
change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as
someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will
allow it."
Barbara
Brown Taylor
I wrote yesterday about
the Shadow—aspects of ourselves that we try to keep tightly
buttoned up; sometimes parts that we don't even know we have. Well,
this quote from Barbara Brown Taylor is an accurate description of
mine. My shadow likes to feel she knows what's best for everyone; if
they would only listen and do exactly as she advises, they would get
on better in the world. I know her well—but that doesn't mean that
I am in control of her. Once we recognize a part of our Shadow, we
still have a long way to go when it comes to not acting it out. In
fact, recognizing it in ourselves is only step one. Claiming it as
our own—steps two through ten. Not living it out—steps ad
infinitum.
Learning to love one's
neighbor as oneself assumes that one loves oneself, right? I have
found this a difficult chore, too. We are our own worst enemy almost
always. So, recognizing Shadow aspects does not give us permission to
self-loath. We all have rough edges—we're human animals. We are
mammals, born to compete and dominate if we can. Watch any mammal
population—almost from birth, they tussle for dominance over one
another. Just because we now live indoors and eat cooked food with a
fork does not mean we have left that aspect of ourselves far behind.
It lives and breaths right inside us and in every other human, as
well. Recognizing that helps us to be more compassionate with our
animal-self—and with theirs.
We have to fulfill this
particular commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself by
degrees—infinitesimally small steps. Some would say, over many
lifetimes. But that is not an excuse for not beginning. We begin by
opening our eyes and seeing that we are just here trying to do the
best we can, and others are doing the same. We make mistakes, and
mistakes can be corrected. I do believe that all of us want to be
“good people,” And good people recognize their capacity for doing
harm. They confront that aspect of themselves, not with malice, but
with acceptance. And they extend the same respect to others.
In the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment