Quotes from two new books on Compassion and Lovingkindness

Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment

by Jim Forest

Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2014.

 "Nowhere in the Gospels does Christ instruct us to hate our enemies--instead we are told to love them. But if we are going to take seriously the command to love our enemies, it would help to know what Christ means, and doesn't mean, by love. . . . the American Heritage Dictionary defines love as an "intense affection and warm feeling for another person; strong sexual desire for another person; a strong fondness or enthusiasm.   Such a definition makes Christ's commandment to love one's enemies incomprehensible. We can safely say that even Jesus was without intense affection or warm feelings for his judges, torturers, and executioners. Yet he loved them."  (p. 13)

[The author describes a scene from the end of The Brothers Karamazov where a woman questions Father Zosima] ". . . she asks how she can find certainty in matters of faith. Father Zosima responds that no explanation or argument can achieve this, only the practice of "active love". . . The woman responds with the confession that she sometimes dreams about a life of service to others--she even imagines herself becoming a Sister of Mercy, living in holy poverty, serving the poor in the humblest way. . . But then it crosses her mind how ungrateful some of the people she would be serving are likely to be. They will probably complain that the soup she is serving isn't hot enough or thick enough, the bread isn't fresh enough, the bed is too hard and the covers too thin. She confesses to Zosima that she couldn't bear such ingratitude. . . To this Zosima responds with four sentences worth memorizing: 'Active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, rapidly performed and with everyone watching. Indeed it will go so far as the giving even of one's life, provided it does not take long and everyone is looking on and praising. Whereas active love is labor and perseverance.' "  (pp. 81-82)

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Love Your Enemies: How to Break the Anger Habit & Be a Whole Lot Happier

by Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman

Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, California     © 2013    216 pp.

"In the Spiritual context, 'love' means to wish for the happiness of someone, and this is what we're encouraging you to do in regard to your enemies. The command to love everyone, including those that harm you--as put forth by many great spiritual teachers, such as Buddha and Jesus--has often been viewed as undesirable or even impossible. However, it is worth considering that it is in fact eminently possible and practical to wish true happiness for your enemy, for this is the only way to be free of the torment brought on by them."   (p. xiii)

"Mindfulness practice opens up a world of options for working with anger. Normally, we get lost in the story and identify with anger: They did this, so I'm going to do that and my vengeful act will destroy them. . . But using mindfulness we can say, 'Oh, it's anger. This is anger.' If we can maintain that sort of balance, then we are able to take the anger apart and see into its nature. And what do we see? We see anger's composite, conditioned, and ever-changing nature."  (p. 29)

-- submitted by Jennifer Knight

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