The Second Commandment: Love Everything – Part 1

OK, I think I got it clear now!  Took a few eves of contemplation. 

I am ready to unfold The Second Commandment, Love Everything, for you all.    

You can refer to these as a reminder.  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-commandments.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/enlightenment-part-5-final-secret.html

So what is this Love Everything business anyway?  How do you expect me to love everything?  What about war?  What about rape and child abuse?  What about controversial stuff, such as guns, abortion, eating meat?  

Hmmm…  sometimes perhaps hard stuff to contemplate within this Second Commandment. 

In part, loving everything is practicing Metta and Tonglen. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/gentler-meditation.html

It is holding everything gently, like a butterfly.  It is neither pushing away, nor grasping too tightly, nor being in ignorance (see The Three Emotions). 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-emotions.html

This does not mean we do not perform Right Action.  People who commit crimes need to be reformed, or need to be kept in a safe place where they can do no harm. 

How we define a crime is a more controversial problem, often this relates to your personal level of evolution. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-1.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

Remember that there is a strict order to The Three Commandments. 

          1-There is only one Source.

                    2-Love everything.

                              3-Enjoy yourself.

The realization that there is only one Source comes first.  Why?  Because this puts “love everything” in its proper perspective. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-commandment.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-commandment-part-2.html

We get closer to Source by dropping everything that gets in the way of seeing clearly.  Seeing clearly is wisdom.  Within seeing clearly we see the suffering in ourselves, and in the world. 

Seeing suffering touches us deeply and drives us to act with compassion in the world.  That compassion can take many forms, depending on who we are, and what lenses we are seeing through.  The highest form of compassion is to Love Everything. 

I will argue that Loving Everything is part of Radical Acceptance.  This also relates to The Three Beauties. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/conscious-relationship-part-2-radical.html

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-beauties.html

You can appreciate that there are horrible repulsive things that happen in the world, war, rape, pestilence.  But, you hold the horrible and the beautiful the same.  You look at it with the view from a tall mountain, or from an airplane. 

You take the thousand-year view and you realize that things do improve over time.  You can see that civilization does actually evolve to higher levels over time.  It just can be very hard to see within our short lifetimes. 

Within Radical Acceptance you do not have to like everything that goes on in the world.  But, you have to accept the whole package, just as it is.   Then you can go ahead and do Right Action to try to change the world.  Right Action to help individuals, and therefore the whole world, rise up to a higher level of evolution. 

So, the positive aspects of Love Everything is Right Action within Radical Acceptance. 

However, there are significant errors that can be made under the label Love Everything.  These are the negative aspects of Love Everything. 

We will take that up next!