Wednesday of Lent I - Division
The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing River that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences good, bad, an indifferent are thrown into the flowing River of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.
The concepts of separateness that have dominated our lives have produced tremendous suffering. What we have taken to be real is in fact a hallucination. The division between self and other is the degration of our highest human potential: the liberation of the mind that is love. The critical moment of the path, which breaks open the loving heart, is the realization that we have never existed as separate, isolated beings. When wisdom recognizes our oneness and sees the interconnectedness of all beings, it fills us with a degree of happiness that transforms our lives.
Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, 1995.
