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Love (as
an aspect of Brotherhood)
Objective love
is closely related to selfless service. One way to think
of it is that it is the opposite of selfishness. Abdullah says
that the most important qualities required of members are
love, acceptance and loyalty toward the people and the group itself. He says that in
a brotherhood there has to be love. Love is the basis of
brotherhood, and without it there is nothing. He says the love has to
come
through before you can do anything. It allows you to relate, to accept
others
just as a human beings. Abdullah says
that if we remember God, and know we are here on the planet
for only a short time, we may be able to replace our selfishness with
love. And
that when we work for our fellow men and try to remember God at the
same time,
from these two things comes a feeling of love. Abdullah also
says
that the place to find God is in your heart. When you send your love to
people
you try to concentrate on the heart, and repetition of God's name or a
simple
phrase like Lord have mercy upon me, in the heart, is to try to build
up love
in the heart. We have three
stories today. The first story
is called “the two asses” from the Egyptian
teaching.
[Her Bak, Egyptian Initiate, p.125] Her Bak left
the arguing crowd of boys and went to look for his old
donkey. He found him in the stable, side by side with the new donkey he
had
bought that day. He stroked him gently and gave him some barley, and
then he
gave some to the new one as well. “How
are you getting on together, you two? Not jealous of each other?
What a pity we cannot have a real chat together, but I am sleepy now
and I will
rest an hour between you.”
and he lay
down and slept. But as he slept
he heard the asses speaking to each other. Said the old
donkey to the newcomer “Don’t stamp your hoof, we
must let Chick-Pea sleep!” “But
the boy’s name is Her Bak” said the new ass. “No,
his name is Chick Pea I tell you” The new ass
snorted “Let’s not quarrel about it like
men”. “No”
said the older one, “It is already too much that he thought
we could
be jealous.” The new ass
snorted again “Jealous indeed – it takes two to be
jealous.” “But
the boy thinks we are two. He sees us as men do when they count
herds - so many donkeys, so many cows, so many
dogs…” The old donkey
shook his head. “That would be like us saying ‘two
men’
for their two eyes, or ‘another two men’ for their
two ears. It is all just too
silly, but as long as they see themselves as separate from one another
I
suppose they will just go on fighting.” The second
story is called the Verse of the
Robe, [Zen is Right
Here P.52] A brief verse
of the robe is usually recited three times after the long
sitting meditation in Zen Buddhism. Great robe of
liberation Field far
beyond form and emptiness Wearing
Buddha’s teaching Saving all
beings In the early
sixties at the Suzuki said,
“I don’t know.” Katagiri
Sensei, his assistant teacher, started going through the drawers
looking for a translation. Suzuki gestured
for him to stop. Then he turned to the student, pointed
to his heart, and said, “It’s love.” The third story
is from “The Conference of the Birds”. It is called
the ‘Story of the
Moths’
[p125]. One night the
moths met together tormented by a desire to be united to
the candle. They said: 'We
must send someone
who will bring us information about the candle.'
So one of them set off and came to a castle,
and inside he saw the light of a candle. He returned,
and according to his understanding, reported what he had
seen. But the wise old moth who had organised the gathering said that
this
first moth understood nothing about the candle. So another moth went.
He
touched the flame with the tip of his wings, but the heat drove him off. His report
being not much more satisfying than that of the first, a third
went out. This one, intoxicated with love, threw himself on the flame;
with his
forelegs he took hold of the flame and united himself joyously with it.
He embraced
the flame completely and his body became as red as fire. The wise moth,
who was watching from far off, saw that the flame and the
moth appeared to be one, and he said:
'He has learnt
what he wished to know; but only he understands, and one
can say no more.' |
© 2006, 2007 Jim Kelly