Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Loving Our Enemies

How can we love our enemies? Because we recognize that loving-kindness is alive in every heart.

We love the evil-minded because they need it most! “In many of them, the seeds of goodness may have died because warmth was lacking for its growth. It perished form coldness in a world without compassion,” Maha Ghosananda said.

This is how we can love our enemies, because we understand.

We do not take sides in partisan conflicts, but advocate non-partisan reconciliation without limit, because no one is excluded form the need of love.

Loving-kindness saw the whole world as one family, the Human Family. Human rights begin when each man becomes a brother and each woman becomes a sister” when we truly care for each other.

Loving-kindness is a very powerful energy. It radiates to all without distinction. It radiates to our loved ones, to those towards whom we are neutral, and to our enemies. There are no boundaries to loving-kindness. The Dharma is founded on loving kindness. The Buddha looked on the whole world with eyes of compassion, so our personal prayer for happiness is a pryare for the whole world: May the whole world be happy.

Compassion compels us to reach out to all living beings, including our so-called enemies, those people who upset or hurt us. Irrespective of what they do to you, if you remember that all beings like you are only trying to be happy, you will find it much easier to develop compassion towards them.

Usually our sense of compassion is limited and biased to “me” and “mine”. We extend such feelings only towards our family and friends or those who are helpful to us.

But true compassion is universal in scope. There are no boundaries to loving kindness. The Buddha looked on the whole world with eyes of compassion.

One of the emotions most disturbing our mental tranquility is hatred. The antidote is compassion.

Wisdom sees the oneness of all things. Compassion sees the multiplicity, the individuality, of all things.

We are here to help as much as we can, as many as we can, for as long as we can.

Compassion is an understanding heart.

Loving-kindness is like water flowing everywhere. It is a gift that we can give.

Loving-kindness is the only way to peace.


If we can change ourselves, we can change the world. This is the essence of Compassionate Listening: seeing the person next to you as a part of yourself.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for this. As always you inspire.

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  2. Dear Ven.Santidhammo,

    I guess it is very important to correct this permanent wrong quoted Dhammapada stanza.

    Hostility is conquered by non-hostility. Its just that western mistranslated it and but love to non-holtility.
    Buddha never taught love to be a way of release but the very reason at first place for bondage and he expressed endless times that it is the root of suffering and he would not even have taught metta (goodwill) to people ensnared in sensuality anyway, as the would not get the message at all.

    When Ven Maha Ghosananda taught such, he did not use love, he used metta (goodwill) and that is really far away form love (tanha, pema).

    If people would not love, there would be no reason for fight and struggle at all.

    How ever, I trust that this message reaches you by good health and I trust that you are well supported to be able to practice for the benefit of all beings.

    metta & mudita

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