Monday, March 9, 2009

We Are One/ Loving One's Neighbor/ It Starts with the Consciousness Beyond Labels

Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, " YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. "
38 This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 The second is like it, " YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. "

" We are one (hu)man. " - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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In this day and age, it seems easier to love God but difficult to love our neighbors. In fact, the current trend seems to be to hate, ostracize, or minimize at the least those who disagree with our views about our philosophies in life or even in such trivia such us fashion tastes, dismissing them as FOBs ( fresh off boats ), ghetto, rednecks, clueless, unpatriotic, not the real America, corny, not-us ( " them " ), etc.. The implication is they are second-class citizens, or worse, lesser human beings. This, then, is the root of all human conflict: WE FAIL TO SEE THE ESSENTIAL IDENTITY / OURSELVES AS FELLOW BEINGS COMING FROM THE SAME SOURCE / GOD / HIGHER BEING however we call HIM /HER. We get stuck with our ( external ) human forms manifesting in different ways, depending on when and where we happened to be born or residing, subject to external variables such as culture, language, nationality, tradition, clothes, food, laws, transportation, climate, weather, housing, possessions, titles, temporal power, fame, popularity, achievements, works, etc... That must be mine to be me... that piece of empty lot I will never develop... or barren desert... or that stock certificate I cannot bring to my grave

As a result, each one of us separates oneself from others and creates a wall. An incessant need for accumulation cannot be far behind, setting up a fertile ground for greed and fierce competition and survival of the fittest.... the law of the jungle soon follows with high-tech weaponry. This is where humongous egos evolve and wars are waged. The Wall Street crash, the Iraq War, the Middle East conflict... The stakes are higher, because, the human race has, for the first time, the capacity to annihilate the entire planet earth and every human being in it.

But if I remind myself that I am a spiritual being, eternal, unchanged, even by death ( O, death, where is thy sting? ), coming from that Great Spirit, the greatest energy source, I do not need any external French designer label to define my identity and feel good about it because it's been ( my identity - spiritual being ) there all along... and every other being is my equal, my sister and brother; hence, I can love her / him easier any time of day or night, though there be recession or depression or war.... because there is that deep abiding peace in me which the world cannot give, and which it may never understand.....

A prince in pauper's rags is still a prince; so is a child of God.... always a child of God, and the only identity and label I need.... for me and my neighbor.

Peace to all who read this....

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on your weblog, Hernan! And Amen to being a child of God, rather than a worthless sinner. Sometimes, all it takes to see the world differently is to claim our divinity.

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  2. Thanks, Lester, for being the first one. I will treasure this... see you one of these days!

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  3. This is great, Hernan! Keep it up! You should definitely share this link on Facebook so others can see.

    :D

    Venessa

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  4. Thank you, Venessa. I just did. :-)

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  5. Hi Herman,

    thanks for putting together this article. at this period of time, we need to ponder on something that is more uplifting, encouraging and most of all spiritual. i truly like the verses that you have chosen, actually this is one of my life verse. Loving God is not really that easy if you truly comprehend verse 37. loving God with "all" your heart, not half hearted but with all our heart that makes you think what about me and balancing my life and the people around me? i thinnk we should truly understandand God in all aspects, meaning His holyness, His loving kindness, His sovereignty, His attributes and all. when we truly comprehend who is GOd is, (ofcourse, the source document should be the bible)then, we will understand who we are and how are we going to love our neighbors. loving others i think shows more of who we are than who is the recipient of our love. all other things will follow.

    thnks for your blog and i hope you will post more messages.

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  6. you are right, ofrani. when you really love God who is all Love, you can't help but love others. thank you for taking the time to write your wise,insightful, thoughtful comments. peace...

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  7. Bro Hernan,
    Amen! Indeed it is easier to say we love God and failed to love our neighboor. If we follow the golden rule of Confucius we will be OK.
    The human conflicts is the responsible for the unending change of our history, culture, economy, social values, religion and etc. Bro JCD

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