Do I have to?

Love Your Enemies

This has always been the most challenging chapter for me.

When I read it, I know it to be true--in my heart.

It is my head that gets in the way.

WARNING:

Not for the faint of heart!

"But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, 

do good to those who hate you. 

Luke 6:27

When you are in love you find yourself looking at everyone 

with new eyes; you become generous, forgiving, kindhearted, where 

before you might have been hard and mean. 

Inevitably people begin reacting to you in the same way and soon 

you find yourself living in a loving world that you yourself have created.

Or think of the time you were in a bad mood and found yourself 

becoming irritable, mean, suspicious, even paranoid. 

The next thing you knew everyone was reacting to you 

in a negative way and you found yourself living in a hostile world 

created by your head and your emotions.

How could you go about creating a happy, loving peaceful world? 

By learning a simple, beautiful but painful art called the art of looking.

Every time you find yourself irritated or angry with someone, 

the one to look at is not that person but yourself.

Not, "What's wrong with this person?" 

but "What does this irritation tell me about myself?"

The cause of my irritation is not in this person but in me.

Look into the very real possibility that the reason why this person's defects 

or so-called defects annoy you is that you have them yourself.

Can it be that you are annoyed at what this person says or does 

because those words and behavior are pointing out something in your life 

and in yourself that you are refusing to see?

You become irritated with this person because he/she is not living up to the expectations that have been programmed into you.

And here is a final truth for you to consider:

Given the background, the life experience, and the unawareness 

of this person, he cannot help behaving the way he does.

It has been so well said that to understand all is to forgive all. 

If you really understood this person you would see him 

as crippled and not blameworthy, and your irritation would instantly cease.

And the next thing you know you will be treating him/her with love, 

and he/she is responding with love, and you find yourself living 

in a loving world which you have yourself created.

The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello

Guess I'll have to read this one over and over and over, because my 

"Yes, but!" 

keeps yelling that it's impossible.

I suppose time will tell.