Hello everyone,
Last night I was looking for quotations about unconditional love for today’s post.
Wow, what a difficult task!
Almost exclusively the quotations I found were about love in relationships. Romantic love, mostly.
We can say we love someone ‘unconditionally’, but that usually doesn’t last much past the last bitter row and one of us walking away. When it’s no longer reciprocated, the love of one person, for the object of their desire, is really only yearning and causes lots of distress. Love in relationships largely depends on the two people within it expecting love to be offered in return. And that makes it conditional.
What if we practise loving those things which are harder to love? Loving someone who has deeply betrayed you and now doesn’t love you in return?Having compassion for that bug which has invaded your home and putting it outside without harming it? That’s unconditional love or love with non-attachment. Attachment leads to emotional pain, as anyone who has had romantic or family love go badly wrong, can readily agree.
As I once read, “It’s easy to love kittens and puppies, babies and the things we think look cute. It’s not quite so easy to love that grumpy old neighbour living four doors down.” And who ever said ‘ah, how sweet’, about a cockroach and wanted to pick it up and cuddle it? Sure, there are health reasons why we don’t want to be up close and personal with pests like cockroaches and rats but we shouldn't be automatically thinking about their destruction.
If you think about it, aren’t these creatures worthy of our love too? Love doesn’t have to be about hugs, kisses, or admiration. We all have our path to walk on earth and we all want the same things, even the lowliest of creatures. Mostly just to be left to live, untroubled by violence and to strive and thrive.
Why not just try to love that person who scowls at you and appears to really dislike you. It’s just a mindset after all. You may never be best buddies, but you may find, mysteriously, that after a while doing this, you may not dislike her/him quite as much as you thought.
Quite honestly some of the sources for quotations on this topic were twaddle. Such as, '60 Charming Unconditional Love Quotes For Him And Her'.
So, I’ve had to return to Buddha to find something to make sense of this.
He said,
“Pain is certain. Suffering is optional.”
If you choose to love unconditionally, suffering is almost certainly going to be less.
Have a wonderful Thursday everyone!
Photo: Wofgang Hasselmann Unsplash.com
Quotation for Friday, 2nd April 2020