While grappling with the difficult existential questions upon which religions are formulated, we've come to quite a multiplicity of explanations throughout history. Ultimate reality is clearly a matter for debate, and yet, despite occasional (in)certitude(s), we often agree that It transcends human perception and language. We can point to God's existence but never exactly locate Him. Through faith we believe, but, as reason inevitably falls short in describing absolute Truth, we have trouble transcending human labels and attributes. We ultimately must settle for describing Brahman in vague, abstract terms. More often than not, we know It most fully with our hearts rather than our minds. An intellectual analysis of the absolute is prone to both the beauty and limitations of our constructed semantics. Though theologies abound in multitudes, they are all intrinsically tethered to the social, cultural and political realities in which they were developed. Indeed, a religion's success or failure is dependent upon exactly such realities, rather than the actual content or intention of the theology itself. Love, however, is innate, never learned, and an integral part of Our common path to Enlightenment. Without love, a child could have no mother, a father no son, lovers couldn't love, and existence as we understand it could not exist. Therefore, despite the vacuity of attempted descriptors of Brahman, Universal love is poignantly more accessible, by all, for all, and, most importantly, from all. Of course, "it ain't easy out there for a pimp." As much as we may espouse theologies of Universal love, our sensory perceptions of reality often lead to its opposite: hate. And if love accesses Truth, hate, then, is its opposite, at least in pragmatic, practical, everyday, mundane semantics; access of unTruth. In other words, hate is delusion, only propagated by samsara, or through human suffering. This is not to say that hate is necessarily wrong, or to be avoided at all cost, for, certainly, some are deserving of hate. Instead, hate, or even more simply put, aversion, is no less than desire turned on its head, called by another name. Rather than uniting us, hate further splinters our already disparate personal realities, and so the cycle continues...
Love, not hate, then, is the most readily accessible manner in which We can truly realize a more interconnected, deeper and more absolute understanding of Brahman, the Universe, Dao, God, Adonai, Allah, and Ultimate Reality, whatever your personal preference may be.
Love, not hate, then, is the most readily accessible manner in which We can truly realize a more interconnected, deeper and more absolute understanding of Brahman, the Universe, Dao, God, Adonai, Allah, and Ultimate Reality, whatever your personal preference may be.
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
Baby Einstein signing off. Thanks for reading!
