We have all heard "I think, therefore I am" but what matters is "I am, therefore I must do something". To do something is to commit oneself. Whatever one commits oneself to is an act of love of some kind. The object of one's love may be wholesome or not; the manner in which one acts one's love may be skilful or not; one's capacity of heart and mind may be big or small; but, whatever, love drives our life. Even the most negative seeming things are driven by love ultimately. Hitler loved an ideal of Aryanism. That same love could potentially have been put to much better use. He wanted to accomplish his idea of a perfect world. Every lover is trying to do so - just the ideas of what a perfect world is differ. We all seek our idea of the Pure Land.
Spirituality is the process of clarifying the love that is at work in our life and directing it toward the most worthy goal. Our love is our faith. When Siddhartha Gotama's love was self-directed he first lived a life of indulgence and then turned to seemingly spiritual practices but he had still not discovered what love was really about or what its proper object was. It was running his life, but still in a distorted way. Then, when he was starving and down and out, Sujata the milk maid took spontaneous pity on him out of the goodness of her heart and he thus learnt the most important lesson. She was not following a plan. She was not applying a principle. She was not doing something for herself (she probably got into trouble later from her parents for what she did). She was just doing something loving in a simple and immediate way while he had spent his time trying to do something much more complicated. She fed him the milk and he got stronger. It was an act of love. When what had happened sank in he felt released and enlightened. He saw how all our complications (samskaras) arise in dependence upon other complications, but also saw that it is possible to cut straight through all that to a life of simply letting the love flow. Thereafter his love flowed outward toward others. "After that he was never alone" as it says in the Denkuroku - meaning that he was ever ministering in some way to somebody. He did not get "burnt out" or suffer "compassion fatigue" because he was not trying to do anything particularly complicated or achieve some distant and elusive goal. His perfect world was the well-being of the person in front of him, just as Sujata's had been when she saw him in the gutter and had been moved to pity. His love had been liberated by hers. His whole life became meaningful. Everybody that he met received love from him. Some were more open to it than others, but he was always open-handed. This does not mean that he was naive - he became exceedingly wise and skilful in helping people each according to their propensities and potential. We each have a life. We each perforce must do something. Even if one is a housebound invalid one's mode of life can be loving or bitter. Even if it is bitter, behind that bitterness somewhere is a reservoir of love. Shakyamuni taught from his own experience. Liberate the reservoir of love. Don't worry that it might run dry - it won't - it is fed by a "source inexhaustible" that has nothing to do with you. That was his message. Actually, it helps enormously to realise that that source is not oneself: that in and of ourselves we are just weak vulnerable creatures, dependently originated, full of crap, but through us can flow the most amazing grace if we are willing.
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