Life is Deep- Bo Lozoff

 


"Renowned teacher/activist Bo Lozoff describes the common threads of all religions and the simple principles they share. Excerpted from "You Can Do This," a 1-hr video available at www.humankindness.org"
http://www.youtube.com/user/bohkffan

Bo Lozoff is the author of my favorite spiritual book: Deep and Simple -- A spiritual path for modern times. Human Kindness Foundation. He has dedicated his life to sharing spirituality and music, particularly with incarcerated people. I highly recommend his books and talks.

The following is an excerpt  from the above mentioned book (pg. 24):

...We continue to choose anger over Love, fear over Love, national boundaries over Love, greed over Love, race over Love, self-protection over Love. God has given us free-will so that we can make such choices. If we don't like it the way it's going, then we can begin to choose differently right now. Today. Right here. Waiting for everyone else to change first is a fool's game. Waiting for others to love us first, before we are willing to love them is a fool's game. 
                  Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be
                  consoled, as to console;
                  To be understood, as to understand;
                  To be loved, as to love... ."
                                                           -Saint Francis of Assisi
How much we are loved by others is often outside our power. But what is within our power is our choice to love others. On the cross, hated and mocked, Jesus chose to say, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."
He loved them. He showed us the Way. He provided an example of following the advice of the Buddha: Focus on your ability to love, not your demand to receive it. Very often our immediate environment or circumstances are not under our control, but our choice of Faith and Love always is.
We will not be judged by what others did to us, but by how we responded...