[Applause] i hope you still feel that way when we get through [Laughter] i suppose there has been no word more often defined than love and there is also perhaps no word about which there is as much misunderstanding and conflict of opinion as in this sec a simple four letter word
I think we can start perhaps by study of affection as it is found in neoplatonism which i think was a wonderful combination of philosophy and mysticism it flourished in both athens and alexandria in the opening years the christian era and certainly considerably affected early christian mysticism according to the neoplatonist
Love exists on a whole series of levels it is not just a simple single emotion it consists of a series of aspects or interpretations which relate to the various specialties of human consciousness in other words love can be applied to a wide variety of phenomena in life according to the neoplatonists
The highest form of love so far as humanity is concerned is love of god and the highest conceivable form of love is god’s love for man and this god’s love is represented especially in the great sacrifice in which give his god gives his son for the salvation of man
Therefore whether it be in christian or neo-christian philosophy love is a divine quality by substance in its own highest and most essential nature it is therefore a certain solicitude a deep and a vite abiding emotional attachment by which the individual expresses devotion through conduct through the service of the beloved
This was the foundation of both platonic and neoplatonic definition of love and it passes through a whole series of modifications next to the love of god where do we turn the neo-clayton has said the next love in importance is the love of truth truth becomes the most precious thing
Available to the human being on his own level of existence truth must be regarded as the being or power that heals all wounds that reveals to man fully and clearly the affection of god for him truth therefore represents a series of realities in existence which were placed
There for the salvation of living things to know the truth is to free oneself of the errors of ignorance but again truth is a very difficult word to define that which is truth for one person may not be truth for another and the underlying eternal and inevitable truth
Is still beyond the common acceptances of human beings to each person truth is his way of looking at reality and as this is true of countless persons we do have a kind of definition for truth namely that it is reality as seen through the sensory perceptions of the human being
And because human beings are different not only in degrees of inward perceptions but in their devotions and dedications to those values which they believe then we find a great chain of secondary circumstances and definitions which are important in the study of man’s affections and the proper bestowal of them
Upon the realities and significant values of living among the neoplatonists perhaps the next uh level of truth or love was wisdom and wisdom is primarily love of truth and because truth itself is so extremely abstract and difficult to capture even by the mind wisdom is therefore respected honored and regarded with affection because
It opens the way to the achievement of truth therefore we should love wisdom we should love all of the forms of knowledge by which we are inspired to search for ultimate truth the search must continue but we must also be grateful for the abilities we have to achieve the ends we seek
Therefore gratitude is a form of love gratitude is the individual accepting graciously the good things that happen to him or the good deeds that are done on his behalf next perhaps in all of the uh neoplatonic thinking we have love as a love of beauty the beautiful surrounds us in life
And if we are properly integrated people we we find in beauty an object for affection we love the beautiful and while this love is an impersonal kind of love we now come also to the realization that love can be impersonal that love does not necessarily have to have a personal object
Love can be devoted or dedicated to values which are not visible may not even be definable by the average person but still have a real effect upon us and one of the most important of these is the love of beauty and this has been with us since the dawn
Of time even in our most primitive culture groups there were efforts to express beauty now the beauty expressed was sometimes a faint shadow of the artistry that we think about today man’s primitive knowledge of beauty was very scary yet to himself it meant something it was an achievement it was like a
Small child trying to draw a picture the picture is meaningful to that child and represents the highest degree of its capacity at the moment but may not have any influence or interest for other people so love of beauty brings with it also love of all the arts
As expressions and as testimonies and as inspirations up to conduct we have music and painting and sculpturing we have the dance and the theater we have all kinds of manifestations of beauty on the level of aesthetics now beauty on the level of aesthetics is something that comes against another problem in human nature
Namely that the average individual does not have a clear enough concept of value within himself to be able to support with his own additional concern the various arts which are possible to him the arts of the of asia come in here as a very interesting sideline of thought the chinese painters
Were tremendously insold or deeply inspired by a strange kind of love and that was the love for the manifestation of the divine in all the creations which come through man himself natural love comes from the adoration of nature human love very largely through man’s appreciation of nature
As this is captured in painting and in etchings and in all the different forms by which we attempt to perpetuate our own evaluation of the beautiful around us another level of love of course is love of virtue the virtuous life the effort of the individual individual to live upon the highest level
Of his attainments constitutes a level of appreciation relating to love love therefore must love the good must serve the beautiful and must recognize the eternity of the one these things together constitute a triad of attributes by which it is possible to more or less arrive at a working definition of infinite affection
Now as we go down the line still further we come to various forms which we distinguish in ourselves and among these are human relationships love to the average person is a human emotion it is an emotion based upon affection for persons this type was called the love of family love of humanity
The greeks were well aware of this form and so were the chinese who made a very strong philosophical case for family love they called it more or less fidelity it was the fact that in the home there was not only mutual affection but a mutual regard and that affection was based upon the
Superior conduct of those loved love was not merely a relationship due to family birth a child did not love a parent because merely it was a parent little child loved the parent because the parent was good was kind was understanding and was in turn lovable therefore personal love is based upon
Qualities which to each person appear to be lovable some find it in one way and some in another but in the family life love is essential to the survival of the home and is the basis of all human relationships in this world we love that which is worthy of love worthy of affection
And unless we demand some level of worthiness our affections become promiscuous and lose the value of moral support so family love is love of parent for child often for wife and vice versa and parents for children and children for parents and of course to a certain measure this
Extends to the friend or the visitor within the family environment all of this depends entirely for its integrity upon the fact that those loved are lovable it is a very difficult and usually fruitless effort to love that which is not lovable this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try
But we should not expect the impossible unless we can really say that we find communion unless there is some reasonable reason for our affection we are not capable of definite love if this is lacking then we may defend upon respect or regard of a lesser nature or even depend upon duty
As remaining where personal feelings may have been hopelessly weakened therefore some families are held together by duty alone some are held together by economic necessities some are held together by domination of one person over others but unless beauty is present in its natural freedom it’s natural sharing of
All that is good that home life is insecure and if the home life is insecure future generations are endangered so love of family is very much involved in our relationships then of course the greeks like almost all other people love said love of country patriotism or devotion to the system which we believe
To be acceptable in government in all times from now and then passed as far back as we can as we can go love of government has been sketchy very few people are entirely satisfied with their governments most people believe that their governments are misrepresenting them or that government is a burden upon the
Human being and that it is a source of exploitation and of various corruptions i think in this particular case however we have to face the simple reality that corruption does not live long unless it is supported and most persons are not sufficiently firm in their affection for anything except perhaps their back books
To have a proper attitude towards their responsibilities love has responsibilities as well as opportunities that which we love we must help to maintain it’s in all its own integrities and if these integrities are slipping away we must do everything possible to restore them also we have various other
Forms of affection we have love of friends and friendship is a very firm affection as told in the ancient story of damon and pythius friendship is sometimes the most powerful form of affection because in many instances relatives are not sincere but at friend we assume to be sincere
And friendship becomes an emotion of sincerity this of course is very often corrupted by ulterior motive we cultivate people for what we hope to get from them not for what we hope to give them and the corruption or delusion of affection is always a sad tragedy but it is true very definitely that
Sometimes in fact more than sometimes friendship is the strongest bond that we have in this world much stronger than brotherhood because brotherhood very often represents relatives in a family who are not true to each other or have no common ground in integrities so we go down through all these different levels
There are more than we can possibly list love of animals this is quite important because in many instances these other creatures contribute very much to our own integrities they provide us solace in times of emergency they provide us means of advancing uh on maintaining our palms and institutions and they are very much
Present as an educational force in the life of children so there is love of animals and the dedication not to injure without cause any living thing now this does not mean that we can always preserve them but it means that we should have a natural affection and
That our first regard of them should be that of friendship friendship with other kingdoms is quite a possibility i remember very definitely a beautiful experience in the casual parks in inara in japan in this temple which is a shinto sanctuary uh there are vast parks and in these parks the temple deers
Wander about in the condition of complete friendliness they will come up alongside of you and walk with you they will look up at you with those soulful eyes that nothing can resist and uh also hope with this touch of humanity that we’re going to feed them something i remember that
I had some feed for them in my hand and one of them came up behind me put his head under my arm under my jacket and put his head up and looked at me it was irresistible not only that but in the in the spirit
Of the thing as soon as i gave him the little morsels he bowed to me he bowed appreciation he had been well tutored in knowing when there was a likelihood of more food but the animal is always a wonderful experience therefore loving animals comes very often from having pets when you were children
And growing up with a certain regard for life a regard which is part of love and a very serious part of love at the sarasawa pond also in nada there is a little lake a little i guess it’s an artificial one but it’s large enough to contain quite a
Few fish and so on uh there is a ritual performed there quite frequently uh children will go to a little store in the town and they’ll buy a goldfish in a little glass bowl about the size of a drinking glass then the children the family and the priests probably will all go
To down to the shore of the lake and we’ll go through the ritual of releasing the goldfish the child has saved his spending money to buy a goldfish for the purpose of releasing it now this is quite contrary to our thinking we probably put it in a bowl and let it
Stand around the trial until it went out of existence by natural causes but to these people the release of the living thing was much more important than keeping it in your own house make it not a prisoner but liberated and the process of liberating birds and animals throughout asia has been quite
Common in many parts of the other those continents at the time of the special celebration in honor of president grant back in the middle of the last century the celebration included the release of birds so that they could carry the glad tidings and every type of living thing
That is lovable should be loved and if we cannot love them closely because of their natures we can at least recognize a kinship with all that lives and this is very important ernest thompson seton told me once an interesting story while he was he was a great naturalist as you know and uh
One time when he was out drawing and sketching he saw a deer coming toward him and the deer was running away from a hunter with a gun and the deal was uncertain where to go what to do he evidently sensed danger and then what he did was to run over to
Seton and stand there beside him the deer took refuge with the human being and another human being was out to shoot the deer this is life but these types of things should be remembered always in judging our relationships with life in all of its aspects and attributes we do not destroy for sport
We do not destroy for skill and we try to preserve life as much as we can and when it comes close to us we try to serve it to the best of our ability this is a distinct and solid form of love it is far more valuable in the
Development of the human being than all the protestations of affection that are possible then there comes two forms of of love which are particularly exemplified in oriental philosophy they are covered very largely in the new testament also but in slightly different words in buddhism at the northern school
There are two deities the bodhisattva the goddess of mercy and the world savior to come the buddha or bodhisattva maitreya now these words are very interesting because they’re names of something and khan is compassion this deity is the embodiment of man’s compassion for all that lives any enmities any antagonisms any old
Family feuds that interfere with the natural growth of the individual have a penalty which very few of us really want to pay therefore we have to prevent that penalty from arising the goddess of mercy so-called in the far east represents the infinite kindliness for all living things these these were deities khannan for
Instance was not truly a god nor a goddess khan according to buddhism was once a mendicant maybe millions of years ago on another star who dedicated his existence to the service of of humanity and gradually grew up and took an obligation an obligation which continues into northern buddhism to this day
That the that he will not or she will not because both forms exist as seek final emancipation from life will not seek infinite release into eternity into the great nirvana until this being can take with it every other living creature now this is a very beautiful thought
Even though we may not be able able always to grasp it that there can be no uh release for those who love truth god or their fellow man until they can carry with them into peace those around them and this service is not the individual looking for release for himself
But sacrificing his own hope of peace to give peace to someone else now when we get into this level of thinking we really begin to understand love for love is always the forgetting of self it is not because we lose all the attractiveness of it which we will have
To come to in a few minutes but because of the infinite magnitude of the situation the buddha to come according to northern buddhism and that includes the tibetan japanese korean and bhutan groups it’s called maitreya or the word means kindness that is the meaning of the word it’s not
A name really it is a word and it’s the definition of it is that maracu is the hope of all nations the hope of all that lives and at the end of all strife the second coming of the messiah for miroku was the desired messiah to come
In buddhism the second coming of christ is kindness in the human heart you’ve got a hard time to get a better philosophy than that it would be very difficult to find a mock enobling concept and yet there’s something about it that is so essentially true and in northern buddhism especially the
Realizations of these facts have never disturbed the individual they have never made them sorrowful or feel that they are frustrated or that they are inhibited or that they cannot do what they want to do because according to their thinking when love comes it does you do what love wants you to do
You you find your own complete happiness and fulfillment in the service of values higher than yourself and all more needy than your own until these realizations strike us we have very little understanding of the responsibility of true love now in other nations also we find especially in the words of christ
Insistence upon love we often think of christ as a spirit of love and this probably is the essential meaning embodied in a great cosmological phenomenon but the actual thing as paul says christ in you the hope of glory and among the words of jesus we remember the ones that goes to this way
Uh those who do not love their brother who they have seen how can they love their god whom they have not seen the idea that the individual can have a religious life without expressing creative and constructive affection is just wrong because there can be no religion apart from the practice of the virtues
Attributed to the sacred books as necessary paul says on the greatest of these of faith hope and charity now translated love and the greatest of these is love now the idea of placing affection as the standard of conduct will probably come as a much of a surprise to people
But in the great pattern of things we all exist because of a love beyond our comprehension we all live because of a beautiful world that was given to us wonderful opportunities we bring other children into the world with the opportunity to love them to help them to grow and to improve and
To fulfill their destinies children are not ours to control or demand they are ours to protect and serve and bring up to the point where they can be released constructively into society we must do almost the same thing with the children that we do when we release the birds in the japanese ceremony
We release all life to the fulfillment of itself but we do all that we possibly can to make that life as rich and noble as it can be before it goes out on its own journey all these things are values that are not difficult they’re not sad horrible things
They are not the cause of atomic bombs and all this type of thing the thing that is causing our trouble is that in some strange way we have mistaken the meaning of the word love perhaps one of the problems that we have is that self-interest takes dominance over
Practically every other emotion in the lives of modern people each individual is protecting himself against those who in one way or another have despitefully used him he is therefore inclined to try to return evil for evil if someone is unkind he feels justified in being unkind also
And on this policy unkindness goes on forever but there is never a time when we will not have some aspect of it unless as individuals we take a new viewpoint of our own lives how can we as individuals therefore find out a better use of our own emotions how can we recognize
The true meaning of affection now we descend into what might be termed the secular level of emotions we no longer think just in terms of the divine plan we think in terms of daily relationships human love personal love this level is according to both the chinese and the
Early christians a perfectly noble level of love in its truest sense is always right it is always virtuous it is always and ensouling and inspiring therefore that the individual who wishes to find god should give up human affections is wrong because god is in those human affections and he must perfect his understanding
There before he can go further therefore love in the family love in the home personal affections for each other are very noble as long as we do not pervert them as long as we do not misuse these emotions or compromise them or defile them in one way or another
The actual answer to most domestic problems is therefore a clean love and until we get that the human relationships will remain embittered and obscured now love in family and home is something which makes things happy most of the peoples of other countries who have their own little philosophies of love are laughing people
We are the only ones apparently who find love a burden or the basis of something which is too difficult for us to handle well perhaps it’s due to the complications of our way of life we have become so bound up in transitory and impermanent values that we have lost the sense of directness
We are now constantly frustrated worried frightened and seeking in affection not an expression of service but an escape from some physical restriction upon our own conduct therefore it is true that we have to work out the problem of human relationships on the level of an integrity
For his people in all walks of life the foundation of love is law in other words the law as it is the law of love is the only basis upon which problems of human existence can be arbitrated there is no way in which we can ever solve the human problem without love
There is no way also that we can love as long as we are selfish as long as our own ulterior motives dominate our human relationships as long as our love centers upon the gratification of our own desires at the expense of others and if every time in which love loses
It’s really its liberty loses its freedom uh is a misfortune but love free will never break a rule love free will never do that which is unrealistic or impure because love itself is the very essence of god’s affection for mankind therefore anything that is a corruption is no longer love
Every anything that is dominated by ulterior motive is no longer pure affection as long as self-interest selfishness gratifications of appetites dominate affection we will never have any real love and as a result of the lack of this love homes are breaking up every minute and young people are almost afraid to establish them
Then we look out into the great pattern of the world nations out to destroy each other for why for what reason for what justifiable cause none the hatreds which we have nursed for generations simply corrupt and corrode our own lives family feuds go on for generations and everyone is seeking to
Solve a problem seeks to find self uh gratification or self uh freedom from responsibility we believe that everything that goes wrong should be blamed on someone else i know when i was quite young we had a fan of ex family of tutors uh our background had three generations of
People who weren’t speaking to each other well every one of them had good old scotch reasons but they weren’t really very good but after a while my illustrious grandmother whom some of you have become acquainted with decided that i needed a little religious training show being a scotch lady she chose the
Presbyterian church and i went to sunday school then that was my first direct contact with the bible read that readings but the first time we’d really gone into a serious thought about it and in the course of the readings i found out so many wonderful things that seem so good
Such as to uh forgive your adversary immediately and do good to those that despitefully use you well that sounded to me like i was already a missionary so i took the glad tidings home and i was thoroughly punished i was told that it was none of my business
And that anyone who should say that you should love those that despitefully use you should have your head examined well it’s in the bible it is it is known that these truths are there but the moment these truths come in contact with a personal antagonism so much the worst for the truths
They don’t have a chance and that is happening all the time in our modern society talking with young people they tell me that they have no real intention of establishing permanent relationships they’re just going to enjoy life the best they can as they go along and if it doesn’t work out that’s just
Too bad well this type of thinking is bound to ultimately destroy most of our cultural life the compromise of our integrities is never worse than when it compromises those divine attributes which have been placed in the human being and one of them is the love of god living in us
And where we treat this badly or misuse it or pervert it we have committed truly a sin against the holy spirit and this is not something that we can do with impunity it gradually results in increasing difficulties and tragedies and life becomes more and more unlivable which we don’t really want to have
Happen now we also find another interesting area of affection and that is in a sense love of knowledge we all want to be well educated we want to go to school we want to develop some skill in life now a skill in life is a very good thing to develop
Unfortunately i’m not an educational system does not do an outstanding job of this it has more or less compromised things down to the economic level we work because we hope to make money and if we do not make money we soon find out that we are not welcome in this society
But education and knowledge are important because we have too many people of good intention who really are lovable people but they have no experience in anything they are unable to handle their own affairs they are unable to help other people they simply do not have the practical insights that make usefulness significant in
Society therefore in connection with knowledge it seems that we who love god should also take special pains in how we learn the lessons of life we can always learn some of them in the university of hard knocks but that isn’t quite sufficient everyone should dedicate a skill to the service of humanity
If we love people and if we love god and if we love truth we have to develop a practical way of service love without some type of commitment to usefulness is merely a travesty an excuse an evasion or a simple example of ignorance to find a way of helping
Is our way of loving people and to love them and to help them we must be helpful people and this means that a part of our lives should be devoted to the other interpretation of love charitas or charity charity being the service of others the doing of good deeds to those who
Need them now in this time in our cultural existence we are not much devoted to this because it’s of the economic involvements and uh the the whole problem of trying to be a servant in the house of the lord gets to be pretty difficult we cannot always do all kinds of big
Things but if we have some background of a skill of some kind we can help somebody sometimes if we learn how to run a family if we know how to clean a house if we know the principles of proper food if we know anything that makes us helpful we can help
So every life should have in it a dedication to being helpful to find some way of expressing our concern for the common good and should come forward whatever necessary to support ideas and principles which seem to be better than those we are living by today therefore part of our affection for our
Neighbor and our world is that we shall inspire the improvement of the various systems which are necessary to the maintenance of civilization all these things come very much into focus now also we have another problem is rather a sticky wicket and that is how much should we love ourselves
I don’t think most people underestimate this too much they do fairly well in most cases but uh we have to think this through a little bit more sometimes we re ridicule the idea of anyone thinking about themselves or loving themselves but actually if we get onto the proper level it’s just part
Of the same picture there’s no reason why we should love other people and leave ourselves out because actually the same power of good that we hope to share with another we must hope to share with ourselves so each individual has the duty and responsibility to make him or herself lovable
If however the individual includes himself with humanity he then has certain rights also he has certain privileges and certain obligations which he must meet in order to get along with himself constructively each person examining his own nature and his own temperament should come to the conclusion that he is
Worthwhile or if he isn’t that it’s time to become that way if the person should be able to look into his own life and be satisfied that he has done a reasonable job with it he should not run away he should not corrupt his body through all kinds of
Dissipations he should not have attitudes that are obviously unreasonable he should not cater entirely to the selfishness of gain exploitation or profit nor should he put his own happiness above all other happiness these things are mistakes but the proper attitude is that we should be happy along with others who are happy
That we should more or less make happiness a stronger rule in our con conduct of affairs we all have a right to be considered significant to some degree and the better we become the more thoughtful wise intelligent and kindly we are the more we have a right to feel
That we are of some interest and value to the world in which we live therefore it is not a mistake for the individual to have certain affection for his own inner life but he should have affection for that part of himself uh which emerson calls the oversoul
He should he should have reverence and regard for the eternal dwelling in him and he should be a true and faithful servant of the will of his own soul it when this happens then he is qualified to take a serious interest and have a deep respect for his own nature
Because actually his own nature in a sense is an illusion well the fact that the individual is a living creature by himself is a is a more or less of an illusion we are alive because life is we are alive because we in a universe which is filled with life
And that is one life one tremendous energy and that life is truly the life of god therefore the god in us must become part of our daily experience we must live always as though the special guest of heaven was going to be at our table we must never do things which heaven
Would not want to see because as surely as we live the heaven in us does see we should try desperately to please that which is better to please that which we know to be our true selves for through the degree that we do this our own lives are enriched and we become
More useful in the advancement of society therefore in education we should have the skills that are given by sciences arts and philosophies religions but we should insult these forms of knowledge with the inner consciousness and light of our own lives therefore if we want to become scientists
We can dedicate science to the great scientists in ourselves because finally the great power of life has one of its attributes as science another is philosophy another is art as another in some other branch of learning but all forms of learning in the last analysis are simply aspects of the one divine power
And that divine power flows through everything with skill dedicated to love every art and science is an expression of divine love and if man perverts this as in the development of nuclear weapons for example he is perverting a power and is transforming a love that is there
Into a fear or a hate or a scheme which he is trying to advance for his own purposes it is therefore very very necessary that the individual and soul the things that he is doing in the shopkeeper the parent the teacher any art science craft that we belong to should be and sold
And when it is in sold by a natural love and concern we will have good lives now some will say it’s a big price to pay to have to do all these things because actually very often because of our own ignorance and willfulness the things we ought to do seem terrible
The things we want to do seem best but this is only end of a seeming we have to consider another dimension also that nearly all nations and peoples and philosophies and religions have considered and that is the brevity of human life the idea that we are going to be able to
Build a good life in the span of our years and to do as we please most of the time and give little or no thought to the major values of living and that and finally we will settle down to playing cribbage in our old age or something of
That nature until we drift out of here this type of thinking is contrary to everything that is necessary and useful for us if love was something that died with the grave if there was no more of it if it had no existence except in some conscious decision of ourselves in the presence of
Adversities probably there wouldn’t be any particular value in it except it would be a much more pleasant world to live in while we are here but if this is if there we are right that man is part of an eternal life motion if we do not cease at the grave if there
Is something that goes on something that is ultimately judged or measured something that we have to live up to or get over if there are such values as this that endures beyond the grave then love becomes the most important thing in the whole world because it is the only emotion
That we can take into the presence of divinity it is like for instance if our love is pure and true our love as we go on into the universe is really the divine love going home in us fulfilling its eternal purpose and we become the good and faithful servants
So somewhere in this world there is a standard of excellence a standard that has been violated from the beginning a standard however which a few noble beings have maintained in public for teaching and many quiet simple citizens have lived by throughout their years there is much more love in the world
Working than we realize but we don’t hear much about that love isn’t news scandal is news the mistakes we make become famous our virtues apparently are ignored but actually whether they are or not is not important actually the important thing is what we are doing to ourselves constantly
It is not important whether what we do is recognized it the important thing is that is to know that the best in ourselves is being attained that we are truly going on to something that is worthwhile and necessary for the advancement of the common good now we all need a few props occasionally
To kind of make life a little more in interesting and meaningful to us and in the world around us for thousands of years men have built great churches they have built cathedrals and synagogues and mosques and temples they have done all kinds of things to honor the invisible power of good
And they have established the concept that these sacred places are the houses of good and they are also the houses of love in these sanctuaries it is assumed that man can come in peace and quiet and communion with a an eternal spirit that has the power to bestow upon him the peace
Of god in the early church the bishops exchanged the peace of god it was a representation of the inner fraternity of living things the realities which we share and by which we become truly one family one life in truth now all these buildings have influenced people they are visual representations of
Dedications of some kind many of these buildings were centuries in the building some of them probably were built without any great amount of enlightenment in the motives maybe they were simply built for selfish purposes or force to be a source of being remembered but regardless of what they were in the
Beginning we have come now to look upon them as great enduring symbols of the supremacy of the divine over the human we therefore build these structures as beautifully as we can the sucker occur in paris notre dame all of these great cathedrals are magnificent structures the light shines through the beautiful
Stained glass windows peace and quiet as seemingly there a few shadowy figures kneel in prayer it is a very great quietude and in those cathedrals some way it seems as though spiritual things get closer to us they do not really because it’s actually our own inner life opening up just a
Little bit a door in our own consciousness opens a small way and then closes again when we go back in the secular world but in these places there is a peace that has come from dedication and consecration when a church is built in most religions there is a ceremony of consecration
The building is set aside for the worship of god if for any reason later its religious significance is fails or it is no longer needed for religious purposes it has to have its consecration lifted before it can be used for secular purposes it must be deconsecrated because a building
Set aside for sacred purposes cannot be just simply turned into a grocery store or something of that nature and yet we take a world such as we have here which is a consecrated world and we change it into a place of merchandise we do not even bother to deconsecrate it
Because we do not realize that it was ever sacred but all these thoughts come gradually into the mind of the individual who is concerned with life and wants to do a little better job of it and in these wonderful buildings you have actually a sense of something superior
I know that some of these churches these uh great cathedral of cologne was in the process of building for over 800 years generation after generation all kinds of strange things happened to it at one time it was used as a stable another time as a greenery and once as a storehouse for gunpowder
But gradually these things faded away and now it is what it was intended to be a magnificent sacred edifice now this all churches all temples and all shrines are in some mysterious way uh symbols of ourselves the human being is the living temple of the eternal god
And each of us as a person is a servant in the house of that temple we must worship at the altar of the divinity in ourselves not the mistakes we make but the tremendous principles and integrities we were born consecrated we were consecrated in space before we ever got here
We were dedicated to the service of truth love beauty and when we get here sort of fades away some retain it some find it as a result of the journey of life some come to it in tragedies of the moment but actually the real answer to it is that this
Consecration is the basis of happiness love and happiness are very closely related and through love we earn happiness and as the arabian nights entertainment says happiness must be earned it is not something that we are entitled to because we are here we are entitled to happiness only because we deserve it
And the only way we can deserve happiness is by doing those things which cause it and bring it about and sustain it and the things that do that the things that bring happiness to the world our expressions of love affection friendship regard unselfishness service and solicitude for the sorrows of life
If therefore we really want to have a good life we must know one way or another learn that happiness is a product of achievement of that which is good almost all of the happiness things which we enjoy today are very temporary in their fulfillments we want something it’s going to make us
Happy we get it there’s that great moment of happiness and pretty soon we’re bored to death we have to get new things the the beautiful new car that made us so happy we could hardly stand it the day we got it is now generally referred to as the old wreck
It’s gone we have to do something else the values that we create simply to satisfy appetites of any kind these values are in permanent they don’t last they have no reality in substance in them they are comforts or things of this nature fulfillments of personal ambitions or personal selfishness but have no substance
Real happiness has to be useful it has to come from a life well-lived not from a life devoted entirely to the desperate habit and habit of trying to escape responsibility so in every way we go along the way we find that something that is deeper has to come into our experience
In our little squabbles in life there has to be an element of love somewhere to bring peace and sometimes uh peace is quietude uh the our zen brethren are greatly interested in peace not because it makes them comfortable but because peace it is god’s way
To be in peace is to be in the universe as it really is so the old chinese painter makes the beautiful mountains and rivers and bridges and down the corner he puts a little man sitting under a tree and looking at it all this is to a major
Not simply walking out on civilization it is a symbol of the individual quietly restoring himself because he is in an atmosphere that is real we are all suffering from false atmospheres and false dedications and therefore the monk goes out and examines the tradition and sits under a
Tree somewhere and just sees things as they are he also becomes aware of the comparative unimportance of himself he sees that he is only a part of something so much bigger that he is hardly a nat in the sunbeam he is sitting quietly watching the universe move around him and he is part
Of that universe he comes and goes with the seasons he sees beauty he can protect it to some degree he becomes infinitely aware of little things and these are so often the basis of well-being a happiness does not always come from a great achievement but from little things
And most of the little things that bring happiness come to it come to us as love as affection as a kind of inner understanding a wonderful sympathy with life so to the uh little monk sitting under the uh tree in the chinese painting it’s the sympathy with life is all important
The individual feels himself as part of something and in feeling it he feels more than this kinship he feels something a little more important than that he feels that this kinship carries with it the rules of conduct that this sympathy and sin and kinship is a way of life in itself
A way of life that shares in the mystery of life everlasting that it shares in the way of solution that it is our only hope of individual security or world peace somewhere along the lines kindness must come into birth and has never been an absence of it
The seed of kindness is in the hearts and souls of everything that lives it is part of our life it is part of all the good that exists in the world but we have to call it forth by some kind of magic and that magic is
Love nothing else will bring it out of the deep caves where it has hidden itself against the sorrows pressures and glooms of the day now under our particular moment now where we’re living now we are probably under greater stress than most people have ever experienced in this life and perhaps
Have never experienced in previous lives this is an extremely critical period it is a period in which there must be an awakening this awakening has to come otherwise there will be no solution to the fact that man can become ever more dangerous to himself the solution has to be
As the buddhist says in the coming of the maitreya buddha the coming of the spirit of kindness the spirit of being gentle this spirit of protecting life in finding ways to arbitrate difficulties and also to practice the great virtues of unselfishness and modesty and humility that are part of our divine inheritance
Actually the human being because the human being is by nature divine is an extremely simple creature we like to think of the human being is terribly complicated but and we think of god as terribly complicated but to the mystic both god and man are very simple creatures
A deity has the simplicity of absolute perfection the simplicity of living forever in love and truth we don’t have to think of god going to school we don’t have to think of all the different things we have to do to try to learn to be decent citizens as necessary to the archangels
We assume that these beings in the simple goodness of things as aquinas has pointed out that actual goodness true goodness is an open door to the infinity of knowing there is nothing that can be concealed from the good and nothing that can be revealed through the evil
Therefore by the simple process of being good simple people we accomplish the destiny of the god within us it is a simple relationship between that which is eternally quiet and the quietude that we seek every day it is not a power like deity thundering out in the silences and
Pointing his finger accusingly at us we point our fingers accusingly at each other and occasionally appointed them in his direction but actually deity never works except through love every correction that we get is given beautifully if we’ll accept it everything that we have to change can be changed beautifully
Because the law of existence is so organized that this can be occurred it can occur there is no need at any time for violence or frustration or the individual to get angry and sad himself or curse heaven because things do not go well actually they do not go well because the individual
Has no acceptance of the importance of affections and sympathies in living i know we find in art a good deal of thought of this nature the great artists of the past they were mostly self-trained had a little knowledge maybe of the palette from some predecessor but for the most part the beautiful
Things that we see came directly from themselves or they came through themselves probably would be a little more honorable way of describing it raphael his magnificent paintings flowed through himself and every human being is a potential raphael we think of scientists and philosophers and skilled people in all fields and we
Think that they are all individuals every skill in the world is a manifestation of the one divine skill that is at the source of existence all skill all beauty all truth all hope all love all these together come from one source and each is an expression
Each is like a priest in the house a part of a great religious unity each with a special labor each with a special service to render each one capable of doing a particular thing and kipling in one of his poems says and each on his separate star
Painting the thing as he sees it for the god of things as they are and this is another thing we all have to learn that we are not always to judge people as to whether they agree with us or not or whether we agree with them or whether their arts are of any
Interest to us or whether their scientists sciences touch us these are not important all forms of knowledge ultimately contribute to the perfection of man but they also contribute to man’s infinite relationship with deity therefore everything that is worthwhile everything that is good is part of a tremendous pageantry of dedications
I wish we could find some way to inspire people to have an experience of simple affection it probably is still obtainable to most people in one way or another something in which love comes out from you without hope of reward something that makes you feel a kinship with life
A recognition of proximity to something greater than yourself something that you meet with sympathy only and not with criticism something you do not estimate intellectually and find wanting just simple experience of devotion or the exhilaration of a simple acceptance of nature’s joys nature’s beauties nature’s wonders sit down sometime perhaps in a garden
And just look look a few flowers that and a few flowers or go out by the side of a river and watch the waters and the trees do what the chinese do simply relax into a mood of a beautiful world if enough people do this it will have a great effect
As asymmetry and discord and dissonance do damage and this is one of the problems of our entertainment field today which is lost all sense of the joy of beauty or the one oneness of the divine plan of things but it’s possible for the person to find in something simple
Something is not maybe more than a sunrise or a kindly word from a friend or a smile from a child something that simply makes the heart move makes you kind of glad inside and causes you to smile back causes you to have the same feeling ins a spontaneous exchange of goodness
These types of moods became can become a meditational process with people if they wanted to they can become part of a daily experience of never seeing things but seeing into things never judging from surfaces but searching for substances and depths and in problems of relationship never coming to us hasty judgment trying to
Understand other people rather than to be willing to go on misunderstanding them forever some kind of an experience in which love of that which is better comes through each of us is so much better than the kind of affection that we use when we say i just loved lunch this is uh
The wrong approach to them it is probable that lunch might be likable but the word love is reserved for something that is a deep universal reality something that deserves real attention real consecration the power to love is in everything sometimes it is killed by an incident sometimes it is destroyed by a moment
Sometimes it takes years to recover from a disillusionment but in all of these things the person should look inside of himself if he is dragging along with him uh attitudes that and feelings that are not affectionate that are not kindly that are not charitable he should do something about that
Or if he hasn’t been deficient in the con non-quality compassion compassion for the weak compassion for the helpless compassion for those younger forms of life that are growing up in the midst of our difficult days compassion for everything that is good and a great willingness to sacrifice something of the immediate pleasure for
An ultimate joy arising from the things that we do that are right so we can work with these problems a little bit and gradually discover what we should have learned from other lessons suppose we have had a bad experience a badly broken home or some very difficult pattern in life
And we have never forgotten it and has never ceased to hurt us that is an incident right there which is a tremendous opportunity let us try to study the situation more carefully than we normally do if the disaster hit to what degree were each of those involved involved in the disaster
What did we all do that was wrong why did we not do this or that and most of all was this disaster the result of the failure of love was there ulterior motive in the love as we thought we expressed it did we marry for security and not for love
Uh did we marry for passing pleasures and happiness and not for the great serious relationships of good did we marry only outwardly but never inwardly were we willing to drift along each living his own life cherishing freedom above all other things in in the eastern philosophies there is no freedom except in love
There is no freedom from love that what that which we try to escape in thinking that we are running away from love cannot be that it must be something else because love does not hurt and if it is sincere there are always solutions and if there is no other solutions there
Is always the possibility of a different degree of love which we call friendship and things that are not compatible can remain friends forever if each in its own turn gives the other the right to convictions that are natural and reasonable all the way along when we have health problems also
That cause us to be a little doubtful about the value of providence yet all these problems have to be faced and life is in some mysterious way does pay us constructively for the things that we do well in all the emergencies of life if we’ve done our best
There seems to be a great probability that heaven will be kind the trouble that we mostly have is that we leave this world with too much unfinished business business that we can’t finish here and was of no value to us anywhere else we have we leave here without actually learning
To love the world or the life and within ourselves or those around us or the great beauties of nature we just got smaller and smaller until finally we drop out mostly centered upon ourselves the individual so centered has me is missing everything if we love ourselves we will do those
Things which make the self good if we love ourselves we will be lovable people to all others and where we try to simply develop an emotional satisfaction out of things that have no value then we will have to face the consequences that these emotions are disturbed betrayed or injured
Wrong emotions have to be corrected and every ulterior motive in emotional living is a mistake and must be paid for every time in which we use anything wrong if we do not obey the divine plan of things in all that we do there’s going to be trouble
Whereas if we try to grow sincerely every day we will find that most of the antagonisms and and admobosities that we have feared will fade away and not bother us anymore so the love is a healing thing most of the miseries of the soul are due to the fact we have not learned
To love that we have learned to hope that somebody’s going to love us but we have not yet been able to forget the selfish side of our natures long enough to cooperate with those in need or those who we can serve and help an example of course like dr schweitzer
Is a good case at point he had the uh common problem of usefulness he became a medical missionary in other words he served god or by serving the natives of gabon in africa he gave his life as a religious act a dedication to the service of those who need
Love is also always dedication it is dedication to something greater than we are it is dedication to god through some necessity of man something that man can do to help god not because god in the last analysis needs help because deity is all sufficient but we
Can help god by helping man to find god and we do this by making people say of him he was a good man he served others he was helpful he gave a life of dedication the world honors him but not enough people follow his example and it is the following of the example
That makes all things come true so if you love become skillful enough to serve intelligently those that you do love as you love god serve god in a gentle kindly way without frustrations or inhibitions and without hope of reward the final reward for love is to be loved
And this is something that very few people really earn the right to therefore they think they’re loved and then they’re betrayed they think they have found a friend but the friend fades out and all of these failures are simply due to the lack of a level of integrities
To go back to the neoplatonus that we started out with it is to be remembered that they made a classification a ladder of affections showing each rung of the ladder and how the individual climbs from the most primitive isolation to utter unity unless the world in the same way must
Climb from nationalism to internationalism must rise from racialism to interracialism and rise from all kinds of religions to the one final faith faith based upon the love of god and the service of each other if we can get these points a little bit more firmly in our hearts and minds i
Think in time we’ll all be a lot happier and things in the world will go better oh thank you very much [Applause] you
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