Boundless love extends out from the love we know firsthand. This is why Buddhism reminds us to remember the love we have received from our mothers and fathers (or caregivers), and then build on that. Maybe our relationship with our parents was not an easy love, maybe even thinking in this way brings up heartache. But that is part of the practice too, as cultivating love puts us in touch with the whole experience of life—both the beauty of the world and its pain.
Where is our love when we can’t feel it?
Remembering the experience of love and kindness that we have received urges us onward beyond the separation we feel. It helps melt the walls we build between ourselves and others. Discovering our natural tenderness, we realize that the path of loving-kindness is a more authentic way of life because our authenticity and the tender heart of compassion are tied together.
Connecting with boundless love offers us equanimity. When we meet our circumstances with an attitude of loving-kindness, it offers a way of living that is stable regardless of others’ behavior. It is inevitable that life will have dramas and uncertainty, but we can meet these with a single-minded sense of our calling to cultivate further loving-kindness.
To read more of Pema Khandro Rinpoche's article, please click here.
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