Awakin Readings recently featured a timely piece: Loving Your Enemy. I found the reflections to this piece quite remarkable and wanted to start a conversation on this.

In response to the question, "What does loving your enemy mean to you?", Kristin Pedemonti inspired me with her reflections,

"Love your enemy to me means seeing that underneath their anger or maltreatment is often fear and under the fear is hurt. Allowing oneself to sift through the anger, fear to get to the hurt often reveals common values and shared humanity. I've been seeking to hold this space of compassion for all for quite some time and especially since our election here in the US. I am saddened to see dear friends say hateful words of their opponents rather than see the human in front of them. I have posted as much as I can about holding compassion and understanding the hurt that lies underneath the hate. Whew. I have been persecuted on all sides for holding this view. (emphasis mine) I have been told my compassion for both sides somehow diminishes my taking a stand against the danger of hate. I am not sure I agree. I think hate is not the answer ever. I do think seeking to understand is. What helps me practice is what I shared: see beneath the hate or the difference to what may be hurt or pain and see the human under it all. Find the heart."

Susan Schaller wrote eloquently,

"An enemy is someone whose story you haven't heard."

Maryanne de Prophetis shared,

"I recently heard a sermon by the now deceased Master Shinjo Ito, co-Founder of Shinnyo-en, in which he emphatically expressed the need to unconditionally accept all people, all sentient beings. That this total acceptance is our non-dualistic reality. He did not say that this was easy, but a purifying practice."

Jagdish Dave reminded us of the being part of human being. He wrote,

"As we grow we acquire beliefs that create two groups, in-group and out-group, we and they, us and them- friends and enemies. These groups are the byproducts of human conditioning. However, there is the "being" part in the human being.This is composed of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude and love. All wisdom traditions teach us, urge us, inspire us to keep the heart and soul open to relate to each other as loving neighbors, as brothers and sisters in spite of our differences."

I enjoyed Xiaoshan's poem as well.

All of this reminded me of a conversation I had with someone who walked with Gandhi as a teenager: Dissent and Friendship, where I learned about how Gandhi dealt with intellectual dissent. He always managed to keep love at the center of his being. In the same conversation (A Gift of Gandhi), a story came up that has much bearing on our present times.

"In the charged communal environment (in India) of 1946, Sarkar uncle remembers hanging out with Gandhi in Beleghata (Kolkata) at the home of a Muslim follower, Goni miya. That home later became Gandhi ashram in Kolkata. In one of those sessions, an angry friend of Sarkar uncle stood in front of Gandhi, making angry comments about Muslims. Gandhi did not get upset. He simply smiled, and this confused the angry boy. Then Gandhi said, 'I really like your energy. So much energy is good. Very good.' On the topic itself, Gandhi simply said, 'We are all just humans.' The boy was totally confused and overwhelmed by the love that he felt from Gandhi. He transformed completely and did not espouse hatred for Muslims any more."

I feel that Kristin is really on to something. Imagine how that boy might have reacted had Gandhi called him a bigot, racist, or sloganeered "not on my watch." My heart says that folks like Kristin should not be persecuted for choosing to hold the space for all. An attitude that wishes enlightenment for our enemy is good as far as it goes, and I wonder if it makes us learning-disabled -- why would I learn something from someone who I feel has a long way to go to get enlightened? What will it take for us to withhold judgment and actually want to learn why we are hearing what we are hearing? What is the value of finding true common ground and what is at stake if we don't make the effort?

Thank you for being in conversation on this topic.