Meditation for 1/8/14

Seabrook Island; SC

“The opposite of love is not hate.  The opposite of love is indifference.”  -  Eli Wiesel

“Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has not found a cure for the worst of them.  Indifference.”  -  Helen Keller

     Indifference is defined as lack of concern, interest and empathy.  Indifference can be caused by ignorance – if we are unaware of something, how are we to have concern, interest or empathy?  And in fairness, we are bombarded with information in today’s society – through all the forms of media an amazing amount of ideas, issues, problems and situations come across our radar screen on a daily basis.  But what about the opportunities we do have to connect with others and make ourselves useful?  How often do we turn a blind eye to the one who struggles?  It is easy to fall into the trap of developing a close circle of friends and family and then ignoring or remaining indifferent to everyone else.  This indifference easily turns into cynicism and suspicion.  “It’s not my problem.  Nothing I can do will really make a difference.  If they had made better choices they wouldn’t have this issue.  Let someone who gets paid for that sort of thing deal with it.  It’s not my job.”  I heard a radio talk-show host say “There is just way too much misery in this world for any one person to comprehend.”  He went on to discuss how the poor are poor by choice, and most of the sick are sick because of choices they have made.  Along with this pompous message, we are bombarded with the message that if we don’t “get ours” somebody else will and we will be left out.  And so self-centeredness becomes the norm as we isolate ourselves further and further from our fellow man. 

     What we don’t realize is that although we think displaying indifference shows others how sophisticated we are, in reality it just shows that we do not love ourselves.  Because if we have done the work to understand and love ourselves we come to realize that others are just like us.  And if we go far enough on the spiritual path we come to realize that others really are us – we all come from the same source, we are just at different levels of understanding.  These understandings bring enough humility that we can quit thinking about ourselves and actually engage the people and situations that cross our path.  Can we pay attention today – just today and see where we can be of some true service?  We can give it a try, and if it works we just might decide to try it again tomorrow.

Today, may I engage life. 

Have a great Wednesday

David