How Can We Show Up in This Moment with Love?
Susan Reviere
March 23, 2025
Dear Friends,
In Buddhist circles, I’ve seen many writings and dharma talks of late invoking the Buddha’s Fire Sermon (“The world is on fire…”), and this is, I believe, an apt teaching for this time. But we don’t have to burn along with the world. Adding our flames to the inferno isn’t useful. And I know that I, for one, don’t want my heart to marinate in anger, aversion, fear, and hatred for the next few years.
I think of the Bodhisattva Vow from the Mahayana tradition that invites us to practice for the benefit of all beings everywhere. Thich Nhat Hanh’s version…
However innumerable beings are, I vow to meet them with kindness and interest.
However inexhaustible the states of suffering are, I vow to touch them with patience and love.
However immeasurable the Dharmas are, I vow to explore them deeply.
However incomparable the mystery of interbeing, I vow to surrender to it freely.
I love this vow. It makes sense to me. How can I be free and peaceful if others are still suffering? We may practice with a matrix of intentions, but we cannot be free (without blindness/denial/self-deception), if others are not free or if the world is burning. In my view, this would be false transcendence that would bypass the foundational dharma of the 8-fold path grounded in wisdom, ethics, and mindfulness
The Buddha, in the Dhammapada says this: “Hate cannot be conquered by hatred but by love alone. This is an eternal truth.”
How can we show up in this moment with love? And what might that look like?
We may only initially engage through our own tears, our fears, our sense of being wounded or harmed, with a sense of the suffering of others. And if we start with engaging our own hearts, we slowly widen our circles, including family, friends, community, fellow citizens, all beings everywhere, including the earth herself.
This connects us to the truths of interdependence and interbeing, and we begin to practice a living metta. We begin to lead with kindness. And whether we write emails, or sign lists, or join a march…we can bring kindness and fierce compassion to the fore. We can invite others into our peace instead of stepping into the storms.
Holding the intention to cultivate love, openheartedness, and non-separation is a powerful pathway from which to engage our practices in service of our own hearts and all beings. So toward this end, I invite us all to consider our own unseen biases. To ask, “How do I perpetuate separation or divisiveness? How can I contribute to the balance of kindness and compassion in this world and resist jumping into the inferno out there? Bringing the warm light of commitment to the power of love, perseverance, patience, and mindful attention is a deep offering. What touches you? How can you help? What gift do you have to offer?
With kindness,
Susan