Blindspot!
From Issue: 799 [Read full issue]
Love
Ancient spiritual traditions of both East and West systematically direct the human consciousness towards Nature. Nature is a school, and an initiation. The elements are there, they have surrounded us since childhood, and we are used to them. The awakening of spirituality consists in seeing them differently, in seeing in them signs, celebrations and songs, hymns and prayers to the cosmic order, universal archetypes, the gods or the One. That conversion in our gaze is a conversion of the heart, and marks the transition from the state of one who observes to that of one who loves. It means that we must distance ourselves from the 'immediate' gaze, for proximity, and often for meaning. It is a question of finding something extraordinary in the most familiar and ordinary things: nature, the sky, the elements, our environment and the people with whom we are most familiar. It is a matter of changing the way we see.
We are short of love. That much is certain. It seems that we do not have enough to give, and that we never receive enough. Love is like the spiritual quest because it is a quest for meaning and well-being. It is up to every one of us to discover the extraordinary that lies hidden in the heart of the all too ordinary presence in our daily lives. A character trait, an emotion, a smile, an expression, a look, a feeling, a wound, a silence or an absence: everything speaks to those who know how to listen. Listen without passing judgement, or rather judge that there is nothing on which to pass judgement. Suspending one's judgement is a better way of living ... and to love, in spite of judgement, is truly to love.
Compiled From:
"The Quest for Meaning" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 198-201