Love

"Love and pity and wish well to every soul in the world; dwell in love, and then you dwell in God. – William Law

Loyalty is the quintessence of love. When two people tell each other, “As long as you do what I like, I’ll stay with you, but as soon as you start doing things I don’t like, I’m packing my bags” – that is not love; that’s convenience. Loving somebody means that even when they trouble you, you don’t let yourself be shaken. Even when they are harsh to you, you don’t move away. Even when they make a mistake that hurts you, you don’t go off and make the same kind of mistake to hurt them.

All of us are so liable to human error that unless we have some capacity to bear with the errors of others, we will not be able to maintain a lasting relationship, which is the tragic situation that many people find themselves in today. We should never settle for this unhappy state of affairs."

- Eknath Easwaran [via the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation email]