Love Plus Nothing

*******

A stable, secure, wise, loving person does not evaluate you by your religion. She is too smart, too sophisticated, to live by labels. She responds to the whole person, not just to a label. For no label -- Catholic, Buddhist, Lutheran, Presbyterian -- can say much about a person.

But if a person is a loving, kind, compassionate being, that can say volumes. That can truly identify her, and is not simply a label. So, valid and true religion is action, not words or labels.

The deep interior Mind or Spirit of Love also is the same. God does not see labels, like a shallow, superficial, ignorant person. God does not respond to labels. She/He knows that there arepeople of every faith -- and none at all -- who are gems of spirituality (Love) and monsters. The label does not change a person.

But the touch of Love can, in a flash, alter a person very deeply. Once the heart is touched by the deep Lovemind, then that is a heart changed forever. And the depest and truest meaning of faith is living by the highest principles of Love -- consistently. It is the person of Love who glows warmly in the heart of eternity. It is she who has seen the light (is enlightened). It is she who becomes the sage, teacher, and master.

Love, if it is real, is expressed in every area of her life. To express Love, she cannot remain a political "neutral," even though that would seem to make her life easier. Her concern for the welfare of human beings is passionate and pervasive. Edmund Burke so famously said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing." So, the being of Love will never "do nothing" in the presence of evil.

She will belong to a rich and beautiful faith of tender Love, sweet forgiveness, and gentleness. This is so whether it be some brand of Catholicism, Protestantism, or one of the Eastern compassion-based faiths, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, or Taoism.

A person of Love will also have a well-developed ecological consciousness; she will view "Mother Earth" as sacred. So, she might well belong to one of the many nature-based faiths.

She knows that, in her life, she needs only "Love Plus Nothing." That means that Love, or God, is enough for her. She need not add to this Love a list of doctrines, or an artificial "service" designed to show how righteous she is. Instead, like a newborn, she just relaxes into the arms of-- complete trust in-- Love. Once having found deep spirituality, she becomes "religious" in the only sense that has ever mattered. She knows that spirituality is Love, and vice-versa. Her "worship" is helping the elderly, the very young, the challenged. Her faith is Love. She worships Love.

All acts of Love are acts of worship. All thoughts of Love are true prayers.

But she will adamantly stand against any political vviews or religions that are anti-human or anti-ecology. She will refuse harmful fanaticism in all its forms. She will turn away from the politics of hurtfulness -- any policy or action that harms people, through greed, violence, or stupidity. She turns from the various "hells" of violence and murder, to the Light of compassion and goodness, the very flowerings of Love.
*******