Project 2

Project two: Learning to love

This project is anchored in two passages from the Hebrew Bible: First, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4). [In the New Testament Mark 12.29 adds “and with all your mind” as the next to last in this list. This is the heart of the law used by Jesus of Nazareth.] Second, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19.18). This second component of the project stretches from small gestures of consideration and kindness to major acts of service for persons who are difficult to love. Notice the future tense of the verbs; this fact softens the moralistic impact that sometimes accompanies these teachings today, as raw imperatives lacking any sense of invitation.

As with every project, the assignment is to be modified to fit what the student actually believes. Please ask the instructor for help if you have difficulty finding a suitable modification that seems to be in the ballpark or if you are already doing what this project asks as much as you possibly can. For example, there is an interpretation of the golden rule with levels of meaning that some students have found helpful in their progress. Or the very word “love” may have unwelcome connotations for you, and another word or concept may be more appropriate. The important thing is to find an angle that is an accessible growth frontier for you. If you do not believe in God but had some good results with conscious breathing in the last project, continue that practice, adding, if you feel comfortable doing so, the thought that your practice is enabling you resist less in cooperating with that wonderfulness within that we heard coming through the majority of the reports on project one.

What is love? Love as motivation is expressed in this definition: “Love is the desire to do good to others.” Love as the practical unfolding of that motivation is expressed in this definition. “Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom.”

Whenever we start to consider some path of thoroughness, an on-ramp to the love highway, it is well to recall the way of simplicity. Is it possible to do this appropriately, without pressure, being fair to the utter dignity of your freedom to think and feel and act according to your own understanding of truth, experience of beauty, and commitment to goodness? Here is one statement of that way of simplicity. It comes from one of the founders of the Centering Prayer movement, and of course you may find it improvable in some way or other. Here is a quote from William A. Meninger, The Loving Search for God (New York: Continuum, 1994), pp. 4-5.

Is it difficult to love God? How long does it take? Perhaps you have been discouraged . . . . This discouragement comes from the world [or from the flesh]. Do not give in to it. After all, what does it take to love God?

Actually, as far as you are concerned, you do not have what it takes to love God. It is a free gift that God gives you. So while you do not have it of yourself, just as you did not bring about your existence by yourself, you do have this grace, this gift. God constantly offers it to you. How long do you think it takes to love God? It takes but a moment. You have only to reach out and will to love God. You can do this whenever you with (i.e., whenever you will.) You can do this in silence or you can simply say, “God, I love you.” It takes only a brief moment. When you do this, you will experience that it is not only very easy but that you will tend to want to repeat it again and again. Sometimes it will be just a brief act of love offered in the midst of a busy day spent in pursuit of the myriad activities of your life-calling. At other times you will want to sit quietly in God’s presence repeating this act of love or simply savoring it.

There are paths of thoroughness function to deepen and prepare our loving. If you find that you are not feeling particularly loving, then to be commanded to love might not be able to gain access to your personality power of choice. Duty-consciousness cannot love. So find an on-ramp to the love highway that works for you, either in your approach to the “center” of project one, or in a truth, beauty, and goodness meditation, or in prayer and thanksgiving, or create something that suits you. “Love, divested of truth, beauty, and goodness, is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a spiritual deception.”

As before, the expectation is that you engage yourself intelligently, wholeheartedly, and persistently during the project period in both the inner and outer phases of the project, then write a three-page (750-word) experience report covering your adventure in each phase of the project followed by a two-page commentary (this time drawing on the Hebrew Bible). Evaluation will follow the same guidelines used previously.