Love Is Not A Feeling, It's An Ability — by bell hooks and Sharon Salzberg

If you can't find a more relevant forum, use this one!
Post Reply
User avatar
Welles
Family
Posts: 1609
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:55 pm
Please type in these numbers: 46373: 1111
Location: Santa Cruz, CA USA
Contact:

Love Is Not A Feeling, It's An Ability — by bell hooks and Sharon Salzberg

Post by Welles »

bell hooks: It fascinates me that while we are so obsessed with romance, many of us are turned off by the practice of love.

When you tell someone that there’s really a practice—a way that many of us, especially those from dysfunctional backgrounds, can learn what it is to love—they are hesitant to fully accept that. Sharon, when you express your conviction in our innate capacity to love, I’m not sure many people really believe in that.

Sharon Salzberg: Well, why would we, really? (laughter) There’s a line from an old Steve Carell movie, Dan in Real Life: “Love is not a feeling. It’s an ability.” [...] Love is inside me. Other people might awaken it or threaten it, but as a capacity, it’s mine. That was incredibly liberating and also a little daunting. Because—and here’s the big question—if it’s an ability, does that mean it’s my responsibility to try to cultivate it, even in difficult circumstances?

bell hooks: Anytime we do the work of love, we are doing the work of ending domination. In a culture of domination, it’s extremely hard to cultivate love or to be love. At this moment in our nation, there’s so much disrespect afloat. Respect comes from a word meaning to look at. Right now, we are not looking at one another with loving-kindness, with compassion. [...]

These days, I feel fear and uncertainty in my relationship to strangers. So I struggle every day now with how to love the stranger. How do I love people who are beaming a lot of hate in my direction? That’s a really crucial national question right now. How can we return ourselves to a place of loving-kindness?

Sharon Salzberg: [...] Over the years that I’ve taught loving-kindness, I’ve encountered many people who are skeptical about the whole thing. “If I were to develop a more loving heart,” they think, “I’d have to give more money, I wouldn’t take a stand, I wouldn’t protect myself, I’d just sort of smile.”
Love Is Not A Feeling, It's An Ability — by bell hooks and Sharon Salzberg

https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php ... o&tid=2534

Image
User avatar
Sandy
Staff
Posts: 23824
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 8:51 pm
Please type in these numbers: 46373: 1111
Location: Illawarra District, New South Wales, Australia
Contact:

Re: Love Is Not A Feeling, It's An Ability — by bell hooks and Sharon Salzberg

Post by Sandy »

Wonderful interview! Now am thinking I would like to read, Martin Luther King Jr's book, " Strength to Love". :D
Thank you Welles!
Sandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
Post Reply