Original Goodness: A Commentary on the Beatitudes

I continue to read Eknath Easwaran, as I really enjoy his approach to communicating ideas about love and selflessness present throughout the world's religious texts, particulary the Bhagavid Gita and the gospels. He often draws upon wisdom imparted to him as child in southern India by his grandmother. In this book, he reflects on the 8 Beatitudes of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. His stories and reflections also draw upon writing from the contemplative Christian tradition, including John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas Merton.

"He that loveth not, knoweth not God;", says John the Apostle, "for God is love." The words sound so ethereal that most of us cannot connect them with daily life. What, we ask, do personal relationships have to do with the divine? I would reply, it is by discovering the unity between ourselves and others - all others - that we find our unity with God. That is why training the mind is the nuts and bolts of religion. We don't first get to know God and then, by some miracle of grace, come to love our fellow human beings. Loving comes first: learning to love others is how we move closer to the Lord. In this sense, learning to love is practicing religion. Those who can put the welfare of others before their own small personal interests are religious, even if they would deny it. And, of course, anyone who can quote scripture chapter and verse but will not put herself out for others has yet to learn what religion means.

Most of us, as my grandmother once told me bluntly, confuse self-pity and grief. Granny was as tough as she was loving. When I would come to her crying because my feelings were hurt, she could be terribly unsympathetic. "That's not grief." she would say. "You're just feeling sorry for yourself." Self-pity weakens us; grief, which means sorrow for others, ennobles us and releases inner resources to help.