Note:The Beatles played this for the first time on the "Our World" project, the first worldwide TV special. Broadcast in 24 countries on June 25, 1967, the show ... featured music from 6 continents, with The Beatles representing Britain.
The concept of the song was born out of a request to bring a song that was going to be understood by people of all nations. The writing began in late May of 1967, with John and Paul working on separate songs. It was decided that John's "All You Need Is Love" was the better choice because of its easy to understand message of love and peace.
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Love: The greatest transforming power; our experience of Spirit; the electromagnetic milieu in which we all exist, which exerts various forces of attraction among all that it contains. The final purpose of everything.
*Kabir Helminski. The Mysterion: Rumi and the Secret of Becoming Fully Human.
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Gospel of Mark 12.28-30 -
One of the teachers of religious law [Jewish Torah] was standing there listening to the debate. He saw Jesus had answered well, so he asked, "Of all the commandments, which is the preeminent?"
Jesus answered, "The preeminent one is this: 'Pay attention and do, O Israel! The Sovereign our God is the one and only Sovereign. So, you are to love the Sovereign your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second equals the first: 'Love the one next to you [oft rendered 'neighbor'; generally, anyone] as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."
Sarah Ruden, in The Gospels: A New Translation, notes the Greek often rendered "neighbor" is hoh plēsion, literally "the one next to you," and it can refer to any person. She observes another word, geitōn, used a few times in the Gospels, is the common word for what in English is often meant by "neighbor." Hence, the reference here is to anyone, anywhere. This is a timeless, universal law, whether one identifies as religious or not, spiritual or not.
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We know love by love. We know love when in love; that is, being in oneness with it experientially. We can signify it through words and actions. We know it in intimacy. Love cannot be known from the outside. Reading a definition of love will give you as much knowledge of love as looking up 'universe' or 'God' or 'happiness' in a dictionary.
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Once I asked some of our friends: What's the most important part of this [Sufi] work? Is it our zikrs [practice of remembering God]? Is it our singing together, is it our worship, is it our cooking together, is it our conversations? And someone said, "It's our love," which runs through all of these.
*Kabir Helminski. The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation.
Sufis call their path "a school of love." Love is seen as the ultimate power. Love is one with God. Anything of spiritual transformation is due to love. To experience love is to know God. Thus, love is not a supplement to Life, even the best, it is the spirit of Life - it is Life - it is You.
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While facilitating a spirituality group in a jail, an inmate surprised me with a subtle insight. She mentioned the Holy Spirit. Most Christians see the Holy Spirit as one 'person' of God, separate from us, even if near - even separate from Father and Son. Most Christians think of the Holy Spirit as some kind of ghostly presence, like a paranormal, ethereal Casper the Ghost.
This inmate said we are the Holy Spirit, who is love. I sensed she was speaking truth, yet truth that flew in the face of reasoned 'Christian' teaching. Regardless, her insight embodied an experience of love she found connoted in those two words and ten letters. Her confession reflected a knowing of oneness-in-communion with God the Christian mystics would generally agree with, as well as mystics in other faiths.
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Jesus extended "the one next to you" to anyone and everyone. The "one next to you" is the person behind you at the checkout line and someone on another continent. Jesus departed from his ancestors and the surrounding Jewish culture. For example, a Jew would not consider a Roman or a Samaritan a neighbor. Tribal societies saw neighbors as within the tribe. This tribal consciousness appears in racism, genderism, religious exclusion - including churhism (the church being the sole access to God), white supremacy, militarism, classism, militarism, nationalism, fascism, and dictatorships.
Jesus represents wise ones who challenge us to love outside the boxes - all boxes. They teach us love has no boxes. The boxes are illusions. Love is the Real. Every thought or act is aligned or not with love, the True. In love, joy is; outside love, misery is. We choose.
How do you see love running through the activities of your daily Life? Where do you most sense love? Do you participate in a community you could call "a school love"? How might you grow in becoming more loving? Inclusive? Is there someone who evokes from you the spirit of love through their presence and actions? In your relationship with Spirit, in what ways do you express devotion?
*Brian K. Wilcox, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
*Background to opening song is quoted from www.Songfacts.com .
