To love yourself is to think, ‘I am an artist’ and ‘I am going to live like an artist’. We need to remember that we are all artists. We are all makers and creators.
Service
We are all gifted with imagination. An artist is not only a Picasso, a Beethoven or a Penrose. We are all potential artists. The artist is not a special kind of person, but every person is a special kind of artist. All work could be and should be considered a work of art.
So, loving yourself means loving everything you do, and do it poetically, creatively and imaginatively.
A true artist makes a work of art not for name, or fame or prestige, or power or money – but for love. Every piece of work is a gift to the world.
If we do business to serve humanity then we are practicing the art of business. If we do politics to help people then we are engaged in the art of politics.
People like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were good examples of doing politics as a form of art, a form of spiritual practice, a great act of service and love.
Ideal
Their politics was for the good of society and in the service of humanity. Their politics brought wellbeing to people and the planet. Their politics was rooted in love. We can learn the art of politics from them.
Recently, I went on a pilgrimage to mount Fuji in Japan. I discovered there a great artist called Hokusai. He produced 36 wonderful views Mt Fuji. He loved Mt Fuji.
These masterpieces are a deep meditation on the sacredness of Mt Fuji. His art was born from his love of nature in general and his love of Mt Fuji in particular.
Art is an expression of love. In order to be a great artist we need to think good, see good, speak good, act good, be good and make good. And it is love which transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the marvellous. Work done with love is good work and good work transforms us into artists.
Then we enlarge self love into social love. Love is more than a distant ideal and more than a belief. Love is a way of life, it is a daily practice of getting along with everyone.
Collectively
Through love we establish harmonious bonds and cordial relationships with all human beings, starting with our neighbours.
Some people call themselves Christians. They claim to believe in love but do they practice love? On Sunday they go to church and say, “I will love my enemy, and I will love my neighbour”.
But from Monday to Saturday some of them prepare for war. They pay taxes to support the production of nuclear weapons. Many of them join the army. They believe that Jesus Christ approved of the ‘just war’ and only their war is a ‘just war’ and the war coming from anywhere else is an unjust war.
Thus from Monday to Saturday they justify war and then on Sunday they make a pledge of peace and love. This applies not just to some Christians. There are some Buddhists, some Muslims, some Jews and some Hindus, followers of the established religions, who are all in the same boat!
They all believe in love but do they practice love? Of course some of them do practice love in their personal lives. But as a society and as a nation, collectively, there are so many people committed to violence and war.
Change
If we truly believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ or the Buddha or Mohamed then we should renounce organised and institutionalised violence of all kinds.
To be religious, we need to practice the politics of love. We need to establish the sovereignty of love! Otherwise our religion is just an empty shell. The only way to be a genuine, sincere and honest religious person is to renounce violence in all situations and all circumstances, particularly organised violence and the glorification of violence.
Of course, this is an ideal. We may not achieve it immediately. But we need to move towards this ideal, step by step and day by day. We need to devote our energy, attention and resources to build nonviolent measures to resolve conflicts and prevent wars.
Love is not a destination. Love is a journey. Love as an idea or a concept is not enough. Love has to be practiced every day and in every action.
This is my experience. I followed Mahatma Gandhi, who said: “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Thus I started to work on myself, and accept myself.
Prosperity
As an act of love I walked from India to Moscow, to Paris, to London and then from New York to Washington, and finally from Tokyo to Hiroshima. It was a walk for peace and I walked without any money.
It was a journey of two and half years. I walked 8,000 miles, through fifteen countries. How did I survive for all that time? I survived because of love. I let go of fear. I cultivated courage in my heart and trusted everyone. Courage is required to walk on the path of love.
I went to Muslim countries, I said, ‘You are Muslims, I love you’. Then I went to Christian countries, I said, ‘you are Christians, I love you”. Then I went to Communist countries, I said, ’You are communist, I love you’. Then I went to capitalist countries, I said, ‘You are capitalist, I love you’.
Love carried me through. Every day I was given food and shelter and I wore eight pairs of shoes, all given to me as a gift. I was given everything. So, love was my greatest credit card!
Apart from food, water and sunshine the most important thing we need in the world for peace and prosperity is love. Unconditional love. Love does not have ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.
Neighbour
If I love you only when you are a good person, then it is conditional and moderate love. Yes, everybody can love you if you are a good person, that is normal. But loving, even if someone is not a good person, even if I don’t agree with someone, even if someone hurts me, still I love that person, then it is true love, it is radical love.
As we overcome fire with water we overcome hatred with love. As we overcome darkness with light, we overcome evil with good.
True love leads to dialogue and participation. Radical love leads to transformation and understanding. Love lights a candle of trust to diminish the darkness of fear.
Through love we change each other. Love transforms, hatred kills. Therefore, love everyone, irrespective of their nationality, religion, political affiliation or economic system. Love, live and let live!
This is applicable to every one. Israelis need to love Palestinians, as Palestinians need to love Israelis. In the same way, Russians and Ukrainians need to love one another. Everyone is a neighbour and no one can ever be an enemy.
Accept
Violence, killings, hatred and war are not justified, even to end injustice. Ends cannot justify means. To achieve good ends we need to use good means. Nonviolent resistance is more powerful than armed resistance.
Social Love is active love. Social love is radical, transformative and revolutionary. It resists racism, inequality, injustice and other forms of oppression, nonviolently.
The Women’s Liberation Movement has been largely nonviolent. And it is a good example of how nonviolence works from the bottom up. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu set a successful example through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and proved that forgiveness is more powerful than violence and revenge.
They had the courage of their convictions. Love makes the world a happy place. Social justice and Social love are twins.
Even moderate love is difficult to practice. We sometimes find it difficult to accept and love even our parents and partners, our family members, our colleagues and our neighbours.
Diversity
If we really want to practice moderate social love then we need to learn to appreciate people. We need to love and accept people as they are. We need to appreciate the fact that everyone is different.
Therefore the first thing we need to do to practice moderate love is not to criticise other people. When we criticise other people we are thinking that, ‘I am right and you are wrong and I know better than you’.
We become judgmental. So, we should not to criticise even our parents, our children, our husbands, our wives, our friends or our colleagues. We should avoid criticising anyone.
If we want to practice moderate social love then we need to make the shift from criticism to appreciation. The Chinese have an image of three wise monkeys. They teach us, see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil!
Everybody does things in a different way, everybody has a different point of view, we have to appreciate and celebrate the diversity of life. Vive la difference!
Plumber
The second thing we need to do to embrace moderate social love is to stop complaining! When we complain, we are being judgemental. Criticism and complaining rise from a similar psychological state.
To practice moderate love we need to allow others to make mistakes and learn from their mistakes. We all make mistakes. So if we really want to walk on the path of love then we should restrain from criticism and from complaining.
Then the third thing we need to learn, is to hold back from the habit of comparing one person with another person. Comparing is futile. Each and every person should be valued, appreciated and respected in their own right.
We need to celebrate every person as she, or he, is. We need to support them and love them as they are. Everyone will grow and evolve in their own way.
Someone will be a cook, someone a gardener, someone a musician, someone a dancer, someone a poet or a painter or a plumber. Someone might become a business leader or a political leader. Society needs all these kinds of talents. We need to celebrate all skills equally.
Organism
Then of course with self love and social love we must embrace ecological love. We need to love the Earth and we need to love nature.
At the moment most people think that nature is out there: the mountains, the forests the animals and the oceans are nature and we humans are not nature. But this is a mistaken view.
We humans are also nature. We are all made of earth, air, fire and water. Therefore we need to say that as nature is out there, nature is also here. We are all Nature. Therefore loving and looking after the Earth – the rivers and mountains, forests and animals, birds and humans – is part of ecological love.
At the moment many people think that nature is inanimate and it is just a resource for the economy. Nature is only there to make products for human consumption and nature is simply a resource to make money.
But when we love nature then we see Nature as a living organism.
Possessions
Nature is not simply a resource for the economy but she is a source of life itself. Therefore loving nature is our prime responsibility. In this new awakening we shift from the ownership of nature to a relationship with nature.
Nature does not belong to us, we belong to nature. Nature is not a commodity, nature is a community.
In nature there is no waste and there is no pollution. There are no waste bins in the forests! Nature is our greatest teacher. If we learn to live in harmony with nature and learn to love nature then we need to live simply and implement the principles of restraint: reduce, reuse, recycle and mend.
To love nature we need to focus on the quality of our lives rather than quantity of our possessions. We need to shift from more, to better!
Manifesto
If we do that then there will be no climate change, there will be no waste and no pollution. There will be only minimal damage to biodiversity which can be repaired and healed again and again.
Love is not just an ideal, love is an ecological imperative. Love is not in a book; love is not in the Bible or in the Quran, or in the Bhagavad Gita. Love is not in a church or a temple, love is in our hearts and in our daily lives.
Love is to live in harmony with one self, in harmony with all people and in harmony with planet Earth. We need to practice love at all levels: at the personal level, the social level and the ecological level.
We need to try to practice love every day, even if we are not able to do it one hundred per cent. This is my love manifesto. I wish to establish a dominian of love on earth.
This Author
Satish Kumar is the author of Radical Love. Satish is a member of the management team of the Resurgence Trust, which owns and publishes the Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and The Ecologist online. Radical Love, by Satish Kumar, is available now.