The Supremacy of Love One way we demonstrate love is through friendship. Buddhists have a term, metta, for the quality of boundless friendship toward oneself or others. Metta refers to being loving and kind. Practicing this principle, particularly toward people you don’t know, expands your innate capacity for connecting. Through the quality of loving-kindness, you are able to break the habits of apathy and judgment that generate a feeling of separation from others. Separation fosters fear and prejudice. Every person has the potential for friendship and kindness. It exists within everyone, no matter what dire experiences each have endured. This capacity cannot be destroyed, although it can be ignored or neglected. The way you can rediscover your metta capability is to take a positive interest in people. We’re often running through life so fast that we overlook or discount people. They don’t even register. Yet relationships make up the fiber of our lives and constitute our greatest challenge and opportunity. Practice being attentive. Start with someone you don’t really know. As you pay attention, you will learn things about the person and yourself. Next, hold that person in your heart with a feeling of genuine warmth. At the same time, mentally wish that person well. In short order, you will no longer feel like a stranger. Your world will begin to change. Your life will suddenly feel freer. The next step is to practice with someone you feel ambivalent toward. Aha! It gets easier. With success, you get bolder, which ultimately leads you to people with whom you’re in conflict. Choose someone you have injured or who has harmed you. With tenacity, you will get past the lightning bolts of anger. Your rage will dissipate over time and you will discover increased energy and deeper love, deeper than you had ever imagined. As your attention opens to the people you formerly dismissed, your world expands, along with your connection to yourself. Work on your ability to be kind and loving, and you will discover how truly unlimited and safe you are. Why does this work? Because God is Love and we are individual sparks of God. Love is our inner essence, our core. When you remove the blocks of fear, shame, guilt, anger, and unforgiveness, which obstruct your true nature, love radiates from your center, illuminating the mind, body, and situations. At that point, practicing metta becomes a way of life. All things appear new in the light of love. Jesus, our prototype, not only centered his teaching on love, he emanated it. His teaching demonstrates love’s supremacy and overriding power. This blog is excerpted from Set Yourself Free: Live the Life YOU were Meant to Live. To order Set Yourself Free go to: http://rdrpublishers.com/products/set-yourself-free-life-the-life-you-were-meant-to-live