344. To Love The World

To see the world is to love it. As I become more aware of the world and myself, the distinction between the two begins to blur. I cannot stop seeing myself as an entity separate from the world, but I can now also see myself as continuous with it.

In the same way, I start to see the experiences of others as not wholly separate from my experiences. Everything that happens to every other person also happens to me. Everything that others do is also something I do. Everything valuable in me is also valuable in others.

Seeing these continuities, I feel driven to respond to the needs of others just as I respond to my own needs. This is the necessity of compassion, which arises directly from awareness. Compassion towards others (and the world itself) requires nothing more than attention to experience, which itself creates awareness. As my awareness expands and deepens, I become capable of intuitively recognizing need and I feel more strongly the necessity of responding to it.

To love is to appreciate the value of another and to act in support of that other. As such, there is no meaningful difference between compassion and love. Attention creates the awareness that gives rise to compassion, which is also love. By seeing more of the world and its unity with myself, I come to love the world more.

Even those parts of the world that seem ugly or wrong must be met with love. For my compassion and love are not allocated based on merit or worth. They are not withheld on the basis of mere belief or judgment. They are given entirely in response to need and necessity.

My own awareness shows me that the needs of all living beings must be met to free all of us from perpetual suffering. By seeing the world in whole, my love for it grows, and I help it towards its own awareness, which in turn helps the love of compassion spread to every corner of life.