In /The Book of Matthew/, Matthew wrote, “Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question,
testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’
Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’”
So according to Jesus, these two commandments are the most important: love God, and love
your neighbour as yourself.
But what do these two commandments actually mean, and what do they look like when you
really live them out?
That’s what I’m interested in exploring in this essay, and I’m gonna explore this
idea through a dialogue.
--- The following is a conversation between a
Monk (M) and a Student (S).
S: Teacher, what are the most important rules to follow?
M: Jesus said that the most important commandments were to love God and to love your neighbour
as yourself.
S: What does it mean to love God and your neighbour as yourself?
How do I do that?
M: Well, let’s start with the first commandment: love God.
There are two key words there: love and God.
See, like all words, these words refer to something in reality.
If I say the word rock, you know that I'm referring to something hard that you can find
outside.
If I say the word water, you know I'm referring to something cool that you can drink, that
you might find in a lake, or falling from the clouds.
But when we use the word God, what are we referring to in reality?
That's the first thing we have to figure out.
S: Well, I always thought about God as a being in the heavens, or in the sky, or above the
world, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good.
M: Do you have any experience of this being?
S: Honestly, no.
I pray to this being for things that I want, but I don't feel that I've ever really gotten
an answer back.
I've never really experienced God.
M: See, you’re using the word God in a way that doesn’t really mean anything.
Imagine that I said a unicorn is a horse with a horn, and you ask me if I’ve ever seen
one.
You say, “but have you ever experienced a unicorn?”
I tell you no.
What is a unicorn, then, to me?
It’s just a figment of my imagination.
How can I love it?
And if I love it, then I’m just loving a figment of my imagination, and if I love a
figment of my imagination, then I’m just loving myself.
Do you understand what I’m saying?
For you, God is not personal.
God is out there somewhere, maybe watching, maybe something you’re trying to speak to,
but you don’t have a personal connection with God.
How can you love something that you don’t even experience or come into contact with
on a day-to-day basis?
What’s the use of loving something that’s just the product of your imagination?
S: I’m not sure.
Tell me then, what does the word God mean to you?
M: We're talking about something very deep and important here.
So I need you to keep your mind sharp and go very carefully on this journey with me.
Before I can tell you what the word God means to me, I think it's better to start by telling
you what it doesn’t mean to me.
You want to know what God is, but do you even know what you are?
S: What do you mean?
I’m me: your student.
M: I mean the things that comprise you.
Most people don’t, and the truth is, most people confuse a part of themselves with God.
They have thoughts about God but no experience, so they confuse God with their thoughts.
Or they think God is a feeling of joy, or ecstasy, or pleasure, or peace, or love, and
so they confuse God with their feelings.
Or they think God is a particular understanding that you can find in a book, or from someone
else.
So they confuse God with knowledge.
Or they look around and see all of their possessions, and they think God is something that can be
found, acquired, or possessed, like any other object in the world.
Before I can tell you what God means to me, I need you to understand yourself, so you
can separate yourself from God.
S: Then tell me all the things that comprise me.
Help me know myself.
M: Fundamentally, you are attention.
You're a thing that attends to the world.
And by attending to the world, you create an understanding of the world.
And your understanding of the world gives way to your desires, and your desires give
way to your thoughts, and your thoughts give way to your emotions, and your emotions give
way to your actions, and your actions, in part, create the outcomes of your life.
So everything from your attention to your actions is you.
So what's left?
The only thing left is the outcomes of your life.
You're not fully responsible for the outcomes of your life.
There's something else that plays a part, and to me, that other half that plays a role
in the outcomes of your life is God.
And so for me, God is present in every moment, in every outcome.
So what is God to me?
The entity behind every outcome of your life.
S: Hmm…so what does it mean to love God then?
M: I want you to think about this.
If the most important commandment is to love God, then everyone must be able to live out
this commandment, right?
So whatever love means, even the smallest baby must be able to do it.
So that means that, whatever love is, it’s not something that has to be learned or acquired.
Whatever love is, it must be accessible to everyone, everywhere, instantaneously.
S: Hmm…that sounds like a riddle.
Tell me: what is it?
M: Complete attention.
Love is attention with the intention of understanding.
A loving mind leads to endless learning, and it becomes discerning but not judgmental.
Even the smallest babies and children can attend to the world in this way.
In fact, it comes very natural to them.
S: So what does it mean to love God?
M: Remember, to me, God communicates through the outcomes of our lives.
And so loving God means paying complete attention to the outcomes of my actions.
To ask myself, as a result of my actions, what’s happening and why?
And when I change my actions, how do my outcomes change?
Paying attention to the world in this way leads to greater understanding.
But when you stop wanting to understand the world, when you start judging it instead,
when your curiosity about the world starts to fade, when you stop trying to learn, when
you feel yourself becoming resentful or fearful, then you have stopped loving God.
S: Hmm… that gives me a lot to think about.
Then what does Jesus mean by the second commandment: love your neighbour as yourself?
M: So I said that love is attention with the intention of understanding.
So loving yourself means trying to understand yourself.
Why do you do the things you do?
Try to find out.
Don’t judge yourself.
Just try to learn and understand yourself better.
And loving your neighbour as yourself means extending this type of attention to them too.
Try to understand why they are the way they are, why they do the things they do, and don’t
judge them.
S: Why did Jesus say these two commandments are alike?
M: Because, behind them both, is really just one rule, and I think it is the most important
rule in Jesus’ teaching: approach the world with complete attention—attention with the
intention of understanding, attention that leads to endless learning.
Remain curious, and don’t judge, and don’t make conclusions.
Be in a constant state of learning.
When you do this, you approach the world from a place of love.
And I think that’s the core of Jesus’ teaching: love.
S: Why did Jesus say these are the most important rules?
M: Because when you approach the world with love, you become capable of endless learning,
and when you become capable of endless learning, you become capable of discerning the relationship
between your actions and their outcomes, and when you become capable of discerning the
relationship between your actions and their outcomes, you can start to shape your life
in the direction of your choice.
---
So that concludes my exploration of Jesus’ teaching in /The Book of Matthew/.
As always, this is just my opinion and understanding of Jesus’ teaching, not advice.
Feel free to use this information however you like, and if you have a different take
on the his words, I’d love to hear your perspective in the comments.
If you liked the video, please consider liking the video.
And if you’re looking for another video to watch after this one, I recommend watching
my video “Dostoevsky - Walk Your Own Path, Face Your Errors”.
I’ll put a link to it in the description below and in the top right of the screen
right now.