Dear Revolution Community,
A dear friend invited me to sit with a self-realized Buddhist Monk who was visiting New York a few weeks ago.
He told a story that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It was a story about an enlightened sage who was newly born as a baby. A fresh incarnation.
An enlightened sage can “see things as they are” and with that vision he could see all the past lives of the people around him. As he laid in his mother’s lap breastfeeding he looked up at her adoringly with such love for his kind and doting mother.
As kind as she was in this life though, he recalled in their past life she was his greatest enemy. She sat holding him with one arm to feed and with the other hand held a long iron rod that she was using to cook meat for dinner over the fire, meanwhile using her foot to try and hold back their dog from eating the meat as it cooked.
The child looked at the animal roasting over the fire and recalled that animal was his father in a past life and the dog his mother in a past life who was very cruel to him.
As the monk told the story he explained this is why we must hold unconditional love and universal compassion for all beings. As we pass through these lives we don’t know who someone is to us in another life, in another form. Your kind parents could have been your cruel ones. Your enemies your friends.
These are all just temporary roles in the grander scheme of the path of consciousness.
Buddhism teaches we incarnate in all positions to understand all sides. We are in a Lila the Hindus say, a divine play, the grand theatre of life where we get to try all these roles and learn about ourselves within them.
The Bible encourages us to even love our enemies. Ram Dass’s yoga teacher told him to love everyone and tell the truth. For those who really annoyed him, he wasn’t sure how this assignment was possible.
Even if you do not believe in reincarnation, there’s an important lesson here. Something I’ve come to understand myself, something my spiritual practice has revealed to me; whomever you judge harshly you likely will end up in their position… in this very life. Yet having unconditional love for all beings is a kind of karmaless action.
We let the moments pass as it were without latching on to resentment, regret, anger, grief. We let ourselves feel these things, but we also let them move through us without sticking forever in this way. Unconditional love and gratitude makes those things slippery.
The yogis teach that you decided on these roles before you were born. The people you meet, the scenarios you find yourself in, none are random.
The ones who hurt you the most, in your purest highest forms actually love you with a godly unconditional kind of love. But it’s hard to see this until our vision can adjust to “see things as they are” (neutral until we apply our own meaning to them).
So how was Ram Dass able to love everyone and tell the truth? He established a samana (equal) vision of all beings as atman (pure, blissful, eternal consciousness) inhabiting a meat suit that may be problematic from time to time.
But he stopped getting stuck on the roles people take on and shifted into intentionally maintaining his own experience of unconditional love. Yes it benefits others, but how deeply this act also benefits ourselves.
The Buddhists have a saying: Anger is like holding a hot stone in your hand to throw at someone else, only you will get burned. Maintaining a feeling of unconditional love is like leaving all the burning rocks on the ground and walking away from them. You get to enjoy and be grateful for life with all the skin on your hand intact.
So many traditions explain this is the way to access the super powers found in every human. They are not accessible other ways. View moving out of a state of love as a trap! And keep setting your sights on that higher taste of living.
I am deeply grateful for your participation in our community. Please keep showing up for yourself on the mat, in studio or online to continue maintaining this deeper sense of peace that allows love. And be sure to check out our workshops for the month.
Peace and Love,
Amanda and the good folks at Revolution Yoga
Originally shared in our March 2025 newsletter.