A Ramble About Agape

“Because God loved the world thus, as He even gave His one of a kind Son…”

“Have this mind within you which was also within Christ Jesus…”

“The person not loving doesn’t know God, because God is love.”

Being moved by the Holy Spirit to do so, I have recently started reading a book, edited from lectures given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, about a Buddhist concept called “Bodhichitta”. In short, Bodhichitta is where a person ceases to cherish his or her own “I” and works only for the benefit of others. They no longer do any harm, but also actively work to benefit others and relieve them of their suffering in even the smallest way. It is active and absolute compassion and loving kindness which thinks only of the welfare of the other and not of the “I.” Within the Buddhist worldview, Bodhichitta is the mindset of the Bodhisattvas who choose, instead of entering Nirvana, to continually be reincarnated in order to work to bring enlightenment to all other sentient beings with the goal of ending the cycle of suffering. It is to see each other person as someone dear to you who is suffering regardless and indiscriminate of who or what they are and to work only for their good. According to the good Lama, all practice, meditation, religious prayers, concentration, everything a Buddhist may do to gain enlightenment is all virtually meaningless and fruitless without starting on the path of and incorporating the practice of Bodhichitta.

As I have worked through the concepts of this book, one thing I have come to realize is that this concept of Bodhichitta is a one for one translation of the New Testament understanding of “agape,” most frequently translated as “love.” Everywhere you find the command to love in the New Testament, and especially in Paul’s description of agape in 1 Corinthians 13, you might substitute the word “Bodhichitta” for “love” or “agape” and you would be accurate in your translation of what is being said.

Bodhichitta or agape is the loving kindness and compassion that compelled God to incarnate as a human being in order to bring salvation to us through His death, burial, and resurrection. Remember when Jesus says at the Last Supper, “This is My command, that you love one another just like I loved you”? This is the love He is commanding, that we cease from seeking our own benefit and temporal happiness, and act only for the benefit of others, to give up everything as He did for us, empty ourselves as He did for us, and set down our psyches (literally) for one another as He did for us, and not only for us, but also for the whole world.

The commands to engage in this Bodhichitta, this agape, are numerous within the New Testament, numerous and serious. Paul declares in the aforementioned chapter in 1 Corinthians that without this practice nothing of any kind of virtuous or religious action is worth anything. John declares in the fourth chapter of his first letter that the person not practicing agape doesn’t know God, because God is agape. And Jesus Himself repeats Himself again and again on the necessity of practicing agape towards everyone. In spite of the seriousness and obviousness of these commands which Jesus gives, they are frequently romanticized and ignored by Christians, not realizing that they are the very mind of God towards us. As Paul writes to his fellow Christians in Philippi, “Have this mind within you which was also within Christ Jesus…” Instead however, we are inundated with sermons and apologetics demanding that we adhere to rigid theological orthodoxy, and it is this orthodoxy which is held up as the standard, the canon by which everything else is measured, and not the agape which is so clearly commanded by Christ Himself.

How do we love as we are commanded? There are two methods which, when taken together provide a powerful tool. The first is to see Jesus in everyone, and understand that however you treat the other person, you are treating Christ (this is a practice that St. Theresa of Calcutta spoke of as well). The second is to put yourself in the other person's position and realize the hurt, pain, and suffering they are experiencing, especially those who are cruel to you. Where God is concerned, consider His suffering in being intimately privy to every hurtful things we do to each other, and His suffering in knowing His creations have this disorder which causes everyone's suffering. He hates the disorder, but loves all those suffering from it. So we also should use this insight to develop loving kindness and compassion towards everyone including and especially God who loves us so deeply and overwhelmingly. Few suffer more than a parent who must watch a child suffer from a severe psychiatric, developmental, or medical illness. We need to recognize this, and respond with humility, a child's love, and compassion for our Parent.

Every wrong committed is ultimately directed at God, whether we realize it or not. Because of who and what He is, He experiences every insult, injury, and violation we commit against any other person in the same way they do, and experiences their hurt right along with them. It is not a mistake or a metaphor to see Jesus and treat as Jesus every other person, as He is fully aware of how every person feels and thinks through His union with the Father. He not only sees and hears through our eyes and ears, knowing what we think and how we feel, He does it with everyone else too. He is the recipient of every word and action we commit as much as the human being who relies on Him for his or her own existence. That we do not depend on His existence for our own, that we treat others and ourselves this way, is a harmful illusion which we need to dispel quickly. To love God is also to love one another, our neighbors, and our enemies. Not that the person, the wave or sound, is God, but the medium which gives them substance and existence is Him. In order to have this mind which was also in Christ Jesus, and in order to imitate God who so loved the world that He sent Jesus, we must see Him in all other people and commit to loving and sacrificially working for their benefit in addition to doing no harm to them. This is what it means to love Yahweh (Existence Himself) your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might, and to love your neighbor as yourself. There are no commandments greater than these according to Jesus Christ, and they supercede every other religious restriction, rule of life, creed, or code. Love one another as I have loved you. Abandon yourself, pick up your cross and follow Me. Remain in My love. These commands of Christ take precedence over everything else our denominational orthodoxies restrict us with.

Faith in Jesus Christ demands the pursuit of the practice of this Bodhichitta, this agape which is so crucial to the heart and mind of God that the Scriptures declare that He is agape. He is Bodhichitta, just as Jesus Christ is Bodhichitta incarnated as a human being. Without the practice of agape, there is no real discipleship taking place. Without the pursuit of Bodhichitta, can we really say that we believe in Jesus at all?