The term love with conviction grew out of a talk about how people who hated acted with conviction. To counter that hate we have to make a conscious choice for love. It’s possible through a spiritual practice using the tools of forgiveness and meditation.
However, I bet you don’t have time to sit on a meditation mat all day expanding the love within your heart and deepening your connection with God. You need to get out in the world to earn your living and look after your family. It is within the structure of the spiritual practice that your mundane everyday activities become a place to bring a higher consciousness and a more loving perspective. Even in sweeping the floor each action can be for the highest good and greatest joy for all who use the floor. Savour that for a moment. While dealing with a difficult customer your practice reminds you that at your core you are both united in creation and made from love. And that beneath his hard exterior there is a light that needs your loving fuel to expand.
As you become more adept you can use that deep love ‘as a global force’. For you it may mean becoming active in stopping child pornography. Someone else may be moved to expand their business using a portion of the profits towards providing safe drinking water in other parts of the world. For some it may mean starting or participating in a community program for the needy, helping an elderly neighbour, or driving a friend to chemo therapy treatments.
The key is that no matter where you are or what you are doing, the practice of loving is happening in the background. It is a daily, hourly, by the minute practice that gets easier and easier the more it becomes ingrained. That’s what it means to love with conviction.
So just how will this help to neutralize the haters? Arno Michaleis, once a violent white supremacist, said in a recent Washington Post article, “It was actually the kindness of brave people who refused to lower themselves to my level that changed the course of my life, to put me in a position to follow their example and promote the practice of loving-kindness myself.”
Every time you meet a ‘hater’ with love it raises their internal level of love. Just think about a teacher who pushes the student to produce his best work. The teacher sees something the student does not and with consistent prodding the student can be raised above his current level. Your love sees something in the ‘hater’ that he does not and like both the student and Arno Michaleis you give them a reason to step up and an example to follow.
Loving with conviction is a daily habit arising from a spiritual practice. It becomes a practice that not only helps you recognize and stay in tune with your highest self but also the true and loving nature of every being. And it brings an enduring sense of peace, harmony, and well-being into your life.