Love is the answer to purity!

Buddhism talks about the eightfold path as the way to attain salvation. The first two are right view and right intention: they are the base for a person’s wisdom. The ethical conduct of a person is seen in three important areas in the life a person: right speech, right action and right livelihood. These are necessarily supported by the person’s mental development in three important factors: right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

Jesus in today’s gospel talks about the purity and impurity in people’s heart. It can take us to the basic question on sin: what is a sin? Sin is an effort to say no to God and his will. All the sins that Jesus touched upon today one way or other are connected to God and others. The only way to bring in purity in a person’s heart is to love. Love is the answer to purity.

To exist is to coexist. We live in a society. We all affect each other’s lives so tremendously that we are not aware of it most of the time. We cannot be self-made people. We influence others and others influence us. Only when we are influenced by the power of God, all our relationships demand purity. I can relate to a person purely only by the power of God.

We are given the freedom to make the choice between constructive relationships which is based on God’s love and destructive relationship which is based on the culture of death. Let us pray that God continues to guide us in all our relationships and make our intensions pure in them. Amen.