All religions have teachings that say, in essence, “Love thy neighbor.” All of us have lived with this phrase practically from birth. It is part of our thinking, but usually buried quite deeply in our psyche. We acknowledge its importance, but don’t necessarily follow its meaning. Why is this so common? The answer is that it is so very difficult to abide consistently by such a simple idea as “Love thy neighbor.”
Sunday is fairly easy because of the worship services that we attend or at least realize that someone is attending somewhere. And we at least make an attempt to be pleasant to anyone even in the parking lot, though this can be very difficult at times. Patience seems to be directly proportional to “love” in a parking lot, i.e. as patience thins and wanes, so does our love of neighbor. Even with this exception, Sunday is still a relatively happy day to get along with those that we meet. But what about the other six days of the week?
It is much more difficult to love your neighbor through the week with all of its stresses and variables when we come in contact with people in general, all of whom seem to be mentally disturbed and off balance. Driving a car on any street or freeway will bear this out. Dealing with people on the phone or in stores or a workplace or an office, especially a government office will begin to try the patience of even the most sedate personality after only a few minutes. Watching any news program on TV or listening to news on a radio can cause us to take sides on any issue immediately and develop animosity toward the opposite side. Sometimes it is almost easier to switch sides and despise our own side just for some momentary relief.
So what can help us to reset our moral compass, reboot our minds and restore balance to our spiritual side so that it is possible to love our neighbor? There are those that will try anything that they can smoke, drink, or swallow, but the relief is only temporary and sometimes the after effect is worse than the cure. There are those who try Zen or Yoga or exercising to the extreme, but even with these the mind still returns to our original premise that people are the cause of any problem, so “why should I love them or even like them?”
There is only one solution that goes deep enough into our minds and has an effect that is lasting enough to provide relief, balance, and an outlook towards our neighbor that includes love… music! We have music in our cars, music in our homes and workplaces and music in our headphones and earbuds when we walk or exercise. We have music when we shop in stores or eat in restaurants or fast food marts and even “live” music in church. This ubiquitous use of music tends to keep us sane.
Music gives us the impression that other people are also sane and not just annoying. It makes it possible for us to truly “Love our neighbor.” So we need to regularly equalize our feelings and psyche by partaking of the soothing vibrations that can heal. And be sure to make them good, good, good, “Good Vibrations.”