Here's what Rabbi Yeshua and Martin Luther King had to say about agape or unconditional Love:
Yeshua: “You have heard it said that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you: Love your enemies! Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, so that you may be the children of your Father in Heaven.”
Dr. Martin Luther King felt this statement from Jesus on what he called "this revolutionary Love…" was so imperative that he preached regularly on this one verse. He said: “The words of this text — “love your enemies” — glitter in our eyes with a new urgency.” (And that was back THEN!)
Why do we need to follow this? He said, “It's necessary for the survival of civilization… When I speak of love I'm not speaking of some sentimental and weak response, I'm not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I AM speaking of that force which all the great religions have spoken of as the great unifying principle of life. LOVE is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.”
I quoted these two mystics at a New Year's Eve Gathering. A deeply loving friend who has been through seminary said, "This is so challenging, because what would I do if my loved ones were threatened?" I mumbled something about still being in Love, whatever you did, perhaps like a First Nation warrior who would shoot dinner -- with gratitude and Love.
And I also said that the people in that room probably share the ideal that we could eventually, or in a needed moment, vibrate with enough love to stop a predator in their tracks. Someone mentioned the Course in Miracles verse: "In my defenseless is my safety." And of course Jesus also said, "He that lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
I take that as not necessarily meaning that we will receive the karma of a matching death in this life, but that every ripple that we send forth inevitably, inexorably, returns to us. We slowly, grumpily, grow into a greater kindness and compassion, and less wiggle-room for rationalizing our right to attack. (Think Bill Murray in Groundhog Day).
Everyone who is reading this probably knows the theory of karma. However, thousands of people who have had NDEs (Near Death Experiences), knew nothing about karma or past lives, yet have returned to report "from the horse's mouth," —and not according to to any human teaching— an absolutely perfect, "mathematical" system of oneness in which we evolve through a very lengthy process of —Jeezus!—thousands of lives of being on the other side of every action, word and thought that we have put out to others. This is a very slow method, and eventually people seek teachings to accelerate the process, and people like Jesus and MLK offer them.
There have been a few moments in my life when there was a direct threat of attack (and one where the person was threatening to kill themselves) and something came through that was able to disarm the person, and shift the situation to Love. (I'm talking about actual physical attack with weapons here. Verbal and emotional attack, especially passive, can be almost harder to meet with Love).
I think it's worth pondering this higher mystical principle and not giving up on aiming to embody it, even though we are mired in cynicism, disappointment, (especially with ourselves) and deep disillusionment with the state of the world. Think of the world and challenges King was facing. I like what King said in the image above: "We must ACCEPT finite disappointment, but never give up infinite HOPE."
And his other hint about agape or unconditional, revolutionary LOVE:
"LOVE is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.”