The Beatles Were Wrong: Love Is Not All You Need

"You should have told your mothers to have aborted you!"

That was just one of the insults hurled, along with "Satan get away from us!", by members of Pro Life Philippines at supporters of the Reproductive Health Bill.  Click here to read the article (where I got the video below).


I easily feel so morally superior to people who - well, people who act like they do in the video.  "Oh I'm a Zen Buddhist, I practice the Middle Path, I sit Shikantaza zazen, I am above all that drama!" is a regular feature in my mind.  This is one of my weaknesses.  So bear in mind that while I am pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of some of the members of Pro Life Philippines I am doing so in the knowledge that I am also a fallible person with my own moral failings.

Look: I watched the video and I read the article.  I even read the comments.  I am outraged.  And yet, even as I feel outraged, even as I feel the urge to send a big FUCK YOU to Pro Life Philippines President Eric Manalang, the CBCP, the Roman Catholic Church, etc.  I also realize that we're all just sentient beings trying our best to live our lives in a good way.

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that despite this fact we can't all "just get along."  Yes, there is no "us" over "here" vs. a "them" over "there".  Still, we often find ourselves "here" and others "there".  It is sad but true:  the Beatles were wrong: Love is NOT all you need.  

We all have love.  Catholics have love.  Buddhists have love.  Atheists have love.  So why is it that we still find ourselves fighting each other?

If love were all we needed, the Eightfold Path would have been unnecessary.  Buddha would have simply said, "Just love."  No need for Right View, just love (because love is blind, anyway).  No need for Right Intention - just love (never mind that the road to hell is paved with good but unskillful intentions).  No need for Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood - just love, man and everything you say and do will be right!  No need for Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration - Just loooove.

No man.  Love is not all we need.

It helps - and I believe it helps a lot (as Marvin Gaye sang, "Only love can conquer hate).  But it's not absolutely all we need.

Sorry, Beatles fans.