Compassion and love are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. –Dalai Lama
As a Christian I seek to find truth, beauty and good in all faith and humanistic-philosophic traditions. As part of my commitment to be a searcher-seeker I spend time reading and reflecting upon a number of ‘Scriptures.’ One of these is Islam’s Quran.
The following words open every chapter of the Quran save for one: In the name of Allah, Infinitely Compassionate and Infinitely Merciful. God’s Compassion and Mercy are cited one hundred and ninety-two times in the Holy Book. Simply stated: Compassion and Mercy are the essence of God.
God wants us to be Compassionate with all others AND (remember, Gentle Reader there is always an ‘AND’) God wants us to, first, be Compassionate with ourselves. A Muslim, Sufi mystic offered us this counsel: ‘Can we learn to receive our pain and tenderness and love? Have mercy, for we are precious in God’s eyes. Little do we know who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. Our beings deserve to be touched by compassion every step of the way.’
I am reminded over and over again, by all the wisdom figures, that whatever work I do on myself, if I don’t do it rooted in compassion for myself, I will not make much progress when it comes to be the person I am called to become.
To be compassionate with myself does not mean that I avoid or deny what needs to be looked at and worked on in aspects of my imperfection. Even though I am imperfect I strive to live rooted in Compassion, Love and Mercy.
I continue to learn that if I am not able to be compassionate with myself then I am not able to gift others with compassion, nor then with love or mercy.
Compassion encompasses each person, including the offender. Judge the offence and be compassionate with the person. As one Sufi mystic put it: ‘Do what is right and just AND please do not shut the person out of your heart.’ Talk about a daunting challenge for us, imperfect beings.
In Islam, God says: ‘Whoever approaches me walking, I will come to him running, and he who meets Me with sins equivalent to the whole world, I will greet him with forgiveness equal to it.’
I believe that our basic nature is deeply compassionate, loving and mercy-full. If we do not know this it is because we are not awake and aware – we have hardened our hearts. When we are not awake and aware we are rooted in fear and are unable to offer ourselves and others Compassion, Mercy and Love.
As we wake up and become aware we soften our hardened hearts and we become aware of a divinely lit lamp in us. The lamp contains the flames of Compassion, Love and Mercy and these three dissolve the darkness within and the darkness without and we bring our light to the world – a light that is life-giving and life-healing.
I am reminded of the words of Rumi: How should Spring bring forth a garden on hard stone? Become earth, that you may grow flowers of many colors. For you have been heart-breaking rock. Once, for the sake of experiment, be earth!’
Here is a practice-discipline that one of my Spiritual-Guides offered me many years ago. Add a word of endearment to your name and develop a life-long habit of using that affectionate name with your given name whenever you talk to yourself. The truth is that all of us do talk to ourselves a lot and, sadly, much of the talk is negative. First become aware of this internal conversation (or is it internal condemnation) and then make it a practice to relate to yourself with affection and Compassion.
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all, beginning with our self. –Albert Einstein
Searcher-Seeker 