40 Days of Compassion

Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Day Fourteen

Are you all diggin’ this journey or what?

Today I spent the majority of my time in communion with Spirit and friends, and a deep sense of peace filled me throughout. I can feel the effects of this compassion journey in my communication with everybody that happens into my life. It seems that others are sensing it, too. Judgments starting to diminish into the less common, my relationships are becoming richer as the environment becomes a safe ground for us to be “less than perfect” and honest.

There is an area of judgment regarding women that I will dive into tomorrow when I’m more awake, because it’s something I would really like to work through in this second act of the 40 day journey.

Nathan, the buddy I’ve been referring to in previous posts, has spent the day here with me at my place, and as we were reading Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet he asked me to pause. Tears of gratitude were streaming down his face, and he expressed how much it meant to him to have a safe place to be himself and love himself. His voice touched my heart deeply, and the feeling relates to something that I’d just read prior to this moment in Gibran’s chapter on Giving. This section of the poem reads…

The Prophet: On Giving

Then said a rich man, “Speak to us of Giving.”
And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have – and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life – while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers – and you are all receivers – assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be over mindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

I know that when I’m at my best, in my fullest expression of light and love, there is no egoic identification with a compliment such as Nathan’s. It’s merely two souls bowing before one another and breathing namaste: all that is divine within me recognizes all that is divine with you. At this level of interaction, we’re simply recognizing our true Spiritual identity, the only identity that does not require an ounce of agency to create something anew, but does require us to reveal what has always been true: we are made in the image of God…we are love and compassion…and, again, we are one.

Dan, our newest contributor, spoke of his inability to forgive the unforgivable acts of the child rapist murderer currently being prosecuted in Southern California. It’s a very painful, yet useful scenario to meditate upon, and I advise everyone to read Dan’s honest reaction and weigh in.

When I won’t find compassion…

In this murderer/rapist, I see a very lost man. As sick and distorted as his behavior was, his expression is simply the darker side of me and you and you and you. While we’d like to convince ourselves otherwise, we are all capable of the “unforgivable act”. To deny this man compassion is to deny ourselves the same. Call me Crazy Taoist Man here, but I don’t believe there is a black and white separation between “good” and “evil”: evil is in good and good is in evil; we are all capable of insanity and self-sabotage and destruction. Trust me, I’d rather deny this notion and convince all that I’m incapable of this, but this is really just another strategy the ego uses to protect our identity. I see a very lost man who needed to be loved at some critical juncture in his life. But who will love the sinner? Will you cast the first stone?