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COMPASSION FOR THOSE WHO DO HARM
We look around us and we see mountains, and streams, and sky, and sunrises, and trees, and great beauty. Yet, within that great beauty and continually in a process of self-healing, the earth is trying to free itself of the negative energies that it has taken in from our actions, from our words, and from our thoughts.
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We must learn to have compassion for those who do harm, whose hearts are covered by illusion so that they cannot access the truth of their own deeper being which is always positive, which is always love. This truth may be buried beneath a cloud of darkness so that it becomes all but inaccessible, and so that the person in such a situation cannot feel their own humanity nor the humanity of others, and when others become un-real or un-real to the heart, then the heart cannot stand in the way when a tendency arises to treat them like objects.
The same is true for harm done to the earth. We treat the earth like an object because we do not know better. We are beginning to know better, but for most of us, we do not yet exist in primary relationship with the earth, a relationship that is a family relationship, as important to our heart as our own children are, or as any one of our beloved family members are. We must make of the earth our family in a living reality that gives it importance, but we have not done so yet. We know a little about the importance of the earth to our life, but we have not made of the earth a family member. We do not care for the earth as we care for our own children.
And what of the harm that we do to each other in ways that seem mild but that have consequences that we are not yet aware of, and that we may still choose to be unaware of. We speak unkind, or sarcastic, or demeaning, or angry words, and we think "they are only words and this is what human beings do." We think angry, or hurtful, or vengeful, or jealous, or judgmental thoughts and we think "these are only thoughts. They do not hurt others, and this is what human beings do." We are still asleep. We are still unconscious to the fact that our words and our thoughts can do harm to others and to the earth because all thought is energy. All words and all thoughts create an energy which radiates from us whether we speak the words or not. While it is true that spoken words have more of an effect than silent thoughts, it is not true that neither is harmful. We are just yet asleep to our own capacity to be kind or to be harmful toward others and toward the earth.
All that we think, all that we feel, all that we say, becomes part of the spiritual atmosphere of the earth. It lingers in this atmosphere, and when thoughts that are negative collect and gain mass, they begin to reach a potency which causes them to be absorbed into the body of the earth. We look around us and we see mountains, and streams, and sky, and sunrises, and trees, and great beauty. Yet, within that great beauty and continually in a process of self-healing, the earth is trying to free itself of the negative energies that it has taken in from our actions, from our words, and from our thoughts.
We hold the illusion that because we are one person in one physical body that we are small in comparison to the earth, that our thoughts and are words are of no great importance except to those we speak them to or except to those with whom we are in intimate relationship. This is never true. This is the illusion we have subscribed to because of how much we have valued the physical perspective of our brains and physical senses rather than the spiritual perspective of our soul and deeper being. It is our deeper being that conveys to us the knowledge that all of life is interconnected. We know this with our deeper being. We do not yet know this with our bodies. And so we commit harm to the earth and to others without intending to commit harm and without knowing that we are doing so. Yet a part of us knows that it is unkind to speak unkind words; we know this and we forgive ourselves because we are 'only human.' This anger, this jealousy, this self-seeking, this judgment, this desire for revenge, this rage, this wounding of others has become what seems natural to our perspective of being 'only human.' And so we have accepted the unkindness within ourselves because of our beliefs concerning what we are capable of, and because we, as individual persons, have felt too small to make a difference to the future of the earth which seems, in its conception, so large and so beyond us.
We do make a difference and we do affect the earth with our words, thoughts, and actions, and we do put into the earth the energy of what we liberate from our lips and give voice to, as well as liberate in the thoughts which we hold to be more invisible. And yet they are not, because they move from us like a radiant force that affects the atmosphere around us. We know this to be true because we have had the experience of being around other more negative people who affect us by what they inwardly carry. And yet we continue to reduce ourselves to 'not mattering.'
We have come here to matter. We have come here to choose. We have come here to celebrate life, not to diminish it. In our souls we have made a deep commitment to this purpose, even if we are not fulfilling it with our bodies. In our souls we know when we are out of alignment with the celebration of life. And so we must begin to be more truthful with ourselves and more observant, to acknowledge with the honesty of our hearts when we feel we have crossed a line between kindness and unkindness in word, thought, or deed; when we feel we are no longer in the domain of caring for others or for the earth; when we feel that what we think or say no longer matters because we are 'just one person.'
This is the fallacy that must leave us in order for life to become richer and for people to be able to experience our love. We must give to others the part of our being that contains this love, and erase from our giving what we know to be hurtful or less than love. This is true in our relationship with others, and it is true in our relationship with the earth. In doing so, we create a profound healing and transformation, not only for ourselves but for the life of the Earth. We become the life of the Earth, and we honor the sacred purpose that lives most deeply within our hearts.
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