Showing posts with label Compassion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Compassion. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

What attracted people to Jesus? Compassion


But when people followed Jesus, they were drawn by his compassion as much as anything else. He possessed what Frederick Buechner describes as the “fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside someone else’s skin.”

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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Do gratitude and compassion flow from our awareness of our utter dependence on the interdependent web of all existence?

Rev. Galen Guengerich, Senior Minister at All Soul's in New York City, says that one of the key components of a Unitarian Universalist theology should be an understanding and appreciation of gratitude. This gratitude, he says, is based on our realization of our utter dependence. I agree with Rev. Guengerich, and today I am reading Osho's book on compassion.

Osho says that compassion is like a fragrance that emanates from meditation by which I think he means awareness of the "interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." In a sense I think that is what Rev. Guengerich means by utter dependence generating gratitude, and this is what Osho means by compassion.

Osho says, "... and I call a person religious who has come to understand that the whole existence is a family. He may not go to any church, he may not worship in any temple, he may not pray at any mosque or gurudwara - that doesn't matter, it is irrelevant. If you do, good, it is okay; if you don't that is even better. But one who has understood the organic unity of existence is constantly in the temple, is constantly facing the sacred and the Divine."
Osho says further that compassion can't be forced, it is not a discipline, it is a natural consequence of the awareness of the wholeness of creation. For this I think we not only experience compassion, but also tremendous, joyful gratitude.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

In times of tragedy from whence comes Grace?

During September, 2017 we continue our discussion of the UUAWOL fiction book for the month which is Dave Eggers' novel, Heroes Of The Frontier. Heroes Of The Frontier doesn't have much of a plot and it not being plot driven so some readers might find it boring but it is rich in character and observations of the human condition. For example, Eggers writes about Samantha, Josie's foster sister, "But Sam had always been flippant about any loss, any tragedy. She felt it her right, as a survivor of a broken personal world." p.136. I know people like this and feel and act this way myself at times. I sometimes feel exasperated with people when I'm not all that empathic and want to say to them, "Look, you need to get over yourself. This shit that has happened to you is really not all that important in the big scheme of things."

Our Unitarian Universalist faith teaches us, though, that every person is important and has inherent worth and dignity and that we should treat each other with compassion. Well when you have been wounded yourself, or worse yet, traumatized, this kind of empathy is extremely difficult if not impossible without the intervention of some kind of grace.

Those of us, who have resolved our trauma and learned from it, are especially called upon to minister to those who are still hurting. To be flippant and dismissive is to protect ourselves from having our wounds re-opened. It is important for us in our ministry to tune into where people hurt and at the very least do no further damage. The intervention of grace referred to above comes from the covenant we make with each other to promote and affirm the faith we have placed in our seven principles. The covenant is a source of grace. The more the merrier. Many hands make light work.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your acts of compassion

Dear Heather:

You asked me whether you should help your demented mother or not and I replied why would you want to help and you started to cry and get upset and I decided to wait to listen to what you would say. You cried all the harder and I continued to wait and then you calmed down and said to me, "I'm pretty messed up aren't I?"

I said, "What do you mean?" And you said, "I don't know what I'm doing so I drink and you must be so disappointed with me."

I didn't know what to do so I asked the Holy Spirit to help me know what to say to you. I thought of the second UU principle which asks us to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in our human relations and I wondered what this principle would have me do in this situation to help you.

The thought that came to me was that whatever I said or did should be to strengthen your sense of empowerment and well being and not weaken it. I think you are stronger than you give yourself credit for and that deep down you already know what the right thing to do is. You just have to get past the drama in you life, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and then follow your instincts.

I finally said, "I'm not disappointed in you. You got to do what you've got to do and if drinking is your way of dealing with your confusion, grief, anger, and fears then what I want to ask is 'How is that working for you'?"

I remember what you said to me. Do you remember? You said with gritted teeth and half laughing, "Shitty."

I laughed with you and asked, "What else could you do?" You started to share some other ideas you had.

Then I had to go, said goodbye, and have wondered ever since how things have been going for you. If you are interested and willing, drop me a line or give me a call because I'd like to know what happened next.

I wish you the best,

David


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