“Building Bridges with Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness”

Ponderings of the Spiritual Life Director

 

“Radiate boundless love towards the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.” – The Buddha

This past Sunday, we engaged in worship together through interactive prayer stations.  I felt a deep sense of peace and lovingkindness working within us and radiating outwardly, heating up the spirit of the community, bringing the words to our in-gathering hymn alive: “When I breathe in, I breathe in peace. When I breathe out, I breathe out love.”  We drank tea together, washed each other’s hands, shared our varied and many joys and sorrows, worked towards removing obstacles, and began to think intentionally about building our Unitarian Universalist community.  We were planting seeds and actually living in a way that we’d like the rest of the world to live.

 

At the building station, I asked attendees to write a word on a block that would remind us how to best build a new way and bridge our divisions.  What a lovely creation!  It is truly delightful to see what we can build together:

 

As I took the blocks apart, and then later rebuilt something with them on the welcome table in the hallway, I noticed three words that were written more than a couple of times: love, compassion, and forgiveness.  Yes!  For how can we move forward, began anew, and build something wonderful without these?  In Buddhism, the word for compassion is “karuna”, and it is understood to mean active sympathy or a willingness to bear the pain of others.  In The Essence of the Heart Sutra, His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote:

 

According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive — it’s not empathy alone — but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is lovingkindness).

As we strive to be compassionate with one another, we will come to a deeper understanding of each others suffering, offering us more meaningful pathways to forgiveness and providing us with opportunities to understand our interconnectedness on a deeper level, thus raising our awareness that we are one faith community with many diverse voices.  When we connect with each other with love and compassion, we create a spiritual energy that allows us to minister to each other in many diverse and meaningful ways.  That spiritual energy that we create warms our hearts and gives us the strength to go back into the world and build bridges with others so unlike us that we can start to put those blocks of love, compassion, and forgiveness in place towards building a more peaceful and just world.  When we practice together on Sundays (and throughout the week at our other events!), we begin to know a better way for moving through the world and heating up the spirit of community for all of humanity.

Much love and compassion to all of you as we build a new way together!

Heather