Wisdoms from the Journey - Vol IX (Oct 14 thru Aug 16)

Our Circle of Compassion
(06/21/015)
Every single human being is a part of a single, massive entirety -- a single
―everything‖ – a totality some call ―the Universe.‖ And even though this
Universe is by its very nature without limitation of either time or space, each one
of us is limited -- by the relatively short length of our physical lives, by the very
few places we will be able to visit in that time so fleeting, and by the relatively
few others with whom we will be able to interact in all those then's & there's …
Yes, even though we are inextricably linked and solidly melded into the
very fabric of the entire Cosmos, each one of us experiences ourselves -- our
thoughts and our feelings, our hopes and our fears, our beliefs and our deeds -- as
somehow ours alone; as somehow fully individual; as somehow fully separate
from the rest of the Universe … And this at times diabolical and at times
delicious delusion of individuality builds and reinforces a kind of prison for us
all; restricting us to thinking that we are right and others are wrong; restricting us
to feeling affection for those we see as ―friend‖ and hatred or distrust for those we
label as ―enemy‖; restricting us to reveling with those who share our beliefs of
the here &/or the Hereafter and judging those who believe differently as being
―strange‖ or ―ignorant‖ or even ―damned‖ …
And as such, we each have a Great Task before us -- a Task that we each
must engage with boldness & with bravery if we are ever to free ourselves from
our shackles of separateness & the sufferings of isolation & ignorance they bring
… Simply put -- we must boldly shatter those shackles by purposefully
choosing to widen our Circle of Compassion to include all living creatures (and
indeed the whole of Nature with Her still-resplendent Beauty) -- and then we must
bravely exit our prison cells … by acting accordingly.
Amen ... Let it be so,
(~ inspired by Albert Einstein)
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