The 7 C's - Part 3

The journey of the Seven C's invites us to explore the deepest needs of our soul and reflect on how well those are getting met. What we know is if we don't have an awareness of what we're needing, we aren't open to being guided. We're not looking in the right places. But when we're clear about what it is we're yearning for and seeking in this world, then the universe can support that. This is the Law of Mind Action.

The question is, once we identify what we need, do we look out for each other? There is a unity of hearts and minds. There's a sacredness. There's also compassion. I'm wanting to know that there's kindness in the world. Is that demonstrated? I'm wanting to know that there's consideration for me. I'm wanting to know that there's support, there's care, there's love. And so that's what we're looking for.

And compassion is seeing our shared humanity; this shared idea that we are each divine. So let's be clear that compassion is not passive. It's not a sweet sentiment of sympathy. Compassion is really love in action. It's bold. It's embodied. It doesn't wait for comfort or convenience. It reaches into the shadows and says, "You belong. I see you. I'm here for you. How can I support your well-being? How can I support your spiritual growth?" This is the kind of love that Jesus lived and this is the kind of love that you and I are called to live.

I was delighted to see a post by Jack Kornfield, a beautiful Buddhist teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. Buddhists are known for sitting back and holding space for equanimity and peace. But in this post, I saw Jack Kornfield calling for equity and diversity. His sign said, "Please have compassion for us." And I thought, that's so beautiful—that we can have law and order, but we don't have to lose our compassion. And I love that he was a Buddhist because so many times we put Buddhists in the category of non-action. But we need to move our feet in addition to praying for how we want our world to be.

The next thing that we're talking about is our core value of radical love. And the value is this: We believe each person is an individualized expression of divinity itself and we accept each person as such—without condition, without question, or exception. And as a matter of principle, we love boldly.

And this idea of compassion is also shown through our action. The most gratifying thing we can experience is contributing to the well-being of another. We're not earning anything. We're not getting merits to get into heaven. We're already going. We're already there. Thank you. We're already there. It's a here-and-now experience. And yet there's something in us that wants to share goodness, equanimity, compassion, and radical love with others.

And so it can be a challenge to offer radical love, especially to those that are hard to love, but we need to look beyond life's appearances. We need to look beyond how someone might be expressing because when we are in that place of rage or anger or upset, it just means that we have forgotten who we are. It doesn't mean that the divine essence isn't there. It's just shadowed over by life's circumstances, by ideas or thoughts or maybe the many, many challenges in this human world. Our Christ nature, our Buddha nature, can see through that facade that may be angry or upset and to be able to gently, with compassion, call forth the good and the great in each other.

There's a beautiful story that, years ago in a New Thought church, an elderly man named Thomas sat every Sunday in the back row, and he rarely spoke and he was pretty grumpy. He didn’t have a lot to say and didn’t have a lot to offer. He never smiled. And most people honestly were wondering why he came.

Well, one woman, Margaret, saw something different. She saw the essence of Thomas and she made it her mission to sit with him every Sunday and to smile and to offer understanding and compassion. And finally one morning there was a smile back. And something lit up in her. But it took several Sundays.

When she didn't see Thomas for a couple of weeks, she got concerned and found out how to contact him and heard that he was in the hospital. So she went to see him. When she arrived, he smiled and then he cried because no one had been to see him. He had no family and very few friends. But something in Margaret brought out that goodness, brought out that divinity in him. He could see himself mirrored through her eyes.

And something shifted in Thomas. When Thomas got out of the hospital, he came back to the ministry and became an usher and completely transformed. Rather than withholding and being upset that the world wasn't giving him what he needed, he began to learn that as we give, we will receive. So he began serving in that way.

Several years later, Thomas passed and left a generous endowment to the church. So we never know what that little smile, what that heart intention will create in another person. We are blessed when we can touch another soul and find that goodness. When we can touch another's soul and see God in them in expression, there is no greater gift.

I think that's why many of us do ministry—whether you're the minister or the prayer chaplain coordinator or the administrator or the board. We do ministry because we experience that divinity. We experience the goodness in others. It's the best!

One of the experiences we yearn for is contribution. We want to contribute to the greater good of the world. We want to contribute to another soul. That's in our DNA. And when we do that, when we create a space for that to happen, we are blessed because our need to contribute is met. Not because of what someone did, but because our contribution supported another soul's awakening. And that's what we're here for—a shared spiritual awakening.

That doesn't always happen through the minister's message. It's usually through an act like Margaret’s. That one-on-one experience. The person who sees beyond the appearances.

Our prayer chaplains do that. When you come to them and share your challenge or story, they're not believing in your lack or limitation or challenge. They're hearing the human experience and rising above that into the spiritual solution. They don't see that human flaw that you feel. That's what we feel. When life is not working out, we feel like we're damaged goods. We feel like we've failed at some level. But we remind ourselves that we're spiritual beings having a human experience. And sometimes that human experience can be overwhelming.

Mark Nepo, a beautiful poet, says this about love and grace:

"Enlightenment is the moment we realize that we are made of love. At that moment, all fear of living disappears. For grace comes to the heart when it realizes what it is made of and what it has risen from. In that moment, grace comforts us. No matter the joy or pain along the way, we are already part of where we are going. We are already finding that in which we are seeking."

We are made of love. So when we are expressing radical love, we are expressing our innate divinity. And that's why it feels so good. It's aligning with the divine love that we are.