Journal of Sacred Work

Days 335-339 – Are We More Compassionate?

   "Love alters not when it alteration finds…" – William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

IMG_20120412_150629   Billions have walked this earth since Shakespeare's time. How much has love altered "when it alteration" found in each of those lives? 

   What is the experience of Love in our era versus that in Shakespeare or Jesus or Abraham's time? 

   I have the privilege of addressing audiences about such things: That Love's energy does not change, that the human vessel into which it is poured always does and that Radical Loving Care can make a difference.

   What revolutions technology has wrought! If our ancestors appeared could they comprehend how computers and medicine have transformed the world?

   People live longer. There are billions more of us. And in the developed world pain can now be relieved.

   Artists, scientists and caregivers enjoy the luxury of learning from all who came before. Artists and scientists have progressed. Have the hearts of caregivers changed?

Partial figure    Today's artists weave on looms of light unthinkable in earlier eras. Leonardo da Vinci could not have envisioned a talking picture masterpiece like "Casablanca" nor that a nude could be photographed just as Beethoven could not imagine the power of jazz nor Newton lasers.

   Scientists have developed more magical tools in the past thirty years than Merlin could have conjured. Countless diseases have been eliminated and most body parts are now replaceable. 

   Creativity and innovation are alive and surging. What about compassion?  We can be glad it endures and hope that it thrives. 

   Yet, in spite of everything history and religion have taught us, Jews, Christians, Muslims and those of other faiths seem to live Love no better than did their predecessors.

  Only Radical Loving Care can change and sustain the human heart. But most of us will not let it in. If we did, we would discover that phenomenon that always surprises us: When we give, we receive.

-Erie Chapman   

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5 responses to “Days 335-339 – Are We More Compassionate?”

  1. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    I believe that we are always evolving towards a greater good. Yet, how we view the world gets so turned upside down and distorted when fear kicks in. Somehow our minds can get so disconnected from our bodies. We live in our heads, even more so in this age of technology. Today, I felt gripped by a deeply personal and irrational fear of a perceived loss. Fear and anxiety can be so exhausting and has an effect on every cell in the body. Energy shifts when we can take a step back, breathe and just notice how we carry stress in our body. This evening I went to my yoga class and it helped to ground me and to release some of it.
    The world is a macrocosm of the microcosm of the body. When we lose sight of our interdependence and connectedness, we forget that we are part of a whole. As the bible makes reference, if eye does not recognize hand does that make it any less part of the body? When fear overcomes us we can attack each other like an invading cancer. So for me, it comes down to how I see in the world and my willingness to continually try to learn to retrain my mind to see differently, to let in the Light, to keep my heart open amid the pain and suffering and to not turn away from it all, but to see with sacred eyes. I really do believe that I can change the world by changing how I see down to the cellular level.
    My soul bows to your soul, namaste.

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  2. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    “World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.” —His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
    Thank you for this thought provoking reflection, Erie and in this season of advent and of hope may we offer compassion and kindness to each person we meet, as well as to ourselves.

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  3. sbeng Avatar
    sbeng

    Erie: your subject of discussion is “Are we more compassionate? and the key phrase that strikes me is “Loves energy never changes, that the human vessel into which it is poured always does and that Radical Loving Care can make a difference. This man Nelson Mandala who became the President of South Africa has the Radical Loving Care in him and he had aspired to bring it to fruition and he did. His twenty years in prison has matured him as reported. He aspired to see kindness, love, unity among the races work out and he succeeded in achieving it through peaceful means. Not only did he accomplish this in his nation but he has set a living example for the rest of the world that this goal can be achieved. This brings me into mind a quotation from Shakespeare which has stayed with me from my early years “all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts” and this man Nelson Mandela has “played his many parts” and achieved his goals, may his soul Rest in Peace.

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  4. Erie Chapman Foundation Avatar
    Erie Chapman Foundation

    Thanks for these references to the Dalai Lama and to Nelson Mandela. It was fascinating to hear the Dalai Lama eulogize the late President Mandela in remarks broadcast today. These beings have manifested light and so have the two of you.

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  5. sbeng Avatar
    sbeng

    Erie: thank you for your encouraging words. It is “in His light shall we see Light”.

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