Brilliant Quote – Thomas Merton.
“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.”
- Thomas Merton
To see the secret beauty. to see past the veil of our own conditioning. To be kindness. Yes.
I love what the Dalai Lama has said in response to questions about becoming a Buddhist, he has stated, “Don’t bother being a Buddhist, my religion is kindness.”
To truly be kindness, I think we must first find that which stands in the way. This isn’t an abstraction, this is who we are. In Buddhist thought it is generally accepted that life is suffering and that there is a way out, there is a way to liberation. To move from that stuck suffering into freedom required first we know where we are at.
Where are you at? Where am I at? What is in the way? Does it hurt to feel that? Is it scary?
Most of the time we are not in this space because we are lost in the trance of thought and self. In that space, we might have ideas or thoughts or noble aspirations, but it is not an actually state. Its all theory.
Until that sacred presence really permeates who we are, we are not really living the visceral sense of loving. We are not authentic. You can feel that from a mile away, can’t you?
The idea that there is a self in here and a world out there is a result of the trance of self.
We can talk leadership, success, change, peace…and yet there is an emptiness without that juicy, limitless, and edgeless space of loving awareness. Its the frosting without the cake. Its like a spiritual tinsel town.
This quote challenges me to drop the act, to waken from the trance.
The Buddha stated in the Heart Sutra that loving kindness reverses the aging process. The quote was something to the effect that living with resentment and anger wrinkles your face like a rotten apple. Loving Kindness reverses that. I am not so worried about my face, its the heart I am concerned about. Your heart, my heart, one heart.
Our fear is great, but greater yet is the truth of our connectedness. We can wake up when we deeply experience our belongingness.
This is the heart of radical wellness.
Love,
Matt
