Compassion

What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.
(excerpt from the poem by Elizabeth Alexander read at Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration)

Like many of you, I imagine, Denese and I were glued to the TV coverage of the Presidential Inauguration ceremony on Tuesday morning. I was surprised by my emotional reaction. I did not think I would be so moved. I sniffled through the whole ceremony, Denese finally handed me a tissue. I didn't even plan to watch it, not live anyway. Denese felt the opposite, passionate about being a witness to this powerful historical moment as it happened. I thought, that's interesting, the election was the momentous part, this is just a ceremony, a ritual. But something grabbed me as I watched and witnessed the changing of the guard in the White House, and my heart opened wide. I'm not certain what all was behind my emotional response but here's what it felt like. It was not about the victory of a political agenda, or race, or personality, not a matter of blue, red, black or white. It was more a deep feeling of witnessing a culmination of our deepest ideals, of seeing the manifestation of unity and long repressed virtue taking its place in our process; of seeing at last that what unites us can and will rise above what divides us. For me this evoked hope, hope for the whole human family.... for my children, for all children.

I also think that at some level of my being I have embodied some of the pain and suffering and guilt of racial prejudice in America, and this event feels like a great weight of injustice lifted from our collective conscience, a ratification of what America really stands for.

Indeed it was an amazing moment to witness and weep and hope as an integral nation. That freezing morning in Washington DC where millions of diverse Americans stood huddled in hope for a better tomorrow must have felt a powerful interconnectedness. In those moments, we were witness to a powerful spiritual idea. Beyond the many differences that made up their individual lives, their hearts were open and joined ( in Obama's words ) having chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

What unites us; what moves us beyond our differences, beyond the narrow specter of our personal difficulties, supports our deepest spiritual longing for connection to Being, and being together. This is the heart of compassion; the ability to simply be with ourselves, and one another with open hearted presence.

Buddhism teaches that we are interconnected with all beings, all things, all of life. Out of this inherent connection, compassion naturally arises. Compassion, has been described in some texts as "the quivering of the heart in the face of pain, as the capacity to see our struggles with kindly eyes."

Loving kindness is the heart of Buddhist spiritual practice. It was, of course, the heart of Jesus teachings as well, as he implored us to "Love one another, even as I have loved you. and love your neighbor as yourself." It is also the most difficult of spiritual practice in this human journey. On the flip side of difficulty, compassion offers us a most potent way to heal from what divides us inside and what divides us with one another. Compassion draws from an infinite wellspring of love within us: it is the "mightiest word" made flesh, that bears all things, and given its sway, casts a widening pool of light upon our world.