The hardest person to forgive, or just have any compassion towards...

 

Compassion....

That's what I'm considering, as suggested by our Sunday (Jan 3) speaker at our virtual church.

Toward those for whom I would surely turn away, or speak harshly to...

Well, I found a quote that I'd saved, about Kuan Yin. She's a goddess of compassion. Here the prayer is focused on the Abuser. That's someone to whom I definitely have trouble having compassion!

I consider our politics lately. A hard place to start!

(NOTE: I wrote that sentence before Jan 6's mob at the Capitol. I am now so angry I considered not posting this...but the viewpoint is still valid. However I want the perpetrators of the mob as well as the followers to have legal consequences. It's about time! I could be a lot more compassionate if they didn't continually (and literally) get away with murder.

Today's quote:

Kuan Yin’s Prayer for the Abuser

To those who withhold refuge,

I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being.

To those that cause a child to cry out,

I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.

To those that inflict terror,

I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.

To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,

I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.

To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,

I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.

To those who cling and grasp,

I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.

To those who vent their rage on small children,

I return to you your deepest innocence.

To those who must frighten into submission,

I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.

To those who cause agony to others,

I give the gift of free flowing tears.

To those that deny another’s right to be,

I remind you that the angels sang 

in celebration of you on the day of your birth.

To those who see only division and separateness,

I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.

For those who have forgotten 

the tender mercy of a mother’s embrace,

I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.

To those who still feel somehow incomplete,

I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.

Another quote:

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (14 Jan 1875-1965)