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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. I hope persons of varied wisdom paths will find inspiration here.
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox
MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Teacher, Author
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook – Inspirations for Living – Love, Joy, Peace.
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Enter this sanctuary time by settling down, becoming quiet, and breathing deeply some breaths. Remind yourself you are in the Presence of Love. This place you are entering, within, is the inner Temple, where you are One with God. You may wish to use a mantra, or prayer phrase, follow the breathing in-and-out, or witness the arising and falling of all around you as the manifestation of universal-God. Enjoy these moments of quietly settling and come out when you are ready.
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Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
*Mark 6.34 (NLT)
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Caroline Myss gives the following prayer of compassion, as an example of prayer arising from the soul, the center of who we are in Grace:
I desire to forgive more than I am capable of forgiving, but not to forgive is even more difficult. Help me break through the walls of my ego and let me experience even a drop of the love that transforms resentments into compassion.
*Entering the Castle.
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Joe Bayly in View From A Hearse says one of the best things we can do for a person going through intense suffering and loss is our presence without words. He advises: "Don't try to 'prove' anything to a survivor. An arm about the shoulder, a firm grip of the hand, a kiss: these are the proofs grief needs, not logical reasoning."
"I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly, he said things I knew were true.
"I was unmoved, except to wish he'd go away. He finally did.
"Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left.
"I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go."
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Possibly, a reason Jesus practiced such spontaneous compassion was freedom from resentment. What is resentment? Resentment can be literally read "the action, or state, of feeling again."
What is compassion? Compassion literally is "to suffer with." In compassion we feel the pain of the other, we do not close our heart to the suffering of the other. We are willing to hurt along with the other.
Resentment can be compared to chewing on the same anger and displeasure over and over, without swallowing the pain and processing it. There is the sense of a deserved indignation.
Here, outside compassion for the other, we are caught in the human sense of justice. We are gripped by the demand that we be treated fairly. The world is not fair, thus, we can live caught in this whirlwind of rehashing hurts. This becomes a toxin, damming up the flow of our vital energies.
Yet, not only are we not having compassion for the other, we are not being compassionate toward ourselves. Indeed, often resentment is manifestation of a lack of empathy for oneself. If we had adequate compassion for ourselves, we would find a way out of hurting ourselves so much with re-chewing the same hurt repeatedly.
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We are a constant flux of energies. The energies we nurture will be the energies we choose will grow. If we focus on our hurts, the hurt will grow, will linger. If we focus on the kindness and grace we can feel toward and express to others, that will grow.
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Spend some quit time today reflecting on your past and present. Is their anyone you need to forgive? Do you hold any resentments? Likewise, reflect on a time you felt the joy of being forgiven by someone. You felt the freedom of forgiving.
©Brian Wilcox, and OneLife Ministries. 04/26/2010
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life, as an Associate of Greenbough House of Prayer.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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