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*Brian Wilcox. 'Love ~ No Exceptions'. Flickr
in the Buddha
only one Buddha
so
in the Christ
only a single Christ
so
many beings
is one Being
The summons to Love,embracing all beings, this is a journey step-by-step; we are learning what it means to be welcoming all along the way. This welcome does not negative a relative hierarchy of role or expertise: the child is not the parent, the leader is not the follower,that patient is not the physician, the player is not the coach. It does absolutely embrace all as equals amid our diversity. The key is to be open to growth in welcoming, which is saying "Yes" to everyone, even that one we may not agree with or even have feelings of like for. Embrace is not to like everyone or even want to associate with everyone. Also, this embrace is not to recommend moral relativism, as though anything is okay. Embrace has nothing to do with a relativism in which a being acts for self-interest in a way harmful to others. Yet, even in differing morally and choosing not to be tolerable toward certain actions, we can recognize the other as deserving of respect.
* * *
When I was a corrections Chaplain, I met persons I could not trust, dangerous persons if given the opportunity, might kill me. Some of these were isolated in a cell to themselves among others in individual cells. These inmates could not be in open population. Weekly I went into that facility and, cell-to-cell, standing on the other side from them, protected by a huge, metal, thankfully locked, door, with them I conversed and prayed, provided spiritual literature to, and respected each of these beings. This is embrace. When I walked out of that facility, I simply left, my work being done in the spirit of kindness, yet wisdom befitting such a context. Each of the inmates were respected as a being, but certainly not trusted or befriended, and what they had done to be incarcerated was not respected. I was the Chaplain in their rehabilitation. I played a role, a sacred one, along with everyone else in the facility. Embrace is acted in accord to the context in which one is, this is wisdom, there is no one way to include others.
* * *
who we truly are
cannot belong to anything or anyone
that we are belongs with everything with everyone
spirit is inclusive for is belonging itself ~
spirit cannot not belong
* * *
"Embrace" refers to how much you can receive into your arms; that is, the extent of inclusion of others. This embrace is beyond tolerance, for tolerance tolerates, embrace welcomes, respects, and loves. We have done nothing to think highly of when we practice toleration. Spirit is boundless, including all equally, and this is to be the aspiration for a graceful relationship with all creation, human and non-human. Boundless embrace arises from Grace, the sense of self, of being a person, cannot manifest such divine Elegance.
* * *
a group, a movement, a way of life
regardless of how beneficial, how graceful
is never who we are
only a means to express who we are
only a sacrament of divine Love
Continued... |
