Warmhearted: "marked by ready affection, cordiality, generosity, or sympathy"
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Be most loving one to another. Burn away, wholly for the sake of the Well-Beloved, the veil of self with the flame of the undying Fire, and with faces joyous and beaming with light, associate with your neighbor [i.e., anyone].
*"Love and Fellowship." In The Divine Art of Living: Selections from the Writings of Baháʼu'lláh, The Báb, and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Comp. Mabel Hyde Payne. Rev. Ann Marie Scheffer.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, There is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, The world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other Doesn't make any sense.
*Rumi. The Essential Rumi. Trans. Coleman Barks, John Moyne.
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A woman furnished a monk with a cabin for solitude and meditation in the woods. She had food and other goods delivered to him, but she did not go herself. She assumed he was benefiting from the solitude and offering prayers of compassion for the world. Through him, she felt she was also helping the world.
After some years, the benefactor decided to send a beautiful, amorous woman to tempt the monk. The woman showed up at the cabin door almost nude. The monk opened the door and stood stunned at what he saw. The woman, smiling and seductive, kindly asked to enter the cabin and bring comfort to him. She said he must be a lonely man and such comfort would surely be good for him.
The monk became enraged and yelled at the woman. He screamed, "You slut, I'm a holy man! Get out of my sight and never come here again!" The woman left and returned to the benefactor, telling her about the monk's response.
The benefactor walked to the cabin. Upon arriving, she knocked on the door, and the monk opened it with a smile. She inquired about the woman. "Yes, a woman came and tried to seduce me, and I ran her off," the monk said in a self-congratulatory tone. To his surprise, the benefactor said, "Get your things and get out of here. I sent the woman as a test to see if your time here had proven worthwhile. Obviously not! At least you could have shown some compassion, but you, despite all your spiritual practice, were not prepared to do that."
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A life primarily based on morality is not sufficient to the needs of our world. Morality can be cold. We need warmth. We need a warm ethic.
Right-vs-wrong is wreaking havoc, dividing humans against humans, countries against countries, religions against religions, and political parties against political parties. The carnal ego thrives on division in the field of I'm right-You're wrong and We're-right-They're wrong. There is no peace to be had in that field, only warring.
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Many of us in religion were raised on a view of Spirit as essentially encapsulated in the words "God is good." We were indoctrinated with the idea of God as Moral Policeperson, Cosmic Judge. We were taught that good meant not bad - the duality, with divisive powers, was set up. The result... a divisive morality and a sure self-righteousness. The result, the failure to appreciate good beyond the good-vs-bad, a good unable to be appreciated as morality.
Hence, many humans function morally as a pre-adolescent. Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) popularized his work on moral development last century. He noted six stages, and he cited cognitive development as linked with moral development. "Conventional morality" is said to be about age 8-13. In Kohlberg's view, at this stage, one sees right or wrong as what others say - church, family ... - is right or wrong. Compassion cannot flourish in such a limited perspective.
Caught in right-vs-wrong leaves us unprepared to see with and act from compassion. We get insulated inside an individual and collective self-righteousness. Our individual ego and its moral views yield to a collective ego. There is no permeability to allow warmth to be expressed outside our moral code.
Also, in right-vs-wrong, one does not rightly see morality. Morality is more than right or wrong, not defined by right or wrong. Morality is more than behavior; it includes the state of one's inner self.
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Spiritual intelligence leads us to see the other as more than someone who is good or bad, right or wrong. In that space of innocence, while not excusing harmful behavior - from others or ourselves -, we move about among others with warmheartedness. We see into the other a basic goodness, even if they cannot see it. We trust underneath all the dust is a pure mirror. We see with the inner heart, not an external code.
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The monk practiced detachment from sex in pursuit of holiness. He saw the repudiation of the woman as a sign of his righteousness. His benefactor saw his lack of compassion as proof the monk was not the holy or moral man he thought himself to be.
The monk was harsh toward the seductress, having no empathy for how suffering may have been manifested through her choice of lifestyle. And, possibly, his anger was arising from his frustration at attaching to a way of life that was suppressing the joy of living in an attempt to be other than a human among other humans.
When we are cold within, we will be cold toward others. When warm within, we will be warm toward others.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2023. Permission given to use photographs and writings with credit given to copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
