Day 092i: An offering more fully Given … (July 15, 2019)
I was still feeling really “out of it” when I came to the austere-yet-lovely Ermita de Santiago Apostol; a delightful wayside church where I rested awhile – acquiring a measure of peace from its cool confines, and a renewed dose of inspiration from the intentional sacrifice of Jesus Christ; a sacrifice that was given far more courageously, and thus a sacrifice that was far more noble than my own … Yes, mine was an offering that served the same calling of selfless Love & radical Kindness, and it was just as true that my sacrifice was similarly misunderstood & similarly underappreciated, and yet that was where the comparison ended and the contrast began. Who was I to whine or mewl or complain about the difficulties of my own Walk while sitting next to a symbolic representation of one who offered humanity so much more with so much more integrity & consequence?
“We can reject everything else: religion, spirituality, ideology, indeed all received wisdom and all revealed truth. And yet we cannot escape the necessity of compassion and kindness; we cannot escape the truth of truths that is Love. This, then, is our truest religion, our one & simplest simple faith. And in this sense, there is no need for temple or church or mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated philosophy, canonized doctrine, or conventioned dogma. Our own heart and our own mind – especially the union of the two, is our truest temple, and its overarching doctrine is compassion; an unconditional love for others and an unbridled respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are – no matter their nationality or their creed or their gender or their species. For so long as we practice Compassion & Kindness in our daily lives – so long as we walk The Way of Christ, then no matter if we are learned or unlearned, heathen or believer, wealthy or poor, respected or dismissed – as long as we have compassion for others and act accordingly, there is no doubt we will bring peace to this earth, and thus there is no doubt we will know life’s truest Joy.” ~ inspired by Dalai Lama XIV
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