The daily practice of compassion is one of my central organizing principles. Its teaching, unending in wisdom, helps to guide, ground, and orientate me, both in mind, body, and soul.
During times of great uncertainty, times such as these, of which I’m no stranger to, my backbone erects, not through will, but the comfort I’ve come to find, and continually harvest, in those things that transcend uncertainty.
Buddhism, as far back as I can remember, spoke to me. It spoke to me not through words, at first, it’s teachings I didn’t study until much later in life, but through its pith essence.
As a psychic empath, my sensory nerves are most heightened to subtle energies. Those energies that often go unseen, unheard, and, ultimately, unidentified by most. Those things, simply put, intangible.
This, so called ‘gift’, inexplainable, unteachable, and, at times, unmanageable, has always sought solace, not in the ordinary comforts of life, but more so in the easily digestible energies of those things pure.
The learning curve, of such, without the charter of a teacher, wasn’t easy, not for me, or my family. As a child, and a young adult, my heightened awareness, most especially to the impermanence of all things, was a truth I simply didn’t have the grounding to carry.
I was loved. I was supported. I wasn’t, however, understood. Not to myself, not by those closest to me, not by psychologists, and most certainly not, by mainstream society.
It wasn’t until years later, as I navigated my way out into the world, that I came to a greater, much more forgiving understanding as to my nature, its sensitivities, and its awareness.
I no longer felt plagued by my difference. I no longer questioned why. I no longer sought refuge from those subtle, intangible things I saw, heard, and felt, things most others don’t, I turned inward, toward the truth, and in so doing, I was able to exist in greater harmony, at home, within myself.
This vital turning point, the same point in which I started to share my gift professional, came about through a deeper exploration, namely into the easily digestible energies I’d been inherently drawn, the energies of those things pure, and intangible.
One such energy, the very same pith essence of energy that had spoken to me, without words, many years prior, now, further explored, both its truths, and its teachings, turned out to be one of the central pillars attributed to that vital turning point, the point in which I came to exist in greater harmony, at home, within myself.
At the core of these teachings, both ancient and vast, one particular practice, essential to the integrity of all others, is the daily practice of compassion. This practice, in all its divine simplicity, was, and remains, an elemental conduit to my personal healing, and ultimately, the healing of consciousness.
The origin of these truths, their teachings, and, most profoundly, their practice, comes from one of histories most enlightened teachers, The Heart of The Buddha.
And, it was his heart, in its pith essence of purity, that brought great peace to mine, thereby, forever residing, beyond the theorical, a belief structure of mind, but beneath my skin, a visceral, ever present, physiology, aligning, mind, body, and soul.
This is illustrated, permanently, upon my back, by the Tibetan Buddhist mantra, OM MANI PADME HUM.
This tattoo, nor my deep resonance with Buddha, his truths, and his teachings, make me anything more, or less than I am. I am not enlightened. I am not a sentient being, liberated from human all suffering. I have not died enough deaths unto myself to become consciousness itself.
I am that same human, sensitive, and aware. I am that same human, heightened to the intangible, conscious of impermanence. I am that same person, sensory to energy, perceptive to truth. I am that same person, akin to those things unseen, unheard, and unfelt by most. There is, however, one profoundly distinct difference between the human experiences I lived through as a child, and the human experiences I live through, now, as a woman, is that all experiences, regardless of suffering, are lived through, compassionately.
And, this difference, makes all the difference.
During these times of great uncertainty, times whereby many of you are experiencing, for the first time, some of the same unsettling truths I’ve been privy to since birth, that we, as an entire human race, exist in a world whereby nothing is permanent. A world, whereby, at any given moment, those things you consider tangible, the impermeable constructs, in which, our identity, falsely, attaches its sense of worth, and, ultimately, its sense of safety, are indeed, not only vulnerable to a great dismantling, but, upon further analysis, will, inevitably, give rise to the truth, that almost everything we believe to be real, largely exists through perception alone.
Hence, the existential crisis many people now face as their sense of permanence is dismantled, their perceptions gravely challenged, and their grounding, radically destabilized.
The way of the Buddhist, as with all spiritual pathways, is not the only way. Nor, exclusive in truth. Upon exploration, truth can be found in many teachings, regardless of origin, often revealing as many commonalties, as differences.
What I can say, is in facing existential terror, the explorations, the truth, and, ultimately the grounding that followed, during times like these, through loving compassion, I am not untethered by uncertainty, I am not shook to my core, I am at peace, for these truths, the truths in which most of you now face, they need not be your undoing, but your liberation.
In the weeks, and months ahead, as the new normal assembles, and the old falls away, irrespective of our differences, including those of religious, spiritual, political, and world views, please remember, we are all human. And, collectively, as we wade through this great unearthing, its truths and its teachings, previously un-faced by everyday consciousness, apply active compassion, for yourself, and others, because that small difference, will, make, all the difference.
