Author's Notice: I apologize in advance for any religious or scientific fundamentalists I will probably alienate with this post. I'm going to be using a rather liberal metaphorical interpretation of God in this post.
So... I finished reading Sacred Therapy, and the part that's stuck with me the most is in asking God for forgiveness to sinners. Effectively advocating for those that have done wrong. This is a phenomenally contradictory concept, especially for my social justice oriented self. I'm a proponent of balance and justice, yet I also hold that compassion is a vital component to these. Compassion seems to be out-of-balance from these concepts. Yet from another perspective it's compassion that balances out justice.
Using biblical reference, there's many cases where God has unleashed his holy retribution by wiping out, maiming, messing with, or otherwise making human life miserable. There's other situations where prophetic humans have stayed God's wrath through compassionate advocacy. It begs the question how the bible would end if there was no compassion in God... Not well I imagine.
Yet the source of compassion isn't really seen as in God, but in human power. As we stand between justice and those deserving reciprocity, is that not an act of faith on some level? Another human being has shown their evil, harm and destructive capacity on the world and we, in our complete faith in them, stand between them and God to advocate for compassion.
Now, the bible consists of stories where this compassion is returned by reformation and atonement on the part of those we show compassion to. The real world isn't quite as forgiving. However, I would argue that these stories aren't about the world around us, but about the world within us. Let's spend some time in the metaphorical world of our inner landscape, where all beings are aspects of ourselves. God, in this case, is the judgement and justice, our sense of fairness. The 'harmful' person, the victim of our judgement, is ultimately ourself in vulnerability and weakness, for being hurt in the way we were.Our judgement is condemning ourself for being weak and allowing such harm to be inflicted.
This is where our compassion steps in. By shielding ourself in our vulnerability from our judgement we give ourself the space to heal, to reform, and to atone (to become at one).
I have found this personally helpful with my divorce. I have deep and painful wounds from my ex wife. Some of which she continues to inflict. I am not strong enough to protect myself from receiving these wounds, and I do judge myself for not doing so. In a surprisingly profound symbolic act, I began 'protecting' my ex from God, by asking for God's forgiveness and compassion for my ex. In doing so, I embodied all of the aspects of compassion I have within myself, and was able to converse with my judgement. This dialog, though unresolved, has helped me to meld both my compassion and my judgement into a unified vision of my ex.
It's also helped alleviate many of the panic attacks I was suffering in regards to my ex.
Not that I don't still think of my ex, but if we go back to the metaphor, then it's really my compassion sheltering and caring for my vulnerable self while moderating my judgement. It's... not what I would expect from a Judaic perspective, but then again Kabbalah isn't your average Judaism (-:
So, I find myself a little more whole thanks to a liberal metaphorical interpretation of the bible.
Funny how things go sometimes, eh?
- Jason
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