Blog Post 17: Waking Up
I have begun to see a pattern in what I’ve been hearing, reading and writing for the last few months.
It’s imperative to WAKE UP!
And waking up is essential to compassion.
Joyce Rupp, in Boundless Compassion identifies “awareness” as one of the 3 movements (“Aware, Awake, and Action) of compassion.[1] To be aware you have to wake up. The words awake and aware are interchangeable to me. Joyce also describes this as an attitude, “that of recognizing the inviolable oneness we have with all of life.”[2] What are we waking up to? We wake up to the reality of Christ-consciousness in daily living. To be aware of and realize that like fish we are swimming in the sea of God’s Infinite Love. It’s not that God is in us, rather we are in God and like the fish we usually aren’t aware of how essential this is to our very life. “In Him we live and move and have our being.”[3]
“It is the active, real love of a Living God who is “over all works, through all, and is in all.”[4] This awareness, conscious of living in God, not as the criteria for salvation or morals but as Reality, changes our attitude toward all of God’s creatures, human and non-human. From this awareness and attitude, developed by realization that we are in Infinite Love and Compassion, we take action to alleviate the suffering we see in the world. Like the fish in the ocean we often are not conscious that we are permeated through and through with the Infinite. Yet, we can be as surrendered to it as the fish to the water and allow compassion to flow through us and into the world around us.
The interbeing of Infinite Compassion does not divide us but is realized in daily life. “Compassion is the photosynthesis of the heart…”[5] It takes time to develop. Start now.
[1] Rupp, J. (2018) Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life. Notre Dame, IN.: Sorin Books, p. 15.
[2] Ibid, p.15
[3] Acts 17:28
[4] Fox, M. (1968) “What is Prayer?” in Listening, Winter, p. 113
[5] Rupp. p. 14
Contemplative Compassion 
I’m having more and more awake times, but it’s so easy to sleep.
Erin Richardson (864) 884-4660
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Hi Kim, your blog brings so much together in both a meaningful and inspirational way. Thank you for how your contemplation comes through what you write.
Have you ever considered putting together an address list of all of our BCF and sending out an invitation to receive your blog? I’m quite sure you’d receive a number of positive responses. If you do send a note to them and want a couple lines of recommendation from me to add to your mesage, I’d be glad to do that for you.
all the best, Joyce
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I do like that idea. I didn’t want to misuse the email list, but with your recommendation I’d be glad to do that. How would we do that? Do i need to copy all the address into an email? If so, then could you send a recommendation that I could include in the email?
Thanks
Kim
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