A Soul Connection

WEEK 3 TIFERET
Day 17, Tiferet within Tiferet


Tiferet (beauty, mercy, compassion, the harmonization of Gevurah & Hesed)

"Compassion is a kind of healing agent which helps us to tolerate the hurt of seeing the truth." (quote from A. H. Almaas, Dimaond Heart Book 1, p. 92.

As I sit very still, quietly within this Gate 17, I notice it brings tears to my eyes.  I feel so touched sitting here.  It's like a gentle washing over and through me of the qualities associated with Tiferet.  This experience is unexpected and yet most welcomed.

Words are so often empty vessels.
Sometimes, though, we can feel the very essence of what a word means.
No thought is necessary.  No need to "already know" anything.
It seems we're somehow touched by the word from the inside-out.
But . . . it's not the word, it's the quality.
Words that are qualities.  Qualities that are words.

I used to think I knew what "compassion" meant . . . and then I didn't.  Everything I thought I knew was only what others had told me of what compassion meant or what I read about.  It wasn't until fairly recently that I totally surrendered to the crazy possibility that it was true -- that I did NOT know what compassion really was.  It sounded crazy, I know.  But I knew that I had to give up what I thought I knew if I was ever to truly KNOW the essential quality of compassion.

Once I let go of all the knowing and let myself be ignorant, I actually was empty enough to receive -- to experience compassion directly -- with no preconceived ideas or beliefs.  Compassion almost always makes me cry.  Well, no.  That's not quite the way it is.  I typically respond to compassion with tears; and I think that's because I feel so touched.

Today, I realized I don't know what mercy is.  I don't think I've ever experienced mercy.  My head is full of ideas and beliefs about it, but I don't think I've ever experienced it directly.  I wonder if it's similar to grace?

I'm ready to experience mercy directly now.