Years ago, for a wedding gift, I received a large framed copy of 1 Corinthians 13:4-13. This is the often quoted bible piece about love being patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful. I hung the gift in the bathroom for a number of years, right above the toilet. The colors matched the bathroom, and the bathroom, being a well visited place, was a good location in the house for a good message.
Paul’s writing to Corinth is about compassion; the kind of compassion that exists when awareness is brought to a situation. The love he speaks of is the compassion that is available when conditioning is not ruling the day. It is the compassion that exists when judgment (either good or bad) is not present. It is a tall order to experience this love or to show this love to ourselves, because we are socially conditioned to beat ourselves up, to try to change ourselves, to judge ourselves, to hate ourselves.
Compassion does not rejoice in wrong doing or even right doing, rather it rejoices in the truth. The truth is that compassion is the only thing that will not end, it is the only thing that passes on once our bodies have died. It is what observes the world without judgment. It is our true nature.
When we were children we knew this nature, we acted upon it, we rejoiced in it. Then social conditioning turned us into, “adults.” It helped us to become what society wanted us to become, not who we truly were. Therefore, we put an end to “childish ways,” and lost the magic of living.
Yet, even as adults, we still have within ourselves, burning brightly, the magic of who we truly are. But, like a dream that is hidden upon waking, you can’t quite catch its tail as it rounds a corner in your mind. You see it in a mirror dimly, but the reflection is fuzzy and it seems, well, almost unreal. Yet it is the most real thing that you have. It is the truth of who you are.
I may have prophetic powers. I may be brilliant and knowledgeable about intellectual things. I may lay claim to a faith that can move mountains. Yet, if I have given up my true nature, my compassion, my love, then I am nothing.
