The Creation Meditation really tests us when it comes to self-compassion. First of all, consider that compassion can have many faces. One face is empathy—to feel deeply for the challenges another is facing. Compassion can be simply doing the right thing to help another, without looking for reward. Compassion can be found in joyful service for others. You can be in compassion by simply listening or holding space for another without judgment. Yet another form of compassion can occur when we set boundaries and limits so that we don't let people take advantage of you or others.
In the Creation Meditation, you are choosing to experience an empathetic understanding of yourself. Empathy for yourself can be very difficult to feel if in protecting yourself from former abuse, you have learned to separate from your feelings, or to judge yourself harshly. Yet in the meditation, you have an opportunity to hold your judgments of yourself and acknowledge yourself with empathy as what you have evolved to be in this moment. It does not imply this limit you are feeling—this self judgment—has to be a part of your on-going development. It does mean, you are willing to understand.
So if compassion is challenging, here is what I recommend. Consider taking the limit or judgment about yourself and think of it as a child. This child has been doing his/her best, but because of a series of circumstances, this child has made a choice (or choices) that have caused them to feel badly about themselves or feel angry, or stuck, or numb. You would probably hold that child in your arms in acceptance of who they are, with understanding for the lesson they are learning.
Our limits create the discomfort we need to grow and change. If we judge those limits, we only exacerbate the issue we are struggling with. However, if we simply acknowledge the limit with understanding that an important lesson is being learned, it will change. We will free ourselves from the limit as it gently transforms before us.
Hold the limit or challenge in the same way you would hold a child who has created a great challenge in their life and recognizes it. You would listen with understanding. You would empathize. You would honor the child for even recognizing the challenge and taking responsibility for his or her own change.
Most of the time, most of us our doing our best. We grow our spiritual muscles by facing the Divine discomfort created when we bump into our own limits. We might think we are uncomfortable because of the limits of others, but they are reflections of our own doubts, fears, and karma. We feel challenged because we have not yet developed the ultimate capacity for compassion that lives within us. We expand our compassion by surrendering to our opportunity to discover more of it within ourselves.
So hold your emotions like you would hold a child, and surrender to empathy, understanding and acceptance with the same degree of commitment you would offer a child in need.
In my heart and songs,
Reverend Misa
