Photo Credit listed below.

As I set out to write this post I feel certain that there will be many Christians that will be gasping in horror that I would discuss Buddha and God in the same breath. Okay. Maybe not the exact same breath, but you catch my meaning.

Be that as it may, I feel compelled to express the delight I am experiencing while reading Jack Kornfield’s book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology. Just as I am always ready and willing to discuss the joy I feel when I read the daily writings in Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.

Does this run counter to my belief system that God is the one true God? Not to me. In fact it underscores that God’s word is universal and sometimes we must look deeper than what we see and understand at first glance.

With that being said, and I feel compelled to say it in order to avoid the onslaught of negative responses such as I received when I wrote about Sarah Ban Breathnach and my obvious (NOT) stamp of approval of “all things New Age”, let’s move on to the heart of this post.

Here is an excerpt from the beginning chapter Nobility in Jack Kornfield’s book The Wise Heart:

Robert Johnson, the noted Jungian analyst, acknowledges how difficult it is for many of us to believe in our goodness. We more easily take our worst fears and thoughts to be who we are, the unacknowledged traits called our “shadow” by Jung. “Curiously,” writes Johnson, “people resist the noble aspects of their shadow more strenuously than they hide the dark sides…It is more disrupting to find that you have a profound nobility of character than to find out you are a bum.”

Our belief in a limited and impoverished identity is such a strong habit that without it we are afraid we wouldn’t know how to be. If we fully acknowledged our dignity, it could lead to radical life changes. It could ask something huge of us. And yet some part of us knows that the frightened and damaged self is not who we are. Each of us needs to find our way to be whole and free.

This brings us to the first principle, according to Jack Kornfield, of Buddhist psychology:

See the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

This is the story that a student recently emailed me, that piqued my attention for the writings of Jack Kornfield. It is a brilliant example of the first principle.

A young army officer who had a history of anger-related problems was ordered to attend a mindfulness training class to reduce his level of stress. One day, after a few weeks of class, he stopped for groceries on his way home. He was in a hurry and a bit irritated, as usual, and the checkout lines were long.

            The woman in front of him had only one item but wasn’t in the express line. She was carrying a baby and talking to the cashier. He became more irritated. Then she passed the baby to the cashier, who spent a moment cooing over the child. He could feel his anger rising. But because he’d been practicing mindfulness, he became aware of the heat and tightness in his body. He breathed and relaxed. When he looked up again, he saw the child smiling. As he reached the cashier, he said, “That was a cute little boy.” “Oh did you like him? That’s my baby,” she said. “His father was in the military but he was killed last winter. Now I have to work full-time. My mom tries to bring him in once or twice a day so I can see him.”

One of the most stunning revelations of modern psychology is how wrong our perception can be. We can be deluded about love, our bodies, our finances, and we can be quick to judge others; we miss their beauty and overlook their suffering. But when you free yourself from delusion, you see with wisdom.

Is this not what God teaches us?

That we are made in His image.

That we should see ourselves and others as God sees us.

Here’s are two more excerpts:

Beneath the fears and needs, the aggression and pain, whoever we encounter is a being who, like us, has the tremendous potential for understanding and compassion, whose goodness is there to be touched.

Each time we meet another human being and honor their dignity, we help those around us.

I have found these particular passages compelling. We are so wrapped up in our own struggles that we forget that all of us, because we are all predisposed to sin, are struggling. A great visual of this is a You Tube video titled Get Service. This video was  recommended by an individual I greatly admire and I use it every semester when we discuss perception.

We tend to forget in the busyness of our daily lives that we are to value ourselves and others equally, just as God values us. To rest in our own goodness, the goodness of Christ and the Holy Spirit. As we begin to value ourselves, this transfers over to how we begin to value other people. We cannot treat other people with respect and dignity unless we first acknowledge that we deserve the same respect and dignity.

Jack Kornfield goes on to state that “there is a regimen of daily and ongoing trainings and disciplines to help you learn and practice healthy ways of being”.

For me, this includes daily prayer, worship, and bible meditation. A way for me to draw near to God and to dwell in the freedom that only He can provide. Our growing relationship with God will result in growing relationships with others.  We are to treat ourselves and others generously, compassionately and graciously. Just as God treats all of us.

As someone who for years gave unlimited power to my frightened and damaged self, trust me when I state that the first step to becoming whole and free is indeed acknowledging our own “nobility” and subsequently acknowledging the “nobility” of others.

I love this life application suggested by Jack Kornfield:

Try this practice: On a day that you’re in a fine mood, set the intention to look for the inner nobility and dignity of three people. Notice how this affects your interactions with them, as well as your own heart. Choose five more days when you’re in a good mood to do this practice with as many people as you can. After that, add more days and include strangers and difficult people, until your heart learns to silently appreciate all whom you meet

Thanks for reading!!

The stones pictured at the beginning of this post were created by Janet F. Nuria Quinn, Artist and President, Wisdom Stones, LLC.  Please take a moment to visit her website Wisdom Stones: Touchstones to What Matters Most.