Every heart is connected to the Great One Heart.  It is from this source of love that all things exists.  It is from this heart of hearts that we are unconditionally loved, nourished and redeemed. As we enter into a suffering world, God 's heart shares in our pain and suffering.   For Gods pain is the greatest of all pains and it is because of his/her pain, that we have been granted the gift of compassion, grace and forgiveness. The Great One Heart is the source of all loving compassion, which comes through all creation as an intense surge of loving kindness, patience and forgiveness.  The Hebrew word for “compassion” is derived from the word for “womb.”  God is the primal matrix, the Great One from which all beings are born.

         While it is impossible for us to grasp the immense love of the Great One Heart, each one of us is connected to it and experience on a very tangible level the immense love pulsating through our veins. This heart connection to Love is in fact our very life line or umbilical cord so to speak.   This doesn't mean that all humans acknowledge God as the ground of their being, or are capable of receiving God's unconditional and unwavering love.  If, by our own free will we decide to cultivate and understand the compassion of the Great One heart, we must first learn to receive Spirit's love, which requires a certain degree of surrender or a death of the ego.  For it is only when we surrender to the Beloved in our brokenness and pain that the Great One Heart can then fill our cups with unconditional love and forgiveness.  It has been said that one can't have compassion for others until they first have compassion for themselves.   It is because of Great Spirits compassion for us, that we can extend compassion to others. 

         When one has been transformed and melted like butter by the love of the Great heart, they can then choose to become a vessel of this love and commit their lives to assisting those who are still suffering, or, those who have bought into the illusion or Maya.  They might choose to become what Christians call stewards of God's love or what Buddhists call a Bodhisattva of compassion, a being (satva) committed to liberation (bodhi).  This kinship with the suffering of others is the discovery of our soft spot, the discovery of Bodhichitta or Mercy.  Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word that means “noble or awakened heart.”  It is said to be present in all beings. If this is the case, everything that exists in creation does so because of Chi's compassion.  This love is so great that it moves us to explore what it means to live a compassionate life as a humble admirer of the Tao.

         For most humans,  the practice of compassion is easier said than done, simply because it goes against the grain of the ego, which is self serving and dog-eat-dog by nature.  Most people like to think of themselves as compassionate, but it is rare that one actually walks their talk and lives an obedient life of compassionate service to others.  If  one chooses to hold compassion as a priority in their life, they will inevitably be required to walk a steep path simply because it goes against the grain of competition and social hierarchies.  Furthermore, the cultivation of compassion stems from a deep, sense of devotion or longing to know the Beloved, which isn't reinforced in cultures that champion science over religion or spirituality.  In our legalistic societies, we have been conditioned to believe that there is little incentive in the human world to cultivate compassion because it might make us too soft and therefore more likely to be eaten alive by those whose hearts have grown hard.  Yet, in fact, the very opposite is true.  What we fail to see is that compassion is stronger than fear and ego because it awakens us to Oneness.  In embracing human suffering and healing our hearts, compassion breaks down walls and unites all of humanity in the Great One Heart.  It is the gateway to our spiritual evolution as a human race.   For it is the true Utopia that we all seek.

         Compassion is not a natural phenomena simply because suffering is not something we desire, on the contrary, it is something we want to avoid at all costs. It is a call that goes against the grain; that turns us completely around and requires a total conversion of heart and mind.   Why would one want to open their heart when the world will just break it over and over again?  In the midst of so much human suffering, one might assume that it would be easier to shut one's heart down and not have any expectations of hope for the future at all.  Yet, in our heart of hearts, we all know that a world without compassion would be a living hell, a human wasteland, and therefore, some of us decide to take up the cross and uphold God's grace amidst great suffering and despair.  We do this for one reason and one reason only, because it is the very core of our being, it is the greatest blessing any of us could ever ask for.

         Those who choose to cultivate compassion in their lives soon come to learn of the spiritual riches in the Great One Heart, which makes the  false riches of the socially constructed, egoistic material world look like plastic, disposable toys.  Furthermore, they know that implementing compassion means setting healthy boundaries that don't allow others to manipulate or control them.  When one learns to love themselves, they become more aware of the ways in which those who are still suffering blame and project their sense of hopelessness onto others.  Having compassion for oneself means saying “no” to a lot of unhealthy patterns that bombard us on a day to day basis.  It means having the courage to stay in our integrity, to uphold the sword of truth and allow it to cut away the dysfunction and disease in our belief systems that are keeping us imprisoned and disempowered.   When one comes from a place of compassion, they are holding up an ancient light of truth that has been revered throughout history and can never be destroyed.   It is the truth that we are One in the Great Matrix on Consciousness.  It is the truth that each one of us is a reflection of the Ultimate Reality.  This is the core message of the Bodhisattva and the central message of Jesus's teachings and so many other teachers of compassion.  Their teachings are designed to awaken each person to their Divine Self and direct connection to Source. 

         Jesus came to realize that he and God were one.  However, in this realization, he came to an even greater realization, which made him equal with all of humanity.  Jesus never elevated himself above others, on the contrary, it was humanity who put him on a pedastool—one that would be very destructive to our spiritual evolution.  A Monk by the name of John Martin Sahajananda wrote in a book titled, You Are the Light: Rediscovering the Eastern Jesus, that “The realization of Jesus' Divine Self as God would have been incomplete had he not also realized that the real self of every human being also is God, or the light of the world. He called upon his followers and the whole of humanity to “realize that the light is buried within each one of us.  He told people that they were the “salt of the earth” but that they had lost this consciousness with the consequence that the earth had lost its meaning and purpose. 

The path of the bodhisattva is indeed a radical call, a call that goes to the roots of our being.   Those who choose to implement compassion in their lives are the weavers and the mendors, the bridge builders and the integrators, the diplomats and the nurturers.   They work in the trenches of our communities in an assortment of vocations such as counselors, social workers, maids, trash collectors, caregivers, mothers, fathers, teachers, children, nurses, artists, construction workers and farmers.  They are those who have embraced their own grief and experienced the redemptive power of God's unconditional love.  They are the salt of the earth, the light houses in the storm that  guide us back to our Divine Self.  They are the true educators of spirit, totally perfect in their imperfection because hey have been touched by the healing powers of Grace.   There one wish s to awaken all soul's to the power within themselves.  However, they know that God gave us free will and therefore, one can't force another human to seek the Great One Heart.  They are the only one's who can reconstruct the missing link.  As the saying goes, “One can lead a horse to water, but they can't make them drink.”

         It is because of the Great One Heart, that the Bodhisattva's of compassion come as humble admirers, grateful and joyous, for they know deep in their hearts that Love is Victorious and that we have a lot to look forward to.  They also know that they have an immense amount of healing work to do, for the illusion of Maya is much like a weed that wants to strangle out the Truth of humanity. The Bodhisattva is quite aware of the social injustices in the world and are deeply pained by them  all, just as God is pained by it all.  However, rather than run from the places of poverty and despair, which most people tend to do, they go directly too these places.  Most of them choose to serve without recognition, blue ribbons and purple hearts.  They have chosen the difficult task of opening and healing their hearts so that they can then assist in healing what is broken on larger levels.  They don't expect recognition because they know that those who are still suffering are experiencing a spiritual void—a starvation of the soul-- and therefore aren't coming from a place of gratitude.   Most of them work in humble servitude and know their human limitations.  They don't expect to save the world, this is too heavy of a burden for one to carry.  However, it is their hope that they can  assist in the raising of human consciousness, even if it means working with just a few individuals in their life time.   For awakening others to their Divine Self is the most powerful source of social change.  In this sense, they are radical agents of social change.  And while they are the very glue of humanity, most bodhisattva s will never be featured on the cover of a magazine for their humanitarian deeds.  In keeping their eyes on God, they know where their true source of recognition comes from.