"may i think kindly of others. may i not get angry or think badly of others." these sentences, based on words of the dalai lama, are something i say every morning at the beginning of my meditation. they remind me of words of jesus when he said that we should not attempt to remove a splinter from the eye of another when we have a timber in our own eyes. he also said that we cause harm to ourselves for all time when we think unkindly of another, that we are to forgive others their wrongs towards us an infinite number of times, that we are to go beyond what is demanded of us in the service of others. time and again, jesus tells us that the ways we treat others are in essence the way we treat him, that to be great is to be a servant.
one of my goals for the coming weeks is to reframe my thinking about others so that i look for their good qualities, rather than dwelling on their faults. it is all too easy to think we are building ourselves up by thinking unkindly of others and comparing our strengths to their weaknesses. there is good at the core of each of us, no matter how badly we behave. remembering that this is so may help transform another while we change ourselves.
may we work to think kindly of others rather than thinking badly of them. may we not waste our energies on anger that serves no purpose other than to cause harm. may our love extend to the most unlovely. may we be grateful to those who would harm us for giving us an opportunity to practice unconditional love and forgiveness. shalom.
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