Beloved friends and precious students of Master, I greet all of you with warmth and gratitude as we bring another year to a close. May you have happy holidays this month, with ample time for personal reflection and review. My prayer for us all is that we shall, in grace, awaken to pristine freshness as another new year takes birth. May we not take for granted the preciousness of the spiritual opportunities with which we will be gifted in 2025, and may we be grateful for every blessing that touches our respective paths.

2024 has been a difficult year, one that generated much upheaval around the world. While we here in the West have certainly experienced some uncomfortable moments, perhaps as we, in awe, watch shifting climate patterns, in the larger global picture, our discomfort pales in comparison to that experienced in regions where relentless warring has rendered the human condition unspeakable. Sadly, in these situations, the most innocent are also the most vulnerable, and we have borne witnessed to the tragic reality of mere babies and little children dying of starvation, having been deprived of the most basic of needs: food, water, shelter and medical care, not to mention their sense of security, which is also a very basic need. Like many of you, I have been horror-struck by the seemingly endless repetition of such events.

While it is natural to feel compassion for those being so callously victimized by the greed for power underlying such warmongering, it is more difficult to feel compassion for those we may deem perpetrators. Yet, they, too, are defining part of the movement into the Age of Aquarius. The teachings of great beings, such as Master, and the powerful life examples of the likes of Thich Nhat Hanh, call us to engage greater levels of compassion than most of us have ever practiced. In fact, I think Master is calling us to close this rugged year with what, for most of us, may be unprecedented levels of gratitude and compassion. In the recommended teaching for this month, Deepening Compassion (originally offered in March or 2015), Master challenges us to take a deeper dive into this basic, although perhaps under-applied, attribute of human nature.

Master begins this teaching by sharing a touching episode from one of his own lives. I won’t reveal the details here, since his telling is utterly and beautifully personal, whereas mine would only be reporting. Yet, the events of which he speaks were indelible enough to radically alter his path in one life, and maybe even his whole life stream. Perhaps we have all had a similar moment wherein immature hubris needed to be transformed, often by one’s being stopped short in a poignant moment of humility.

In this teaching, Master puts forth a provocative question that is as worthy of our pondering now as it was in 2015. He asks us (p. 2), how shall we be in the world as it is right now? This is followed by another question (p. 3): “When you consider the chaotic entanglements playing out in the global scenario today, what do you see as the most precious human trait, or capacity?” He goes on to answer His own question: “From my perspective, the most precious of human capacities is the ability to generate compassionate thought.”

This teaching is filled with potent quotes. Here is one that goes to the heart of the matter of this teaching:

 "[It] is important … that the aspirant call himself or herself to lead a good life, specifically, a life modeled by empathetic motivation and compassion that is neither dogmatic nor philosophically complicated. You see one’s motivation is the key that unlocks the door to liberation. [T]he type of motivation to which I am referring is based on an understanding that others are quite literally one’s brothers and sisters, thus their rights must be respected, and their human dignity recognized and preserved (page7)."

I’ll ask a question that Master didn’t: Are we spiritually skillful enough to apply the balm of engaged compassion to the perpetrators of war as much as to its victims? While I won’t speak for any of you, I am quite aware that I have need of a much longer compassion bridge to span this gaping chasm! Therefore, I will be keeping this question front and center in my contemplations this month.

I think you will enjoy this teaching, and I hope you take much from it. It is Master’s call for us to be cognizant of our deeper motivations as well as our intentional presence in the world.

Happy holidays,
Kathlyn

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