In a talk about compassion, a former teacher of mine once said that practice prepares the mind, but suffering prepares the heart. Perhaps the final step in the healing of all wounds is the discovery of the capacity for compassion, an intuitive knowing that no one is singled out in their suffering, that all living beings are vulnerable to loss, attachment, and limitation. It is only in the presence of compassion that we can show our wounds without diminishing our wholeness. For those who have compassion, woundedness is not a place of judgment but a place of genuine meeting.
I know in my cells that prayer permeates a sick body, makes it
shimmer as the new life comes in, making the cells remember
how to respond to the harmonic whole. Music is like prayer
a mystical bridge between heaven and earth.