February 4, 2024

Today is the fourth of our daily reflections for Interfaith Harmony Week. (If you missed any of the other days, you can find them in the blog section of our website, interfaithpeaceproject.org .) The Interfaith Peace Project is pleased to offer you these reflections for each day of Interfaith Harmony Week, February 1-7, 2024.

Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P
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925-787-9279

Adobe Stoch #162164864 By CLShebley

TEARS
Interfaith Harmony Week
February 1-7
Day Four
by Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P.

One of my go-to places is San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Maybe I am still looking for the Summer of Love. After browsing a few bookstores and savoring a few cups of coffee, I visited a store named after the Bible’s first book. It is more like a sanctuary of gods and goddesses waiting for a new home. It fascinates how the sacred dwells in the midst of the mundane and commercial. I was not too successful in finding a treasure until I stumbled across the Weeping Buddha.

The story of the Weeping Buddha has various renditions. The carving itself is round like a ball, with the Buddha’s face pressed deep into the palms of his hands. There is nothing majestic about the figure. The man attending the store carefully and lovingly told me the story of the Weeping Buddha as he held the figure in his hands, rubbing it.

If you rub the Weeping Buddha’s back, all your sorrows will pass into him. You will find comfort and even peace. My friend and I spoke quietly as we remembered the World’s suffering people. We wept. Do we not carry the burdens and sorrows of one another?

When I hear people saying how terrible things are in the World, I hear their tears and feel their pain. It is a very powerful and wonderful element of Interfaith love and respect to carry the sorrows and burdens of one another.

I suspect every great spiritual leader has wept for the sake of another. Think of Muhammad (pbh), who shed tears for his mother, and Jesus, who cried for the sake of his friend. These are the tears of love. 

Our tears bring us together as we long to bring comfort and peace to the World. Our tears reveal how deep and precious our love for one another is.    

POEM

…Hear me and I will ease your pain.
Respect me and I will show you the way.

Love me and you will love yourself and all the world around you.
Listen, I am the whisper in your feeling – my words are ever-present.

Listen-learn the language of the experience –
You have known it from birth.

Listen, like an explorer in the wilderness,
Guided by the signals of nature – a turned leaf, a subtle yearning –  

My voice will become louder when magnified by your awareness.…
Closer Than a Heartbeat

Michael Bailey

RESPONSE

Today, in the quiet of my heart and home, I will cry for the pain within and around me.

I will commit to never being ashamed of my feelings and emotions.

I will realize my emotions are sacred, revealing the longing in my heart for what is good, right, true, and beautiful.

Today I invite myself to be touched by the sorrows and anguish of others, as a healing and compassionate presence.