United Prayers Across America
A National Prayer Project to Awaken the Sleeping Giant
Conference Call #34
Living a Life of Compassion
Marti Snyder
August 7, 2006
We are all involved in this prayer project because we are people who choose to live lives of compassion. Compassion is demonstrated in many ways: a phone call to a friend you sense is in need of loving support or an ear to listen in times of doubt. Loving compassion is the glue that holds us together in times of stress. I have chosen to speak about what living a life of compassion means to me.
I have learned it is important to me that I feel good about each day, regardless of the situation I am in. My feelings are a signal to me about how I have resolved each choice presented before me, so the quality of my life is determined by my personal mastery of what life presents to me each day.
I have been a participant in several Gregg Braden workshops, and his perspective on living a life of compassion provides a way for me to be in this world and not of it.
The lesson learned is that, while you are not your experiences, you must know yourself through your experiences to master life’s extremes. You must also know your extremes in order to master life’s extremes. This can be more easily accomplished through choosing to live a life of compassion.
Gregg’s definition of compassion is to be able to witness an event absent of judgment. Compassion may be demonstrated as a quality of conduct in our daily lives in each moment. We do live in a world of polarity, but when we trust, believe, and know in our very being that all is of the one, we free ourselves of judgment.
From the Essene Gospel of Peace we have the following quote, "The earth and all that dwells therein is but a reflection of the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father."
Gregg has a step-by-step process to help us experience that all is of the one. It consists of answering the following questions:
- Do you acknowledge that there is a single source of all that is or may ever be? Do you acknowledge that every life event, without exception, is part of the one?
- Do you trust in the process of life as it is shown to you? Do you trust in divine timing with no accidents?
- Do you believe that each and every experience drawn to you, without exception, is your opportunity to demonstrate mastery of life?
- Do you believe that your life mirrors your quest to know yourself in all ways? Do you realize that in knowing your extremes you find your balance?
- Do you truly believe that your life essence is eternal, and that your body may enjoy the same experience of eternity?
If you can answer "yes" to the questions above, then how can you, at the same time, judge yourself, a life event, the choice or action of another person as right, wrong, good, bad or as anything other that an expression of the one? These questions coupled with keeping the following quote of Gregg’s present in my consciousness helps me to bring life’s events into perspective and look at them with compassion. The quote is:
Thank you for loving me so much that you would choose to live your life in such a way that I would come to know myself in all ways.
Could it be that all the people involved in wars, terrorism, or anything else that grabs me emotionally to judgment of the situation, are living their lives out of love, to teach me who I am? If I believe that everything is from the one, and that everything is God’s plan, then how can I be in judgment of anything I experience? This is theoretically easy to comprehend, but in practicality, I have my challenges.
When I do find myself in judgment, I have learned to start blessing the event, the person, and the news story until I can feel inner peace. Then I ponder the whole mystery of what God is thinking, God’s plan, and I remember I am here to be in the world and not of it. These events bring up my extremes, my opportunities to know myself in all ways. I do believe that my conduct has an effect on others, so my compassionate response to life’s events sends waves of compassion into the world, and for that, I am very grateful. When God’s love wells up in me and springs forth as a refreshing bath of his love going through the ethers raining down upon whatever God may choose, I am truly humbled. In deep gratitude for choosing compassion, I must make the choice to become more than the circumstance I find myself within. That is why I choose to be a part of the ASG prayer.
I have one more quote, from Mother Teresa:
"Everything we do is just a drop in the ocean, but if we don’t do it, then that drop will be missed forever."
Marti Snyder is a direct descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. She has always had a deep love for America and the sight of our flag. Marti has a large flagpole and beautiful American Flag in her front yard which she looks upon in gratitude and amazement every day. She has been interested in the course of politics and God since childhood.
Marti was a Political Science Major at the University of Oregon and, after leaving college, she found Transcendental Meditation. She was initiated in February of 1976 and has been practicing and studying TM for 30 years.
Currently Marti is a homemaker, in slightly rural California, with her husband Jeff, a man of great spiritual depth. Marti has two step-daughters, Ashley, 20, and Jennifer Rose, 13. She fills her days with her family, and is grateful to have time for spiritual practice, study, and reflection.