Building bridges is good only if they hold up against outside pressures, otherwise, they collapse when needed most.
I am talking about the strongest thing that holds relationships together. When we build relationships based on common hatred, anger, fear, you name it, they fall apart under pressure.
Love, we know, is the strongest bond of relationships, but you know, we all do not love each other, even though we have a common enemy. But that is the key, if we turn our common hatred for the enemy into a common love for our enemy, we will certainly end up loving each other as well.
If you do not read my posts, you may have already gotten the wrong idea of what I mean by loving an enemy. It does not require religious belief. It is loving an enemy of conscience (suneidesis).1 You see, bridges exist in our collective conscience when we have a common standard of conscience.
Enemies of our standard try to tear down our bridges as we do theirs, but by loving them as part of our standard—by seeing them as blind in their conscience and not knowing what the hell they are doing, and thus, not judging them for being blind to the value of everyone’s life—we hold our bridge together and build more, maybe even inspiring them to love us as an enemy of their conscience (suneidesis).2 That is when we see that the ultimate enemy is blindness alone.
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Suneidesis, pronounced soo-NAY-day-sis, is a Greek word that joins our natural awareness with our sense of conscience. Click on the link for a detailed explanation. It is central to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive working in our awareness itself. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness of all things.
If I understand that my awareness of something as simple as a cup includes co-conscientiousness, I do not allow myself to get blinded by the cup alone but know it as part of all creation at the hands of the Creator or the universe, depending on one’s beliefs. Spiritual maturity does this naturally.
The repetition of suneidesis is meant to challenge you to consider this dimension in your awareness. Apologies, but it will only be a necessary annoyance until it becomes natural.
Well written! By building bridges we also expand our own world and our understanding of it.
Straight to the point! I like.