The Bridge with Eyes
Is this your goal: to help build a bridge for our national conscience (suneidesis)1 that connects us despite our different political standards, without forcing anyone to give up their standard in order to meet, to have such a bridge so that we can see each other with the eyes of our heart instead of the eyes of hatred?
Once built, there will be those of us who try to cross it in blindness, bringing hatred, judgment, and any other blindness. They will not get far though if the rest of us love them as enemies of our national conscience, the arches of light that support our bridge. We will not offend their dignity for any reason, even if they try to offend ours.
The standard they follow is their dignity. So we respect their right to have dignity and their right to choose the standard that gives them dignity. The bridge is necessary because our two standards cannot co-exist in our national conscience, unless we open our eyes and give each other respect and the right of dignity on the bridge over our national conscience. So why can we not open our eyes and see this bridge already built by others or keep our eyes open to it—we who are willing to do so?
We have become addicted to blindness in our hearts, to the images of this world that blind us to the light of life—for which our eyes long to see in each other. Now that we urgently need to see each other, we try to see through these images but cannot. They overtake us. So for now, let us be blind stumblers on this bridge built by others and help each other see, by learning how to love each other as enemies of our conscience.
Bridges that Do Not Collapse
Spirituality and Democracy 3
Suneidesis is pronounced soon-eye-day-sis. After reading the link explaining it, you will see how central it is to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive in our awareness. 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.