The Gates to Benevolence
Henryk Skolimowski, February 2008
WHY BENEVOLENCE? All life is an attempt to overcome disintegration and fragmentation. Sentient life naturally tends toward integration and wholeness. Benevolence is this force, which integrates euphoniously. It is a positive re-integration. It is a spiritual vehicle appropriate for our times. Benevolence is a spiritual ideal, which can be practiced, in different religions and also outside institutional religions. For this reason it can be a bond uniting all the people across the board in our times. It can be a vehicle applicable for all the people of good conscience.
BENEVOLENCE AS TRANSCENDENCE. It may be suggested that love is stronger than benevolence. In some sense it is. In one sense it is not. Love is immanent and more urgent. Benevolence is more transcendent and a little detached. It is not aloof. But free of entanglements that may hurt, as it is the case with love. Benevolence is a clear beam of Light. It carries goodness and healing. Without any emotional trappings involved. Benevolence is this High Horizon to which we can all aspire and by which we can all be guided. Benevolence is the Himalayan snow, which reflects the beauty and the warmth of the sun without melting and diminishing itself. Benevolence is the psychic energy, which nourishes and heals irrespective of color, religion and gender.
BENEVOLENCE IS JOY. Benevolence is Joy to give and to receive. You are this mountain, which gives crystal clear water… At the other end is the other human being, who drinks this crystal clear water. Oh, what a joy for both! Benevolence is this quiet smile, which you beam across and which the other receives with tenderness and gratitude. Benevolence is looking into the eyes of the other and giving the other this strength and conviction, which the other needs in order to walk upright.
Benevolence is the will to live, is sharing the enduring conviction that life is good, generous and giving. You must be strong in order to share benevolence. Yes, benevolence requires strength and courage. The problem with too many people nowadays is that they are too weak to receive benevolence, unable to believe in themselves. They are unable to believe that others can help them. You must believe in yourself. For it is a part of being human.
It is a cornerstone of everybody’s existence to be benevolent to others. And assure them that life is beautiful and worthy of living. Do it with joy and real conviction.
Benevolence is a new vehicle of love, of compassion, of loving-kindness! All three of them are beautiful ideas in their place and space. Love is the strongest and the most worn out. Sometimes it can be so possessive that it forgets about kindness. Sometimes it is so tormenting that it results in grief, not in harmony. Sometimes it is so abused that it is a vehicle of commerce and advertising. Sometimes it is so egoistic that it forgets the whole world.
But Benevolence never forgets the world. It embraces the other in its wheel of well wishing. Compassion is beautiful too, but sometimes a bit too passive. Benevolence is more active. It comes as a form of healing.
Loving-kindness is such a nice phrase. But at times it appears too sweet and a bit too superficial. Benevolence is less smooth but deeper. It comes from the Latin bene-volle wishing well to the other. It is not only an act of desire but also an act of will, a will to act, wishing well with a Will. Such is the right formulation of the idea of Benevolence.
Deeper down, there is another aspect hidden. Benevolence is a Well of well-wishing with a Will. So formulated Benevolence is a formidable force — quite gentle but actively helping. Not as strong as love but free of the burdens of love. It can be used to heal endlessly. It can be beamed to others without mysticism but with a spiritual force. It can stand as a symbol of the spirituality of our times, uniting all people of good will.
BENEVOLENCE AND GOODNESS. Goodness is not a passé phenomenon. Only our minds have become a bit obtuse.
Why should you be good and benevolent while the whole world is selfish and malevolent? The whole world is not malevolent! And you don’t want to be misinformed about it. Why insist on repeating dubious and unfounded clichés while you can look around and see for yourself?
What can you see? The fact is that the whole world moves because of the existence of Benevolence. The world exists by positive acts of human will, by the goodness of human thinking and acting. The destructive acts in the human world are only a fraction of human acts in the world; they are an aberration and pathology, not the norm. A young mother raising a small baby to the sun is the norm, is the future of the world. Altruistic people helping others and the planet earth is the norm — not a strange aberration.
Benevolence is rendering goodness with grace, conviction and compelling charity. This act of goodness is part of the meaning of being human. Because of this, you don’t have to ask anybody’s permission about being benevolent.
Being human implies bringing goodness to the world for the sake of others and your own sake. To render this goodness is such an exquisite thing. To live by it is such a joy!
BENEVOLENCE AND HUMAN UNITY. The meaning of Benevolence is clear and uncontaminated. It is applicable to all cultures and religions. Benevolence could be used as a bridge connecting all.
Many spiritual vehicles and concepts are rather firmly welded to particular religions. They can be well used within a given religion. But they become suspect in religions, different from their own.
We need to build trust and understanding across all cultures and across all religions. We are one people. We have the same blood. We have the same aspiration to meaningful life.
Benevolence could be used as a universal idea expressing our own goodness and the goodness of all other beings. Sharing goodness is a predisposition in all cultures. It is vital to all human beings. Benevolence can be an important vehicle of this universal sharing.
BENEVOLENCE AND LIGHT. Benevolence has many outlets and expressions. Most originate from human hearts. Yet great art is also a continuous source of inspiration for benevolence. Great works of art are benevolent to all human beings. We know it. And we acknowledge it.
The other night I listened to a scintillating performance of the Kreutzer Sonata by Beethoven. What a feast for the soul! How wonderfully benevolent all these notes were individually and even more so when orchestrated in one poem of joy. So much energy and so much sustenance; just imagine — given to you in a brief period of forty minutes. This is a great gift of the Cosmos. But also of the inspired mind guided by the benevolent Cosmos. The Cosmos is intrinsically so benevolent.
By far the most benevolent of these forces of the Cosmos is Light. Light is the most amazing phenomenon in the universe. It does so many things so effortlessly, so benevolently and so ceaselessly. Light is the source of all there is. Light is a continuous giver with a smile. Can you imagine a more generous and more benevolent giver than Light? No, you can’t. Because there is none.
Light has been giving its incredible bounties, so constantly and so joyously, that — dazed by this spectacle — we started to take it for granted. But we must not!
The time has come to acknowledge that Light is the greatest giver of the Cosmos. And the greatest source of benevolence! Look whichever way you choose, at the splendors of nature, at magnificent art, at the depth of human thought — and everywhere you look you see the Glory of Light. Light has been the greatest and the most powerful artist, transforming the Cosmic dust of the universe into the cornucopia of life forms, of artistic creations, of transcendent objects of spirituality and religion. Light is truly a god of benevolence.
HOW TO BE BENEVOLENT? Do you want to be benevolent? Yes, you do. Why so? Because your benevolence increases your worth and your substance. Becoming more benevolent makes you more deeply human. Your humanity is measured by the degree of benevolence contained in you.
Benevolence is one of your spiritual qualities. Every spiritual quality needs to be cultivated. What practices will you do to increase your benevolence? You should aim at practices, which are universal for all humanity. Also at such practices which are suitable for your nature and your capacities. Don’t try to become a Jesus or a Buddha overnight.
One of the best practices you can do is the following. Imagine your best self, your most benevolent self. Call this self, your superior self (Y.S.S.). This Superior Self (Y.Y.S.) will be your guide.
Endow Y.S.S. with the qualities of Benevolence which are congruent with your own nature. Now situate Y.S.S. (with the qualities of Benevolence) in a lovely grove on a hill not far from you. From there Y.S.S. will beam to you its help and guidance — whenever you are in doubt how to respond benevolently to given life situation. Whenever you are in doubt, ask for guidance. The response will come from Y.S.S. Either in words or in the fields of appropriate energies. Do this exercise consistently and seriously. This is how you build your best benevolent self.
This practice is good for ordinary seekers of good life. It is good for religious people. It is good for spiritual seekers on the path outside religions. It is good for the clergy of the established religions. I am tempted to say to some dignitaries of the Church: now you prelate, now you bishop stand taller — inspired by your benevolence! Stretch your spiritual acumen and manifest it. Ask Y.S.S. how to do it. You have in you a superior self.
Working on your benevolence is working on your inner self or your inner god. Such work is never easy but always joyous. In disbursing your benevolent to others, do it with joy.
The essence of your being is to emanate with joy and goodness. The universe is one enormous field of emanation. You are a part of it.