Who Is My Neighbor? Inner Mercy

Neville's Inner Vision

All of these figures are states of consciousness, not travelers and priests in a village. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is your inward path where fear, criticism, and fatigue lie in wait to steal your perception. The priest and the Levite in the text are the old forms of judgment and habit that pass by the inner need; do not give them authority here. The Samaritan who stops and shows mercy is the living I AM within you, awake to the reality that compassion is not an action added to life but the very way life is experienced. He sees the wounded self and, with oil and wine, pours in nourishment—oil as presence, wine as joy—restoring vitality. Lifting the wounded man onto his own beast and bringing him to an inn is you carrying the wounded state back into your daily life with care and attention. The two pence you give are your time, your patience, your resources; the promise to repay when you return is the law of reaping that follows merciful acts. Go, and do thou likewise: let mercy inhabit your thought, your feeling, and your daily acts.