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  1. I’m only 1/3 through part one. However, the concept of justice leading to sorrow got me thinking. I haven’t fully endorsed the concept, yet, I find it persuasive. What’s clear to me is justice is an inferior path when compared to compassion.

    The pursuit of justice is the path of conditional forgiveness. It never leaves you truly satisfied once it has been served. It’s delayed gratification that doesn’t pay its full dividend.

    Sure it offers you something, but in likening it to the time value of money, forgiveness today is better than forgiveness tomorrow.

    Christ’s forgiveness is theoretical unconditional, yet the Mormon tradition we tie too many conditional strings to it.

    It’s these unnecessary strings that beg us to request justice for others actions when justice is not ours to serve.

    Justice has taught me great lessons, yet compassion is what tends to alter my behaviors.

    So the questions arises whether justice leads to sorrow? I’m not sure. However, I can say, justice leads to delayed peace. Why delay peace when you can have it today?

    In suppose delaying peace perpetuates the world’s sorrow. As such, justice leads to sorrow.

    I’ll keep listening.

  2. I am only partially into Part 1 as well, but wanted to back up a bit and say something about God weeping. I think the term ‘sorrow’ needs a more detailed definition. The kind of sorrow that brings me to tears because of another’s suffering is not anything at all like the sadness/sorrow I feel when I am in self-pity, anger, indignation, etc. It’s as if those two expressions (weeping for others/weeping for ourselves) are worlds apart, not even from the same source, perhaps.

    When I have wept out of compassion for others, I don’t feel smaller, emptier, darker – it’s the opposite of that — it’s an enlarging and enlightening, a beautiful feeling, in a way that we don’t really have adequate language to capture. I don’t think we will necessarily suffer if our capacity to weep continues into immortality. It’s not a draining or soul-sucking kind of weeping, but the exact opposite, and is rooted in love. I believe God weeps because he loves.

    (The closest literature that describes what I’m trying to say is from Rudyard Kipling. “Holden went to his bungalow and began to understand that he was not alone in the world, and also that he was afraid for the sake of another, — which is the most soul-satisfying fear known to man.”)

  3. The first part deeply touched my heart and fulfilled an earnest desire to hear thoughts such as these, to have my own experience with gnosis validated, and expansive theology discussed in a way that calls each of us to do better and be better because that is what our divine natures call us to be after a certain point of spiritual maturation. Turning back toward the burning house is an apt parallel where I sense myself to be, and it’s s lonely place. I was so touched to find a forum discussing this process as well as others who have experienced similar things. I can’t wait to listen to Part 2 and 3. I will likely return to Part 1 again and again, which meanders already on my short list of my favorite podcast episodes of all time.

  4. Absolutely loved this Dan. I had already heard Charles on A Thoughtful Faith but found this fresh with additional insights. Charles has written a book for the ages. A book with ideas and “doctrine” that we would truly benefit from following. I hear echoes of these themes in Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. Keep up the good work.

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