The Flame Inside Pain

When I look into the eyes
Of one who suffers
One who feels lost and helpless
One who simply seeks peace

When I look into those eyes
Beholding pain without hope
And see my own face
As in a mirror reflecting

My heart breaks apart
I feel just as lost, helpless
A shared moment of brokenness
A forgetting of love unbound

Inside the pain of forgetting
Is radiant luminosity
A light blazing with fire
To melt the hardest places

To settle the mind
In compassion’s flame
This is the practice
And this is quite natural

When I look into the eyes
Of one who suffers
The light of love blazes
And overwhelms the self

The disguise drops away
It burns in the fire
And I remember…
What calls me to this moment

                            —Michael Scott Stevens