The Bible tells us to pray for our enemies, because it will heal them.

Buddhism does the same, and extends it to the entire world. They call it the Metta meditation, or Maitri meditation. You intentionally embrace the world with loving-kindness, which in Hebrew is known as “Chesed”. In English it is sometimes translated as “compassion” but this word isn’t quite big enough to embrace the concept.

This is a way of reprogramming faulty systems. Of restoring people and the rest of creation to their “factory default programming” – the way they were originally made.

Because we were made by a loving and kind God, we are made to be loving and kind. When people are showing behaviors that are not loving or kind, it is a sign that they have gotten out of balance / misaligned. Just like with tires that are out of balanced or misaligned, it is time for an adjustment to restore proper functioning. Sometimes that is something you can do. Sometimes you need a professional. But a change needs to happen for healing to occur.

Change doesn’t come about through punishment or “feeling sorry for your sins”, as reflected in the idea of penance. What is required is true Healing. Restoration. A course correction.

And we can help ourselves and others heal by practicing different forms of loving-kindness practices. In that way we are restoring the world at the quantum level.

Who are you praying for today? Who needs it the most?