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Pema Chodron
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Oboedire | May 26, 2025
The farther I go into the spiritual life, the more convinced I become that our respective faith experiences are expressions of a larger Reality. I saw this again when I observed the anniversary of John Wesley’s “heart strangely warmed” experience on May 24, 1738, and then on May 26, 2025, I read Pema Chödrõn’s meditation on the “The Noble Heart.” [1]
A Buddhist nun whose spiritual writings have become popular around the world, she notes that bodhichitta is the experience of having an “awakened heart,” which is exactly what John Wesley was describing in his Aldersgate experience. Did Wesley know this? Probably not. Did he ever put his experience into Buddhist language? Not that I know of.
But in a very real way, that’s the point. Our individual experiences of God are always connected to something larger. John Wesley did know that much, coming to see his warmed-heart as an expression of the larger mystical tradition of the Judeo-Christian tradition (e.g. Proverbs 4:23 and Luke 6:45). Through the writing of Pema Chõdrõn, we can see the largeness even more. On May 24, 1738, John Wesley experienced bodhichitta, an awakened heart. And from then on, we can trace the effects of the experience.
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John Wesley Clipped
Our experiences of God are wells that enable us to drink from the universal Water of Life. If we see the well as a be-all-and-end-all, we will never realize this. But if we understand that our cup of cold water comes from an aquifer, we will be able to see how others have experienced the same thing even if they use different words to describe it. Our experiences of God do not give us a corner on the market, they give us a vantage point to understand we are participating in an experience of God that transcends any religion’s ability to fully capture it.
On May 24, 1738, John Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed,” and many of us are the better because of it. That same day in different places, other people’s hearts were “awakened,” and whether we know it or not, we are better because of that too. [2]
[1] Pema Chõdrõn, The Pocket Pema Chödrõn (Shambhala, 2010)
[2] Two other books have been helpful to me in seeing the aquifer: Matthew Fox, One River, Many Wells and The World Wisdom Bible edited by Rami Shapiro
Steve Harper 2024
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The Rev. Dr. Steve Harper is a retired seminary professor, author of more than 30 books, and a worldwide expert in Wesleyan spirituality. This post is republished with permission from his blog, Oboedire.