“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” – Matthew 5:6
Both the words for hunger and for thirst carry the connotation of deeply desiring something. This isn’t a casual want, it’s a driving need.
And what do these people need? The word translated righteousness literally means the state of being as we ideally would be. It includes the concepts of right thinking, right feeling, and right acting – which are Buddhist concepts straight from the Noble Eightfold Path. As I’ve mentioned before, Jesus seems very familiar with Buddhist thought.
This verse says that these people, those who are starving for their best selves, are divinely blessed, for their desperate desire will be abundantly met.
When we fervently yearn to be our own true selves – not someone else, not what we think we should be, not what others think we should be – our journey to ourselves, (and therefore to divine blessing), has begun.
And because Jesus was talking about ‘us’ as a group, not only as individuals:
Who do we yearn to be as a people?
Ariyawen 