Tag: compassion

Quote of the Day – March 30 2012

“‘Q: What can each one of us do to help alleviate the suffering of the world?‘

‘That’s a good question. The first thing is that you be aware of it and recognize it unsentimentally… that you just be aware of what it’s really like. Then the next thing you do is that you don’t get bummed by it, because that makes you contribute to it.’

‘What you do is that you take care of the first thing at hand, which is right between your ears. Fix your head….’

‘Q: How do you fix your head?‘

‘You have to tell the truth all the time even in uncomfortable situations, even if there’s great social difficulty.’

‘What that does is that it keeps you from having [things] subconscious; and if you don’t have subconscious you should be smart enough to figure everything else out yourself. If you don’t have subconscious the clear light of God can shine through you. Your own subconscious is the filter that keeps that out.’
–Stephen Gaskin

I was thinking of only using one of the question answer pairs here but I have to admit I find the whole of it pretty awesome. He talks about compassion so off-hand. Recognize suffering and be aware of what it’s really like in an unsentimental fashion. That statement realizes that sentimentality can totally blindside empathy and stop it on its way to compassion if we let it. It seems so easy to put value judgements on what we perceive from others that rather than openly put ourselves in another’s shoes, we both romanticize and trivialize it. I know I have been guilty of this in the past and still catch myself doing it sometimes.
As a friend of mine would say “See how we are”
The total honesty all the time part is something that I wish I had the courage to try. I know that it is a necessity in order to have true lasting communication with others, still it is something I approach as a goal and have been working towards. Closer every day.
Blessings, G

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The Sky Was Filled With Wonder by G A Rosenberg

Flowering Cosmos by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 18 2012

Three quotes tonight but they all dance around a common theme that has been on my mind quite a bit lately and perhaps more and more in my heart:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
― Plato

“for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
–Dalai Lama

For the sake of discussion, let’s define compassion as the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes and thus gain an understanding of them and their needs. Perhaps what empathy aspires to be when it grows up or perhaps when we grow up.
When we feel compassion for someone, it does not mean feeling sorry for them tho it does mean feeling their suffering. It does not mean we give them our agreement as much as our understanding. Often when practicing compassion, it means we are there suffering with them yet we know to spoon feed them what they need to stop their suffering, we are cheating them out of a lesson they will now have to find a new way to learn.
Blessings, G

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Bunratty Castle in County Clare Ireland

One from the archives:

Krishna Playing to the Heart by G A Rosenberg

Still travelling, now back in England. Tomorrow Stonehenge then Tuesday home.. THis trip has been a great one and as I hoped as much an internal one as it has been an external one

Quote of the Day – March 9 2012

“Real compassion kicks butt and takes names. If you are not ready for this fire, then find a New Age, sweetness- and-light, perpetually smiling teacher. . . . But stay away from those who practice real compassion because they will fry your ass, my friend.”
– Ken Wilber

I get amazed how often people mistake sympathy for compassion. Oh we say we want compassion especially during those times when the world hasn’t been going our way and perhaps a bit of self-pity has crept in. Many of us seem to equate this with people helping us because they feel sorry for us. The most compassionate people whom I have met don’t act like that. They tend to have little sympathy and can be very direct with their observations. They may yell, they may scream, they may say things that pull us up so short that we, with a mirror placed in front of our souls may start to feel even worse. When we look in the eyes of these people we see the love and often the mirror they show us are themselves.
In our most compassionate moments we not only see our brother’s pain but experience it ourselves. We can often see how someone has ended up in the mess they are in or even in no mess at all as much as experiencing what they need to in furtherance of their own growth. We also know that part of it sometimes is that they have to experience the feelings that they are feeing in order to grow without the solace band aid of our sympathy.
I have been on both ends. I have felt true compassion from a few very special people who have pointed the way for me. I have also striven to become more compassionate myself.How successful have i been? I’ll let you know when I feel i hit a stoping point in my growth. Blessings, G

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The first image tonight is indeed the inverse of last nights. I rather like it this way

Drawing In-Radiating Out 2 by G A Rosenberg

Emerging Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 28 2012

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”
— Dalai Lama

In any vision that I can conceive of of a healthy society, love and compassion are crucial. Empathy is a close third. It’s not necessarily a matter of walking a mile in each other’s shoes as being willing to understand why they undertook the walk and perhaps be willing to rub their feet afterwards. Or perhaps that is taking the metaphor a bit too far.
Far too often we willfully misunderstand each other. I know that there have been people of whom I was so sure that I would disagree that as soon as they started talking I would listen carefully until they said one phrase that I could misconstrue as wrong. It didn’t matter to me that I was taking it out of context. I just wanted to prove them wrong. Eventually a friend helped me out of that, by rubbing my face in what I was doing. I gradually became aware of how often it was happening and started working on it. I at least hope that’s getting better.
Where were we? Oh yeah, love and compassion and perhaps allowance. Allowing people to be who they are not just in an embrace diversity tolerance way but in a way that we acknowledge their choices in the same way we acknowledge our own. While we’re at it that might become easier, once we start forgiving our own mistakes and be a bit more compassionate and loving towards ourselves. Blessings, G

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Anima Awakening by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 21 2012

“There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.”
–Mary Anne Radmacher

I’ve been contemplating the idea of compassion a lot lately. Compassion can be a pretty heady yardstick. Com means with so the word would mean having passion with or to feel with another. If not empathy, tho they much be closely related, it must be it’s kid brother. I suppose in its strictest sense, it means putting yourself in another’s shoes and imagining what they feel and in some cases, in some cases loving them anyway. I do know from experience that knowing what another goes through makes it seriously hard to dislike them. If you realize, that everyone has stuff, underneath what we have done and become in order to survive in this world, we are beautiful. Isn’t one of our purposes to show that beauty even through what the world has made of us?

There was a Hindu man who saw a scorpion floundering around in the water. He decided to save it by stretching out his finger, but the scorpion stung him. The man still tried to get the scorpion out of the water, but the scorpion stung him again.

A man nearby told him to stop saving the scorpion that kept stinging him.

But the Hindu said: “It is the nature of the scorpion to sting. It is my nature to love. Why should I give up my nature to love just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting?”

Don’t give up loving.
Don’t give up your goodness.
Even if people around you sting.
from http://www.inspirationalstories.com

Maintaining this attitude can be difficult. When someone treats us with anger or pushes a button, answering in kind becomes so easy or spreading the feeling, being nasty to others because someone has been nasty to us first. I have caught myself doing that several times. The cashier at Starbucks was nasty and it bothered me so I was unthinkingly rude to the bus driver who then passed it on to his other passengers, a chain reaction of misery. One day I decided to see if i could turn it around. Maybe the cashier had some problems at home or something going on in her life. When she glared at me and handed me my change I said to her sincerely “I’m so happy to see you here every morning” and smiled at her. She looked shocked and said “Thank you” and smiled back. As I was walking towards the door I looked back and she was smiling at the next customer. That custom, another regular was surprised but he started smiling also. I don’t know how long it lasted, the next day when I stood in front of her, she seemed quite cranky again. Then she looked up at me, smiled and said “Would you like your regular?”
Compassion is a necessary element of forgiveness especially forgiveness of self. Once we start growing compassion, we can look back at our lives and have a greater understanding of people who hurt us and those whom we hurt and can start working on forgiving them. It’s not easy but it’s a lot easier than carrying around that ball of hurt we’ve been carrying for so many years.
Have I been totally successful at this myself? No, but I’m working on it. The successes I have had have made me a happier person for sure.
G

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Om Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Bouncing Psychedelic Balls by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 20 2012

“Effective listeners remember that “words have no meaning – people have meaning.” The assignment of meaning to a term is an internal process; meaning comes from inside us. And although our experiences, knowledge and attitudes differ, we often misinterpret each other’s messages while under the illusion that a common understanding has been achieved.”
–Larry Baker

Well, I believe words do have meaning. Still, I agree with L Baker that you need to listen not only to the words but beyond the words to the heart that speaks them. Not just listen with your ears but listen to your heart. This has been a lesson long in coming to me. Funny thing is that the clues and pieces were there all the time. My favourite story that of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant that I’ve used a lot to illustrate how everybody has part of the truth is all about what happens when people WON’T listen to each other.

Blind Men and the Elephant
poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887)

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the ElephantIs very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
” ‘Tis clear enough the ElephantIs very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

If those ‘wise’ men had only listened with compassionate hearts to each other, they might have figured out they all had a part of the same thing. Too often we focus on the part of what someone else says that we most want or expect to hear, so if the person is someone whom we have problems with (and we all know those people, usually they are the ones who manage to tell us what we most need to hear in a way we just DON’T want to hear it, then what we hear will cause us problems. We may look for the insult in their words. If they say something that disagrees with our most cherished beliefs than we may very well feel ourselves insulted. I know I have.
Sometimes when an idea of ours has been challenged, we feel exposed and vulnerable, The Emperor who’s new clothes so fine that only the wisest of sages can see it has actually been tricked into walking around naked. How dare they? Yet if we listen, we hear that that is not so at all, we have not been insulted, our clothes are there (tho there is much to be said for being comfortable with nakedness and vulnerability), just a belief has been challenged. Can we refute the challenge, either through our thoughts or through research? Perhaps or possibly we may learn something new. We may come out of the conversation with clearer understanding than we entered it. I know that for me there has been many a time where that has been the case. But only when I listened. Blessings, G

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The Compassionate Heart Listens by G A Rosenberg

Thought of the Day – May 9 2011

I have finally reached a point where I can no longer honestly wish ill on any other human being…We are all manifestations of the same energy and we have reached the level we have reached. Only by awakening to the greatest awareness I can am I able to affect the vibrations of our species as a whole.
Next step is to fully realize that about every other living thing.

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Rainbow Star Wolf by G A Rosenberg