On Compassion

We are not born with it

            To be fully human I believe we have to learn and practice compassion.  We are not born with this very human quality.  We have to come to it through desire and a certain amount of civilizing because it is the effort to become a civilized person that makes us aware of others.  We have to outgrow the cave man mentality and come together as caring humans, part of a group that thinks of the good of the whole as well as each individual member.

            The nature of compassion is such that it causes us to think of the needs of others as well as our own.  The idea of this is very simple, certainly not rocket science, but the practice of it takes the best of us to make the extension to another when his needs are clear.  It is also clear that we may have to forbear when something we might do could harm another.  I believe that when we behave in these ways, it is our spirituality that is in action.  Perhaps we could even consider the compassionate “us” as God-like, even if we have to work at it.  And why not, for love and compassion certainly go hand in hand, and I’m not sure we can have the one without the other.

Giving without asking for something in return

            There is no pain in being compassionate.  We are not asking others to do what we want them to do.  The person who assists someone who is disabled is not asking that person to become whole again, at least not physically.  Rather, the love that accompanies the compassionate worker is part of the expertise that a care giver brings.  It is part of the giving without asking for something in return.  There may, of course, be a return, through smiles and gratitude on the part of the receiver, but the compassionate act is the choice of the one who assists.  So many have said that doing for others brings a great sense of well being.  I think there is something  mystical in this because others watching a compassionate act being done are themselves affected.  I have asked myself:  What is taking place?  What has been engaged or set off?  As a believer I think it has to be shared Oneness energized, pulling in everyone in its orbit.

Perhaps we could open to love ...

            The great spiritual leader, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has long been recognized as a champion of compassionate living, and to this he has dedicated his whole life, so much so that he has said that “love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them humanity cannot survive.”  Steller thoughts, but often relegated to the “soft” side of life, good aims if we did not have to maintain the warrior cultures we have long established.  If we did not have to protect ourselves from warring “others,” perhaps we could open to love and compassion.  On the other hand, what might happen if we opened instead with loving concern for the other?  Could it be possible we might change the world?