Compassion. I often hear it in context of feeling sorry for another.
The quality of compassion, is quite the opposite of feeling sorry for another. Compassion derives from experiential understanding of another’s situation or position. Compassion is developed from knowing a certain place first hand. That place may be a situation of jealousy, rage, pain, turmoil, blame, greed, fear, or any other limiting condition.
Compassion is different from feeling sorry for another, in the sense that compassion feels only love, positivity and trust in the evolutionary process that brings us all closer to love. A person experiencing compassion knows that after an experience of intense struggle, comes an experience of love.
The experience of compassion is one of hope and gratitude – gratitude for our suffering, knowing that it diminishes the walls between us. Compassion knows that we are one as species, as living beings. Compassion is in full support of another’s journey, understanding its purpose, and feeling grateful for the shared responsibility.
Compassion is much bigger than having sympathy, or empathy for another’s suffering. A compassionate person understands another’s suffering, because he/she has been there before, and has come through the experience with forgiveness and love.
Often we see things in the world that is so wrong, that makes us angry, that gets us upset. We seek justice and want others to be pushed. To have compassion for our enemy, and those who trigger us is far from easy. Just for a moment, put yourself in their shoes. Feel how they must have felt before committing such a crime, the crime you condemn. – Perhaps extreme anger, extreme lust, extreme insecurity, extreme shame, extreme fear. Are these feelings within themselves not enough of punishment, of hardship to go through?
If still you cannot come to a place of compassion for having felt such intense emotions in the past, and currently having a much more balanced life experience, then humbly accept these people as your teachers.
May all living beings come to a place of love and understanding. ~ Peace ~