Compassion

Evoking the power of compassion in us is not always easy. I find myself that the simplest ways are the best and the most direct. Every day, life gives us innumerable chances to open our hearts, if we can only take them. An old woman passes you with a sad and lonely face and two heavy plastic bags full of shopping she can hardly carry, friends who constantly make painful choices (and suffer), or an homeless person sipping the thin soup that is their only food. . . . Any one of these sights could open the eyes of your heart to the fact of vast suffering in the world. Let it. Don’t waste the love and grief it arouses. In the moment you feel compassion welling up in you, don’t brush it aside, don’t shrug it off and try to quickly to return to “normal,” don’t be afraid of your feelings or be embarrassed by it, and don’t allow yourself to be distracted from it. Be vulnerable: Use that quick, bright upsurge of compassion—focus on it, go deep into your heart and meditate on it, develop it, enhance and deepen it. By doing this you will realize how blind we may be to all of our suffering. All beings, everywhere, suffer; let your heart go out to them all in spontaneous and immeasurable compassion. Have a beautiful day and carry this thought - Compassion is the capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside someone else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for one until there is peace and joy for all. Peace and Love, Jim