Aspects of compassion and how it relates to our life.
The view in this article is completely born from reflection. Reflection of different aspect and experinces from my own life. It isnīt truth, only level of understanding or even misunderstanding. But I hope you will be able to reflect on it and therefore gain something..
Is judgement shadowing compassion.Allowing people to be themselves.Being open minded.Non judgemental mind.Walking in a bubble.Finding peace within.The common aspect of religions.The keys to resolve conflict.Contioned mind.Revenge or justice, is it the same.
Is judgement shadowing compassion.
Judgement is a product from our own fears. If we take for example our need to attack the other, which is a big issue. Our need to belong is very strong in human beings. This is part of our animal nature. If we live in a nation of multiculture we might feel that this comfort structure is often threatened. Therefore there is aspect of unconscius or conscius fear.
It can be simple as the color of skin, certain behaviour of physical expression, different language, different culture, different economic situation, different religion etc. All this can be threat to our group which we belong too and this group consciusness can often be rather limited. Like somone said, Fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate.
Allowing people to be themselves.
When we have this in mind, life becomes easier for everybody. When our opinions of how people should be or act is not there, we donīt put pressures or judgement on people. Even when someone makes mistake, there is the understanding that everybody makes mistake and thats how we keep leveled.
Reminding our selves how we like other people to behave or react towards ourselves is a gateway towards tolerance. Being polite is another but it is more supressive. Or conditioned from our own parents or society. It is all about finding it from the level of the heart, not what others are saying what is right or wrong. When you expect other people to behave in certain way, just because you do it, then you are being selfish.
Keeping open mind.
When we keep open mind we find that what could have escaped our attention doesnīt. Childlike curiosity is an aspect bringing us the wonder of our surroundings. People or enviroment. This I believe has been aspect of geratest minds. If we look at our geniuses than we would often think of them as being childlike or strange.
It is this playful nature we often forget to nurture. Just look at Dalai Lama who can teach you one two things about compassion, at least. When you feel joy, you stay open. When you feel sadness the flow slows down.
Non judgemental mind.
Just imagine god or any divine personality. How would they react to your shortcomings. Would they blame you, or shame you. Well, they wouldnīt be expressing their divine nature rather the opposite. You donīt have to be religous to get the sense of what I am talking about. I bealive that we have all sense of compassion.
So why do we judge. Preliminary judgement might be programed in our survival mechanism. Itīs like we have to have some structure to build upon to in our blindness or ignorance. It might that we are escaping situation which we fear. Like fear of intimacy or fear of relationship. So we choose to judge in a negative way in our defence. It is basically our lack of peace.
Walking in a bubble
See for yourselves someone walking in a big bubble on the street. This bubble would be of some color. Then see many people walking in a bubble. All of them have differen colored bubble. This is how most of us see the world. All with different coloured bubbles and that is how we perceive it. Clear bubble sees the true color of other bubbles. Colored bubble sees only distortion of the other.
So being aware of that helps us to understand our ignorance and therefore we hesitate to make assumption about anyhing or anybody. It doesnīt mean that we canīt have opinion. Opinion is a way of understanding as long you realise it is only opinion and it is fluid. Threfore changing itīs shape when additional experience or knowledge comes about.
Finding peace within
How many times have you heard this. Find peace within. It is the fundmental of everything I am saying in this article. Finding peace is to relaese the conditioned mind. It is detatchment and therefore peace. Detachment from any ideaology or so called truth. It is to be and nothing else. It is like walking on water.
When you experince the real beauty of compassion, you have experienced peace. It is the feeling that nothing can hurt you and from that there is no reason to react. There is nothing too react to. Because the strength of compassion, is lack of fear. You are connected to your inner self and nothing can affect this inner self. It just is. It is emptiness and therefore everything.
The common aspect of religion.
That is compassion. This is fundemental of any religion. It is aim of them all, but still there is so much conflict made in the name of religion. How can this be. Well this is about the group consciousness again and the so called truth. That is poison of compassion. Thinking that you have the ultimate truth and the others are wrong, is one of the greates ignorance of this race called human beings.
But still this feels sometimes like it is only the minority who fuels misunderstanding. It is the stupidity of the sheep like mind who follows anybody who has the strength and conviction of a leader and that seems to be many, maybe less so in our time. The best example of that is someone who showed extreme opposite of compassion in this dualistc world of ours. Feeding the puplic with fear and ready made truth or ideology. His name was Hitler.
Conditioned mind.
Since we start to suck the milk from our mother we start to get conditioned. It all depends on our enviroment and those around us. This is common knowledge. Often or even allways we find ourselves to behave in a negative way to different situation or even people. This can hurt our fellow beings and ourselves even more. We start to blame ourselves and be defensive and therefoe sinking in ever deeper cycle of condition. Not finding compassion towards ourselves or others.
We want to find a way out but we cant. This of course depends on the persons ability to take responsibilty of how much they seek for a way to better themselves. Often we are blind towards ourselves. Introspection is one of the hardest aspect to do, when done in a honest way. But the rewards are great in the end. Not only when we leave our bodies, but when we mature into old age. The fruits start to grow around the middle of our lifes. What you put in, is what you get.
Revenge or justice, is it the same?.
Are we justified to revenge. It takes great strength to be able to forgive. So what is this strength. Is it iron will. Will to hold in. No, it is in the soft where the real strength lies. For some, softness might be weakness. But it is the real strength. The reliougus scriptures of the world are full of stories of humans showing the strength of compassion. Examples of when someone wants to hurt or maine them, they will show non violence, non judgment and forgivness, saving themselves and the other.
Unforunately, revenge or punishment with violence is common place in our society and goverments are often in the forefront of that, disguised as so called justice. America or China is good example of that where in their state of fear, anger and even hatred towards their unfortunate beings called criminals, some states kill them. This is no answer to eradication of crime. Rather it seems to enhance it. You see, the law of the universe are at work. It is the cycle of what you give is what you get.
Author: Gudni Einarsson
Previous article: 09 January 2007
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