compassion

i know...it's a word that gets thrown around all the time in yoga and any new-age communities. i actually can't believe i titled an entry that way, but i had a dream the other night that has had me really exploring the usefulness of that very thing. without getting into the details of the dream, the main message that i was given is that COMPASSION HEALS. wow. i'm a genius, right?

but it's true. it's obvious and easy to see the working of a compassionate heart in the wake of things like the earthquake in haiti...people who are on the receiving end of something catastrophic or painful really have a way of opening our hearts, allowing us to feel just a LITTLE BIT of the pain and difficulty that they are enduring.

connecting to a person or a group of people in a way that gives us an actual visceral understanding of their tragedy is what i define as empathy or compassion. we begin to see that the pain they are experiencing is on some level the same pain we hold inside of ourselves; it's the pain of every human being at some time or another, the pain of the planet.

that type of compassion is difficult because it makes us feel the wounds of our hearts, it makes us "bleed" a little bit.

but that is only the beginning.

the next layer of compassion that i have been led to lately is compassion for the perpetrator of violence, for the perceived "evil-doers" of the world. yes...even for dick cheney. this level of compassion is SO NECESSARY for bringing a higher level of consciousness and peace to the world. it's the type of compassion that stops the cycle of violence. it forces us to let go of judgements and labels, of mean-spirited thoughts and words about another person--even if they seem to deserve it!

so the challenge becomes this: try looking deeply into the eyes and soul of someone that you find yourself wanting to shame, to label or to judge.--someone kind of "icky". look at what has caused them to become what or how they have become. see the pain. see the struggle and the violence and the deep deep sadness.

can you feel that? yep...we have that too.

we understand it. we have compassion.

now look at the world. it's just a little bit better because of what you have done.

oh, and sorry, dick. that wasn't very compassionate of me!