Daily Mood Quote
Day 231 – January 5, 2012
“Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.”
~Dalai Lama
I like the Dalai Lama's quotes because they are true, regardless of what religion you may follow or faith you may ascribe too. I have always said, the truth is the truth no matter its source. You can't run from it, you can't hide it and you can't bury it under religious dogma. Although many have tried, the truth always has a way of coming to the surface.
How many of us consider ourselves to be a compassionate person? I'm sure many of us delude ourselves on this one. It is very easy to say you're a compassionate person, but actions speak louder than words. Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/compassion) describes compassion as, “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” It's not only an action, its a feeling too, the urge to “help.” But yet, in our world, many of us turn too easily away from those who have been stricken with misfortune and make statements like “better them than me,” or “glad its not me,” or “It's not my problem,” or “it must be their own fault;” which by the way seems to be the insidious position of most GOP candidates and a rabid minority that haven't had life collapse around them. The erroneous belief is; “they must of done something wrong to deserve the misfortune in their lives.” Well gee whiz kids, bad things happen to good people all the time. Ask the people in Joplin, Missouri; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; drought victims in Texas, or the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Sometimes, you can do everything right and for the right reason and still have everything go horribly wrong. Been there, done that; its just that simple. The thing is, nobody is immune to suffering tragedy, or loss in their lives. From the best of us to the worst of us, that is a constant of the human condition. Compassion for those who have fallen on hard times, regardless of causality is essential, if we are to continue as a civilization.
Here's what I mean: If you look across the span of history at major human contributions, things that have really made the world a better place, you will find that there have been as many, if not more positive contributions from children of adversity, than there have been from children of privilege. It has often been acts of compassion which have provided those children of adversity with the opportunity to contribute to the betterment of all of mankind. I will bet (if I were a betting woman) that if you were to sum it all up and graph it out (which I will not attempt to do), that simple small acts of compassion have spawned more great achievements and leaps in wisdom and knowledge, than all the icy facts and figures accumulated in the world. So, when you reach out to somebody with compassion, you stand a good chance of not only helping them, but yourself and all of mankind, because you never know where that next great contribution will be coming from.
I realized we live in a judgmental age. We spoke recently about the “me” versus the “we” and peoples need to find some manner of ascendency over other people, not for the sake a being a better person, but for the sake of being better than...That is not a good thing, the thinking here is all backward. The world is just too small and there are far too many people for that mindset to continue. There will always be somebody better and there will always be somebody who needs a hand-up (compassion) to make a go of it. Jayler Bardem said, “I think we are living in selfish times. I'm the first one to say that I'm the most selfish. We live in the so-called “first world,” and we may be first in a lot of things like technology, but we are behind in empathy.” There isn't a big leap between empathy and compassion. Empathy is the feeling, compassion is the impulse to reach out. You need both. Unless of course you wish to wind up like Mr. Potter (played by Lionel Barrymore) in It's a Wonderful Life, when George Bailey (James Stewart) said to Mr. Potter, “People were human beings... But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be!”
I came across a quote by an unknown author that I feel applies today, “it is lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others.” I am no psychologist for sure but, I think maybe it's possible people are dispassionate and non-empathic because they're so afraid of somebody taking advantage of them, that they have forgotten that it is the exception, not the rule; no matter what we may hear on the evening news, or online. A little investigation and common sense is all that's needed to discern between the two. I believe that fear (the original evil) has driven us into ourselves and away from our fundamental humanity. To me is the saddest thing and the first step on the dysfunctional road to making the world a more bitter, not a better place. My father in-law once said (I'm paraphrasing) “You'll find more answers by looking outside than by staring at what's in your closet.” And so it is. Compassion is always a step in a better direction.
How will you demonstrate, feel compassion today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading
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