Compassion remains dead unless it is awoken
COMPASSION REMAINS DEAD UNLESS IT IS AWOKEN
If we are to be effective and capable in daily life, if we are to live up to our ideals, if we are to be of actual help to others, we need to train. There are specific methods practiced over many centuries, to generate equanimity, to create a little spaciousness amidst our habitual clutter.
There are methods to allow us to become more loving. But love can go stale and cold. This is when we need to generate compassion, which has larger connotations than love.
Compassion means openness or spaciousness, opening up to all situations we are in. It means not bogging down in subjective judgements. It means dropping the compulsion to be constantly asking: "How does this affect me? What do I think about this?" We create space, which allows us to sit back and look at everything properly and precisely. We can then see where our attachment comes from, how we color our view of the world, how things go wrong.
In order to generate compassion one has first to generate warmth, firstly warmth towards oneself. One has to learn how to accept and like oneself, as only then can one like someone else. Unless you know how to have warmth and compassion towards yourself, you won't be able to have it for other people. When you have it, then you can share it with others. You can't share what you don't have.
Compassion fulfils the needs of situations, as they arise. It is a readiness, an openness to respond properly and precisely, spontaneously, without the selfish agenda, without being so needy that the self gets in the way.
Compassion is the opposite of passion. Passion is egocentric. It is demanding, it makes demands on people. Compassion is open space, it's undemanding, it's generous. Compassion is direct, spontaneous. It is felt, rather than manufactured. It requires no investment of your identity or personality. It may take a bit of practice, but it is a natural capacity.
The institute runs workshops on compassion as a means for developing skill in handling relationships.
#people #angermanagement #anxious #bullyingawareness#youthdevelopment #suicideprevention #violence#meditation