Compassion

Angel Card today, Compassion.

The handy dandy New Oxford American Dictionary on this computer defines it as “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.” Interesting that sympathetic is coupled with pity. Alone pity, to me, suggests an almost demeaning quality.  It implies those that are pitied are less than. 

However, sympathetic pity conveys a sense of unity. It is an understand of what the other is going through. It is an empathetic sharing of feelings. Compassion is infused with a sense of love and oneness for self and others. It is the notion that we are all in this together. It is not easy to live in a place of compassion. Perhaps, if we could look through the belief of, as Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” we come closer to the value of compassion.  Linus Pauling adds a twist that comes even closer to the practice, “Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error."

Let us thank Albert Einstein for this take on the universal truth of compassion. 

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” 

Looking at all through the eyes of compassion brings us closer to waking up to who we truly are.  Together.