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Compassion-Spread the Love
By karen | December 31, 2007
Thank you to my friend Alex at the next 45 years for letting me know about this project. In honor of the Christmas Season, by joint effort of the Three Monks, Wade from The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.net we have been encouraged to write something on Compassion and sharing the Christmas Spirit. I’ve given it a great deal of thought and here is my contribution.
com·pas·sion com·pas·sion– a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
At Christmastime and during the holidays we are often reminded of the less fortunate. The evening news tells us how full the food bank is and how much they need and want more contributions. All of the charities are front and center asking for our money, time and energy to help them with their causes. All of this is important. These are things that we need to remember not just for the holidays but for the entire year.
But I want to go in a different direction here. I want you to think about offering compassion to the people who need it the most yet make it the hardest and most difficult to give.
The people who don’t seem to deserve it at all.
We are all children of a Divine Universe. We all have a connection to our Highest Selves and our Inner being, the Source of All that is. Whether we call that God, Source, the Universe, whatever the name we all have a connection to the Energy that creates worlds.
When we are connected to our Highest Selves, we act as our Highest Selves act. We Love other people, we see their Divinity, we appreciate Life, and most importantly we Love ourselves.
We see our own Divinity.
Yet all of us can reach a place of disconnection, a place where we can’t find the good feelings, the Peace, Love and Joy that our Inner Beings are. At times we have all felt the pain of being disconnected. And it is painful. Anger, frustration, depression are all at a place of disconnection and they all hurt, it hurts to feel that pain.
But there are people who spend much of their lives feeling that pain of disconnection. Oftentimes they take it out on others, the people they love, their family, friends, even complete strangers. They lash out, scream and carry on. They criticize and find fault. They do things to purposefully hurt others. Each and every one of us has been at the brunt of someone else’s disconnection at some time in our lives. It hurts. Sometimes it really hurts.
The best we can do is try to maintain our own connection to Source. It is very difficult to do so when someone else is hurling their pain at us for no apparent reason, when someone else is being hyper-critical, when they are lashing out with hurtful words, anger and worse. At that time it is very difficult to offer them compassion. It can be so difficult.
But when we lash out back at them we join them in their disconnection. We feel the pain.
Underneath all of our pain and anger we all want to stay connected to our own Inner Being and our own Highest Self. That is when we feel the best, when we are in tune with and we know the divinity of our Beings.
That is when we feel the true Joy of Life.
When we stay connected to our own Source we can Love the disconnected ones, we can forgive them and even appreciate them for what we truly know that they are, deep down underneath all of that pain. We can offer them Compassion. There is Divinity underneath all of that pain.
Within every person there is Divinity. There is.
When we stay connected to our own Source, we can give them compassion. In giving them compassion perhaps we can assist them and help them to find their way back to their own connection. That is what they really want.
It can be incredibly difficult to offer compassion to that person. They hurt us and automatically we want to hurt them back, we want to take revenge, we want them to hurt just as they have made us hurt.
But that is not the answer. Feelings of revenge, anger, frustration only weaken us. Our bodies and our minds are not creating our Best Life when we are feeling those painful feelings.
In the disconnected state of pain we are not contributing to the Healing, the Peace, and the Joy of the Universe.
The feelings of Love, Joy, Happiness strengthen us. The good feelings give us our Power. The feelings of Love, Forgiveness and Compassion help us create our best life and it helps us to heal others.
It helps to heal the Universe.
My challenge to myself and my challenge to you for 2008 is to offer the true feelings of Love and Compassion to the people who need it the most, the people who are the hardest to give it to. On the surface they don’t deserve it, but it is what they need. It is what we all need.
Perhaps that is what Jesus meant when he said “Turn the other cheek”.
Absolutely.
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December 31st, 2007 at 11:15 am
Thank you for this beautiful post, Karen. Giving love to others is no different from giving love to ourselves, I believe. Wonderful!
December 31st, 2007 at 11:20 am
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December 31st, 2007 at 11:22 am
Giving Love to others and to ourselves is vital to creating our best lives!
Thank you Albert!
December 31st, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Hi Karen, I loved your post and I also joined this great writing project. One of my favorite Deepak Chopra quotes is “remember everyone is doing the best they can from their own state of consciousness”. I remind myself of this whenever I might be upset by something someone said or did. I now try and be mindful to wish the people the best in my mind instead of getting upset. 2007 has been a real “wake up” for me and listening to my true self — I hope 2008 makes me even wiser and more mindful of how I react to people. Thanks for this wonderful look at compassion. All the best for the new year! Gratefully, Jenny
December 31st, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Thanks Jenny!
I love that Deepak Chopra quote, so true and such an enlightening thought…Something it would be good to remember!
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Lovely bit on love & compassion!
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Thank you Matthew!
January 7th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
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January 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
[…] Therapy. Paula Kawal at Journey Inward Coaching. Liara Covert at Dream Builders. David Bohl at Slow Down Fast. Deb Estep at Deb_Inside. Swami Nirmalananda Giri and ReddyK at the Atma Jyoti Blog. Mary Jaksch atGoodlife Zen. Takuin Minamoto at Daily Action and Natural Expression. Robin at Reflections on Compassion, posted at Yogini Myspace Blog. Karen Zara at Abaminds. Jenny Mannion at Heal Pain Naturally. Evan Hadkins at WellBeingAndHealth.Net. Shawn Williamson at do you LIVE or simply EXIST. Patricia Singleton at Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker. Alex Blackwell at The Next 45 Years. Akemi Gaines at Gratitude Magic. Vitor Bosshard at The Fractal Forest. CG Walters at Into The Mist. John Torcello has also contributed an entry by email, I’ve included it in the comments below. Brightdays at Brighter Days for you and me! Karen at Loving Awareness. Krista at Lucid Amphibology. Karen Lynch at Live The Power. Andrea Hess at Empowered Soul. Waters at Waters: The Last Thing I Wanted To Give. Eric Grey at Deepest Health. Stephen Hopson at Adversity University. Em Dy at Pulse: Intention to Treat. Iain Hamp at Follow Your Passions. Rahul at Raw Speak. Stephen Miracle at AltNoise.Net. Pearl at Interesting Observations. Mark at My Tropical Escape. Matthew at Loving Awareness. Daylle Schwartz at Lessons from a Recovering Doormat. Charities Link at Charities Link. Mihaela Lica at Pamil Visions eWritings. David at Virginia Breeze. Jerry Summers at Nothing Like Now. Wishbone at Wishbone. Arvind Devalia at Make Things Happen. Samir Bharadwaj at Samir Bharadwaj dot com. Change, Inspiration, Personal DevelopmentBookmark to: […]
January 8th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Hi Karen,
The thought of by being present, being compassionate that we help people reconnect to their source is a powerful message, thank you.
Peace,
Wade
http://themiddleway.net
January 8th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
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January 10th, 2008 at 10:09 am
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January 11th, 2008 at 2:43 am
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