THE TRUE MEANING OF COMPASSION

THE TRUE MEANING OF COMPASSION
(from my book "Twelve steps to Inner Peace)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the meaning for compassion as the sympathetic consciousness of other’s distress together with a desire to alleviate it. The compassion that is taught and understood on the Planet is sympathy or pity for another’s suffering. Taking every effort to relieve another’s pain is considered to be compassion. We have been taught that relieving the pain of others is good.

In order to go relieve another of their pain, the first thought that would come is a judgment with emotion. The judgment that the person is somehow suffering and that it is bad, and thus comes the judgment on the imperfection of creation. Projecting these judgments from the mind, one suffers with sadness. And sadness is an argument with God-Reality. If the meaning of compassion is to free others from suffering, how can we free others from suffering if we ourselves are already suffering with sadness for them?

When we project others’ pain, we intensify their pain so much, and they would be much better without us adding more to their pain. So any person in pain does not need another suffering for them. The best person who can support them is the one who does not judge them or their pain. As parents, when our child starts to learn to walk, we see them fall many times; but do we tell them not to walk anymore because they are constantly falling? We trust that they grow only by moving through obstacles.

In 1996, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuro-anatomist, experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain. She underwent a major brain surgery. She was very aware and awake during her stroke, and she went through a powerful 8-year journey of recovering from her debilitating stroke in complete awareness from a higher perspective.  She recovered and came out of her ordeal with full insight into the greater purpose of life. She observed the play of energy around all aspects of life and shared her amazing experience in her book, My Stroke of Insight.

Viewing life from the perspective of higher truth, Dr. Bolte Taylor shares that when she was completely disabled and recovering, she saw that when people felt pity, sadness, or worry for her, they actually did not help her in any way, and in fact, they did the opposite. They sucked away even the little bit of energy she had. Hence, sadness or feeling pity is debilitating rather than empowering the person who is in pain.

“When we are being compassionate, we consider another's circumstance
with love rather than judgment... To be compassionate is to move into
the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a
willingness to be supportive.”
~Jill Bolte Taylor ~ My Stroke of Insight

~Excerpt from "Twelve Steps to Inner Peace"
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSY853G
http://amzn.to/X0XIzM