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Today's
quotation:
Nothing helps us build our perspective more
than developing
compassion for others. Compassion is a sympathetic
feeling. It involves the willingness to put yourself in someone
else's shoes,
to take the focus off yourself and to imagine what it's
like to be
in someone else's predicament, and simultaneously, to feel
love
for that person. It's the recognition that other
people's problems,
their pain and frustrations, are every bit as real as our
own--often
far worse. In recognizing this fact and trying to
offer some assistance,
we open our own hearts and greatly enhance our sense of
gratitude.
Richard
Carlson
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Today's
Meditation:
I
would truly like to consider myself a compassionate
person, but I'm not sure if the label fits. I try,
and I think that I'm closer to being compassionate than
many other people on this planet, but I honestly believe
that I have a way to go before I can consider myself to be
a compassionate person. Too much else gets in the
way-- judgment, doubt, self-interest, and indifference, to name
just a few things.
I'm
not criticizing myself for not being as compassionate as
I'd like to be. I'm simply acknowledging the fact
that I'm not as far along the road to compassion as I
could be. I started late in life even realizing just
what compassion is and trying to work towards it as an
ideal, and I've come a long way so far-- but I still have
quite a ways to go, I believe. But the journey most
certainly is worth it. Becoming a compassionate
person is one of the very best things that I can do for
myself and for the people whom I love and with whom I have
contact.
Our
compassion is one of our greatest contributions to the
world in which we live. When we share our love
compassionately, we add greatly to the lives of others,
and we help them to feel hope, caring, and love. Our
compassion is our trying to understand why others do what
they do and not blaming them for it, but simply observing
and accepting it. Our compassion shows that we
accept others without condition, and that we are willing
to give them the benefit of the doubt because we're trying
to understand what they're going through rather than
responding simply to their actions or words.
It's
easy to judge other people for what they do and say; it's
not as easy to try to understand them and to try to feel
what they feel so that we can comprehend their words and
actions better. When we are able to be truly
compassionate, we add greatly to the world in which we
live. One day, I hope to be a compassionate person
and add more positive love to this world.
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