Compassion Requires Strength
My topic, compassion, is to remind all of us to have compassion for ourselves and each other. Compassion is very important to the world today with war, unemployment and other turmoil causing anxiety and uncertainty.
Compassion is a concept we usually try to ignore. We are too busy making a living, fighting to get ahead, taking care of family, judging or trying to improve something or someone. We are often too concerned with the importance of our physical lives to take time for compassion.
Yes, compassion takes time. It takes time to slow down and pay attention to what is happening. We need to slow down to see the person in need. Most people hurry by to avoid what they fear. They allow their fear to rule them instead of letting compassion flow.
How much do you allow your fear to stop your compassion? What are you afraid of? Maybe you are angry with a friend because he is not acting like you want. You want your friend to do what you believe he should do. But, you are too busy to do anything for your friend, except be angry with him for not behaving as you wish. If you slow down and pay attention to your friend, you may discover that he needs your time and compassion.
Compassion demands that you see what really is and accept it as it is. You need to see that your friend is in pain or doubt or some kind of distress. When you see what is happening, you can accept it. This does not mean you can change it for him. Your compassion is often all he needs.
Everyone needs to be accepted as he is. Accepting someone as he is, allows him to grow and change. Judging him for where he is helps him stay stuck there. Maybe you are afraid of seeing your friend as he is, because you are like your friend and do not want to accept yourself as you are.
Compassion includes acceptance. Acceptance of what is really happening, not our ideal, but of the real and present situation. The story of the Good Samaritan is an excellent example of compassion. The Samaritan saw the man’s situation as it was, unclouded by his own problems or beliefs or fears. We need to learn from him and clear our own barriers to compassion. When we are clear of our fears and doubts, compassion flows through us. Compassion requires clarity not thought.
Compassion can require action although it does not always. Once you see the situation, accept it as it is and experience compassion, you decide how to respond. When you have a spiritual perspective, you can act in a clear manner. Compassion does not always require action. It can, in fact, require that we do nothing. This form of compassion is difficult for action-oriented healers. It is not easy to watch people learn their lessons without interfering. Compassion may ask only for something subtle. Often the expression of compassion in a look or a touch is enough to display this aspect of love to another soul and communicate the healing vibration. Whether compassion takes the form of physical action or communicates through spiritual vibrations, it is a powerful healing.
There are many things that compassion is not. It is not feeling sorry for yourself or another. It is not doubt or doubting that anyone can solve his own problem. It is not allowing others to invade you or be cruel to you. Some people are afraid if they allow compassion, they must become a pushover. Our spiritual teachers such as Buddha, Mohamad, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and many others were not weak. They stood up to things most of us would run from in a second.
Compassion requires strength. It demands the strength to stand up for what you see and believe. Compassion needs the strength to rise above the emotional pit in which most people live. We also need the strength to have the compassion to help or to allow another soul to work through her problems without our help. It is a challenge for healers to express compassion without acting but can sometimes be the most healing route. We need to remember that some souls do not want compassion but prefer to suffer alone. Our compassion can help us to allow this other soul her way of creating as well as sending her our message of acceptance.
When you can experience compassion for yourself, you soon learn to share this with others. By experiencing and expressing compassion, you manifest love into your world. It takes strength to experience and express compassion. It is not an easy task to manifest love in your life. It is also important to allow others to refuse your compassion, because there are many who choose not to abide with love. This does not need to stop our flow of compassion.
The next time you begin to judge someone or pass them by, stop and use your meditation techniques to release your fears. Ground and let go of your judgment, your doubt or whatever you fear. Take control of your body and let your vibration of compassion flow through you. When you are clear and your compassion flows, you will know whether you need to be still or to act to have a healing impact.
All of us have the ability to manifest love. Compassion is one way we can do this. Regardless of the interaction you have with another, when you allow compassion you create a spiritual communication. By bringing spirit into the situation, you create healing. Like our great teachers, when you have compassion, you manifest love into the world.
This world becomes a brighter place when we each allow these gifts from God to flow through us.
