Compassion

Compassion has been on my mind a lot lately. Don't know why exactly but so it goes.

In a conversation I was having with a friend yesterday the word came up (I think I was the initiator) and I got an interesting reaction from my friend. There was a sense of disdain for the word, it being interpreted as being akin to sympathy to this person and that was simply not an acceptable thing. There didn't seem to be any interest in another point of view so I let it go in the conversation, we all have our interpretations. The idea has stayed with me however and so I decided to write about it here.

My interpretation of compassion is a bit different from what was brought forward yesterday. I have come to see it as a combination of acceptance and understanding. So you might say I had compassion for this person's point of view because I certainly understood where they were coming from and I accepted it as being their perspective. I too have felt the same way not long ago on this journey.

There was a period for me in the dismantling process where I really didn't give a damn about anything. Whatever would have been the watch word for me during this period. I didn't feel connected to anything, including my own inner world really and that was perfect for its time. I've noticed this phenomenon in others who are on similar journeys so I wasn't particularly upset about it (or anything else for that matter). Life felt somewhat pointless as I stripped away all the meaning I had given things and I was in a kind of limbo.

Then something shifted. It was around the same time I got that sense of clarity around doing the work I am now doing. I was able to feel (hmmm, is that the right word here?) compassion toward myself and others which was not at all about sympathy but a new level of acceptance about where we all are, wherever that is. I may not want to spend a lot of time with some people but it doesn't mean I don't accept and understand that they are where they are and all is as it must be. The same is true of my own journey; stuff shows up I do what I do and all is as it is. There is no other way it is supposed to be and that for me is compassion. It has a very different quality than the I don't give a damn place I had been in. There is an allowing of all that happens but it is connected to the whole somehow in a way that was not there for me in the previous period of dismantling.

Interesting how things evolve isn't it?


This picture is a great representation of Compassion and its inclusivity for me.