Compassion

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

As I walk on this earth, so do you. As I sit on this earth, so do you. As I eat, sleep, love and hate, so do you. We are the same, you and I. Just different reflections of Original Mind at work. So when I suffer, so do you. When you suffer, so do I. Our understanding of each other in each of these gently sweeps away the residue of the illusion we are separate. If we allow it.

Compassion must be voluntary. We allow our feelings to loosen and let go. We allow ourselves to open to others. We become vulnerable, and in that vulnerability, we become the water for the parched plant.

It is not easy to be so vulnerable. Vulnerability demands of us. It requires we actively address those things that would harm us. So that we might continue to enjoy our vulnerability and nurture others. Addressing harm, however, without protection, requires a willingness to experience pain.

This is why compassion is courage in another form.

Frankly, I am not so good with this. Perhaps I am a coward. It is so difficult for me to not protect myself. I do not want to feel the pain of you, nor my own. I sometimes want to be on a mountain, aloof, apart, untouched and untouchable by you.

Yet, here we are. I am down off the mountain. Not such a small thing.

So, while vulnerability is a choice, and our willingness to be with another is salve to injury, and we are born with them, life can often harden us and make it difficult to be the buddhas we are. We can take small steps. We can feel each others pain. We can learn to enfold that pain with our love and make it better.

I believe this. I believe this very deeply.

Be well.