sow seeds......................

 

In cultivating loving-kindness, we train first to be honest, loving, and compassionate toward ourselves.  Rather than nurturing self-denigration, we begin to cultivate a clear-seeing kindness.  Sometimes we feel good and strong.  Sometimes we feel inadequate and weak.  But our loving-kindness is unconditional.  No matter how we feel, we can aspire to be happy.  We can learn to act and think in ways that sow seeds of our future well-being, gradually becoming more aware of what causes happiness as well as what causes distress.  Without loving-kindness for ourselves it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others.

 -Pema Chödrön

three treasures.....................

 

Lao Tzu once said. “Simplicity. Patience. Compassion. These are your greatest treasures. He’s right and this has been known for thousands of years. Make these three treasures habits in your every day life.

-culled from Chris Lynch's substack

your innate humanness...................

 

There's a common illusion that spiritually evolved, loving people never have any negativity, as though they are already angelic.  They get annoyed that they still have negative feelings, and then it's compounded by their guilt and self-frustration.  They have to realize that feelings are transitory, whereas their intention to evolve remains constant.  Let go of feeling guilty that you are still just an ordinary human despite your angelic ambitions!  Having compassion towards your innate humanness, its nervous system, and the brain function that goes with it allows for greater equanimity.  Heavenly ambitions do not necessarily make us angels!

-David R. Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender

On toxic compassion...............

 

 ...................the prioritisation of short-term emotional comfort over everything else.

-Chris Williamson, from here

a sensitivity........................

 

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

-Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, as cut-and-pasted from here

humanness.......................

 Compassion for others and for their humanness transforms life and all relationships.

-David R. Hawkins,  Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender

practice self-compassion.........

 People who practice self-compassion experience lower levels of depression and anxiety. When we know it’s normal to experience problems, they don’t overwhelm us. Everything gets easier when you remember we all have bad days, and we all occasionally screw up when trying to make them better. You’re a “work in progress.” We all are.

-as excerpted from this Barking Up The Wrong Tree post

the simple act.....................

 Ignorance does not yield to attack, but it dissipates in the light, and nothing dissolves dishonesty faster than the simple act of revealing the truth.  The only way to enhance one's power in the world is by increasing one's integrity, understanding and capacity for compassion.

-David R. Hawkins

On compassion.......................

 The surrendered person no longer needs others for personal fulfillment but is with them out of choice because of love and enjoyment.  Compassion for others and for their humanness transforms like and all relationship.

-David R. Hawkins,  Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender

Respect......................

 Go out of your way to find humility when things are going right and forgiveness/compassion when they go wrong.  Because it's never as good or as bad as it looks.  The world is big and complex.  Luck and risk are both real and hard to identify.  Do so when judging yourself and others.  Respect the power of luck and risk and you'll have a better chance of focusing on the things you can actually control.  You'll also have a better chance of finding the right role models.

-Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money:  Timeless Lessons On Wealth, Greed, And Happiness

Work..................................

“I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.” 

-Ram Dass

Love..................................

But the world's problems are very simple.  They are the lack of love between human beings, the lack of compassion, of tolerance, of humility, and of acceptance.  They are the arrogance, hatred, and violence that have polluted human hearts.  They are prejudice and intolerance.  If a person has no peace in their heart, there can be no peace around them.  Such a person will always find a reason to argue and fight.  Only when a person's own heart is peaceful can their interactions be peaceful.
     How to solve the problem of hatred?  Is there any political solution?  Can love and acceptance be legislated and enforced?  Can any law change the human heart?   The heart only changes when it decides to change.  And that is a personal choice that each person must make for themselves.  We cannot enforce it upon them.  We can only inspire them and offer them the tools.
     Therefore, rather than trying to transform others, let us devote ourselves to our own transformation.  As for others, let us be nondemanding of them.  Let us be content to love them as they are, to accept them as they are, and to be ever ready to serve them as we would members of our own family.  This is the humanity that the world sorely needs.
     Only love can make it possible to accept another person's flaws.  Have you ever seen a mother give up on her children?  Even if her child constantly misbehaves, getting thrown out of school or worse, the mother remains by their side, even after everyone else is fed up.  This is due to the mother's love.  Where there is love, there is forgiveness.  Where there is love, there is compassion.
Love is the root of every noble quality.  Therefore, when there is love, do you need any other quality?  When love is present, acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion all become redundant.  Love alone is sufficient.  No other quality is required.  We all know this.  The great teachers of the past and present have all said so.  But if teachings were enough, wouldn't we be transformed by now?

-Kamlesh D. Patel and Joshua Pollock,  The Heartfulness Way:  Heart-Based Mediations for Spiritual Transformation

a light garment....................

     To transcend the world requires compassion and acceptance.  They are the result of inner humility by which the world is surrendered to God with increased peace of mind.  One of the most valuable spiritual tools about which, historically, little has been said is the great value of humor.  Comedy arises as a result of the comparison that is made between perception and and essence, and the resolution is a consequence of the acceptance of the ambiguity.
     Humor is quite different from ridicule or malice as it is compassionate in that it accepts human limitations and foibles as being intrinsic.  It therefore assists 'wearing the world like a light garment' and illustrates that in being like the reed that bends in the wind, one survives instead of being broken by rigidity.

-David R. Hawkins,  Reality, Spirituality, and Modern Man

Toughness and compassion..............

...............................................also known as leadership:

     But with the nation's economic travail continuing throughout McKinley's second term, the governor faced major civil disruptions in the form of labor strikes and threats of mob rule.  In April 1894 the United Mine Workers called on coal miners to walk off their jobs in what one Ohio publication called "one of the greatest strikes, in point of numbers, in the history of any country."  Some 200,000 miners went on strike in Ohio alone, along with many others in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and elsewhere.  Civic tensions rand high, and the action devastated the regional economy as the strikes shut down railroads and factories fueled by coal.  Normal commerce ceased.  At the request of local sheriffs, McKinley sent out militia troops—some 3,000 in all—to restore and maintain order during the job action.  Later in the year he deployed troops to protect train service during a railroad strike.  When labor representatives suggested the governor's actions could harm him politically, he replied, "I do not care if my political career is not twenty-four hours long, these outrages must stop if takes every soldier in Ohio."
     As soon as the strikes were settled and order was restored, he turned his attention to getting funds and provisions distributed to areas where miners were suffering serious financial deprivation due to the strike.  The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, "Praise for the prompt action of Governor McKinley is on every tongue among the distressed. . . . Every detail of the relief work is under the general supervision of the governor."  Reflecting both his natural inclinations and his political acumen, McKinley combined toughness in the face of disruption with compassion for those caught up in the struggle.

-Robert W. Merry,  President McKinley:  Architect of the American Century

Karma..................

      Because in deed and in truth we are all one, component parts of the living garment of God, you yourself will ultimately receive the same treatment that you mete out to others;  you will receive the same merciful help in your own hour of need from those who are farther along the path than you are.  Above all it is true that, in freeing others from the weight of your condemnation, you make it possible to absolve yourself from self-condemnation.

-Emmet Fox,  The Sermon On The Mount:  The Key To Success In Life

own heart......................................

The world faces many challenges.  Some are political, others are social.  Some are economic, others are environmental.  In all cases, humanity suffers.  But the world's problems are very simple.  They are the lack of love between human beings, the lack of compassion, of tolerance, of humility, and of acceptance.  They are the arrogance, hatred, and violence that have polluted human hearts.  They are prejudice and intolerance.  If a person has no peace in their heart, there can be no peace around them.  Such a person will always find reasons to argue and fight.  Only when a person's own heart is peaceful can their interactions be peaceful.
     How to solve the problem of hatred?  Is there any political solution?  Can love and acceptance be legislated and enforced?  Can any law change the human heart?  The heart only changes when it decides to change.  And that is a personal choice that every person must make for themselves.  We cannot enforce it upon them.  We can only inspire them and offer them the tools.
     Therefore, rather than trying to transform others, let us devote ourselves to our own transformation.  As for others, let us be nondemanding of them.  Let us be content to love them as they are, to accept them as they are, and to be ever ready to serve them as we would the members of our own family.  This is the humanity that the world sorely needs.

-Kamlesh D. Patel,  The Heartfulness Way:  Heart-Based Meditations for Spiritual Transformation

On self-compassion......................

    
       You've heard both sides:  Overconfidence makes you feel good, gives you grit, and impresses others - but can also make you an arrogant jerk who alienates people, doesn't improve, and possibly loses everything because of denial.  Being less confident gives you the drive and tools to become an expert and makes other people like you ... but it doesn't feel so good and can send a lousy signal to others about your competency.
     Kinda sucks, doesn't it?  Seems like there's no easy answer.  You can impress people and make them angry or have them like you but not respect you.  It feels like a contradiction.  So how about this:  What if you throw the whole confidence paradigm in the trash?
     Don't scream heresy just yet.  Plenty of research shows that looking through the lens of self-esteem might be the real reason the debate over confidence is so fraught with grief.  But what's the alternative to self-confidence?  University of Texas professor Kristin Neff says it's "self-compassion."  Compassion for yourself when you fail means you don't have to be a delusional jerk to succeed and you don't have to feel incompetent to improve.  You get off the yo-yo experience of absurd expectations and beating yourself up when you don't meet them.  You stop lying to yourself that you're so awesome.  Instead, you focus on forgiving yourself when you're not.

-Eric Barker,  Barking Up The Wrong Tree:  The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

On compassion............................

“Compassion is, by definition, relational. Compassion literally means “to suffer with,” which implies a basic mutuality in the experience of suffering. The emotion of compassion springs from the recognition that the human experience is imperfect.”

-Kristin Neff

On sources................................

"Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering.  A compassionate concern for others' well-being is the source of happiness."

-The Dalai Lama

Opening paragraphs..............

     There are times in our lives - scary, unsettling times - when we know that we need help or answers but we're not sure what kind, or even what the problem or question is.  We look and look, tearing apart our lives like we're searching for the car keys in our couch, and we come up empty-handed.  Then when we're doing something stupid, like staring at the dog's mismatched paws, we stumble across what we needed to find.  Or even better, it finds us.  It wasn't what we were looking or hoping for, which was usually advice, approval, an advantage, safety, or relief from pain.  I was raised to seek or achieve them, but like everyone, I realized at some point that they do not bring lasting peace, relief, or uplift.  This does not seem fair, after a lifetime spent in their pursuit.  Where, then, do I turn in these increasingly frightening days?  Where do I look for answers when I'm afraid, or confused, or numb?   To an elegant Japanese sage?  A dream-dancing Sioux grandmother with a tinkling laugh?  No.  More often than not, the North Star that guides me through the darkness is the Old Testament prophet Micah.  He must have looked like a complete stoner or a Games of Thrones extra, and smelled like a goat, yet nearly three thousand years ago, he spoke the words that often remind me of my path and purpose.  "What doth God require of thee but to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

-Anne Lamott,  Hallelujah Anyway:  Rediscovering Mercy