A row of Buddha - picture from Microsoft Clip Art...
I was listening to my lesson on Zen Buddhism when a phrase caught me so deeply that I lost focus on the lesson. The phrase was "when love meets pain, the vibration shifts, and then you find compassion". This thought totally intrigued me.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary meaning of compassion is "sympathetic consciousness of another's distress together with a desire to alleviate it". The Buddhists call compassion "karuṇā" . This is the second of the four great Immeasurables in Buddhist practice.
The Buddhists say - "The definition of compassion is: wanting others to be free from suffering. So compassion is the definition of the highest scope of motivation. It is said that to generate genuine compassion, one needs to realise that oneself is suffering, that an end to suffering is possible, and that other beings similarly want to be free from suffering."
When I see animals starving or beaten or hurt in any way, I am overwhelmed with sadness and yearn to help in some way. From the readings and the studying I have done, I understand this to be compassion. It is easy to love animals unconditionally for we expect nothing from them. I believe that many people are like me, and feel that same way when they see an animal suffer.
However, when I see a person suffering through starving or being beaten or hurt in some way, I do not always feel that yearn to help. Instead, I feel more detached. I understand that the detached feeling is not compassion.
This left me wrestling with a big WHY. Why don't I feel that same compassion for a person as I do for an animal. As I sat in meditation, I realized it is because an animal has never let me down, whereas humans do let me down, all the time.
I realised that the reason the phrasing around "love meets pain" side swiped me so that I did not finish my lesson, was that I need to work on being unattached to what humans do, and I need to work on feeling compassion for every living thing when hurt comes to it in some way. And, I thought I had cleared all this stuff! So, I will spend meditation time over the next week to work on changing my life view.
May your journey be without pain or hardship!
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Thanks for reading this blog post. Sharing is good if it is kind and either has questions or tells about an experience.
Blessings,
Judy