Maybe I’m reading this wrong,
but I think the Dalhi Lama seems to feel
that compassion/warm-heartedness is all important,
without limiting the meaning of those words.
Being kind, friendly, positive, helpful, affectionate, etc.
Is all part of the compassion/warm-heartedness,
which itself is a cure for humanity.
Maybe he sees it like this:
Compassion is one of the most important things
humans can focus on and develop.
It’s not that bad of an idea…
But things can become complex.
It starts out simple.
Gotta cover the basics.
Hi Dan,
The basics are portrayed above, and even if there is some criticism of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it does show the basics. You can see that after physiological and safety needs are met, the social component plays a role, but I’d put them in a different order: family, a sense of connection, friendship, and intimacy. Love and belonging are intimately connected, and only if we can develop compassion is that possible.
The word compassion comes from the Latin and means “to suffer together with” and is researched in the fields of positive and social psychology. Paul Ekman, who had a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, uses a “taxonomy of compassion” which includes emotional recognition (knowing how another person feels), emotional resonance (feeling emotions another person feels), familial connection (care-giver-offspring), global compassion (extending compassion to everyone in the world), sentient compassion (extended compassion to other species), and heroic compassion (compassion that comes with a risk).
Yes, compassion is all important. It is the feeling and expression of our oneness with everything that is.
It is the actualization of the heart’s imperative to love all beings. It is the essence of karma yoga and the teachings of Jesus.It’s natural like water, refreshing everything without trying to. As Mencius understood, our natural feeling does not allow us to tolerate the suffering of others. Such a feeling is universally present in all of us, and this is the beginning of human heartedness. Education should be directed at uncovering who we really are.
Felix, how do you actuate compassion?
I cook food for people, and give gifts.
Many years from now, i want to set up
a house with donation based rent and food.
I take seriously where Jesus said e.g “ Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” I am naturally lustful, greedy, gluttonous and self centered. So for true compassion to occur here it’s like the breaking in of a higher power.
Felix, how do you actuate compassion?
I cook food for people, and give gifts.
Many years from now, i want to set up
a house with donation based rent and food.
Those are beautiful ways to show compassion, Dan. You are doing a service for human beings.
It can also be as simple as smiling and saying hello to someone who seems to be a bit sad or who looks lonely and waiting for their next move to hopefully open up to you so you can help them.
I think it comes down to observing and feeling and seeing what needs to be done or ought to be done in certain moments and just responding and doing that thing…having a sense of responsibility toward something.
I think that the compassion is already within a person or not. I think that that is what “actuates” it as you say. I thought actuate was a strange word to use in this instance but maybe I am wrong.
Yes, compassion is all-important. I would say that it is an awesome, beautiful stable strategy for the perpetuation of humanity against barbarism!
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
…
So for true compassion to occur here it’s like the breaking in of a higher power.
What kind of people, places or things do you think might act as a catalyst to bring out compassion in you? I am sure that there is compassion or potential for compassion within you, Felix, to respond to certain things…
Mosquitoes ticks and fleas. They’re the only thing I ordinarily kill Intentionally. When they get on my skin or on my cats. I pray for them that they will go to a happier life as I recognize they are divine.
We shouldn’t underestimate the number of people in Western society who still haven’t made it past the second strata due to highly conservative/regressive parenting. A lack of positive nurturing and reinforcement should be considered a negative towards self-actualization.
Dan,
Compassion is the result of identifying the self which you are with the self in other creatures. If there is no identification, there will be no compassion and compassion is the essence of morality. The world is full of pain in this reality which states life lives upon life. One can have great compassion and great morality for all creatures locked into this dilemma of life lives upon life. To me, it is a striking example of our lack of free will, life is dictated by necessity. If one rejects free will, one’s compassion is left to grow exponentially despite necessity.
Compassion is the result of identifying the self which you are with the self in other creatures. If there is no identification, there will be no compassion and compassion is the essence of morality.
This sounds more like empathy to me, not compassion. It is like "you have been there, you can feel what the other person is feeling.
One can have great compassion and great morality for all creatures locked into this dilemma of life lives upon life. To me, it is a striking example of our lack of free will,
How do you consider compassion itself to be a lack of free will?
Compassion does bring emotion with it but when it acts out on behalf of someone for their good, that IS free will - an action taken freely…
If one rejects free will, one’s compassion is left to grow exponentially despite necessity.
ultimately, even if at first it is a struggle to act on behalf of someone with compassion, where there might be some sort of risk, how can you see that as a lack of free will, to me, that transcends free will and shows freedom to act.
Hi, Arcturus
Empathy is related but not compassion, empathy is identifying what it feels like to experience a given event so you share in understanding what it is like to go through that particular ordeal. Compassion arises, or its foundation is, identifying one’s self with the self in another creature, only when that occurs does compassion arise, so identification is the seed of compassion and compassion is the seed of morality.
Free will is the basis of religious sin and judicial blame or guilt, and considering the complexity of existence I find, it an absurd concept although serving society in the manners addressed above. Certainly, people who would harm other individuals or society in general need to be dealt with, confined, and possibly reformed. It is, however, my belief, that everything is a process, and if you accept that, you cannot rightly hold a person responsible for their state of being at any one time or moment. All organisms are reactionary creatures to the world environment, and, in turn, their reactions become to the outer world causes, in the world. Just the fact that all organisms are reactionary creatures dispels the concept of free will. There is no such thing as human action, there is but, reaction all so-called actions are motivated from the outside, motivation spells reaction, not action. Being reactionary creatures is how we are the world.
@Dan1 For religious people it seems illogical to say compassion is all important. For one thing, it implies the existence of another created person. The most important thing to a religious person is God and contingent on that, worshipping him. I’m not trying to rival the Lama, l’m just saying.
