Sponsor |  rumisong | Jun 19, 8:16am | heres an insight that may be worth sharing ...
what if someone we knew well and cared about all of a sudden started doing really stupid things, like putting a metal cup into the microwave, or putting butter into their coffee with a knife, or missing the glass completely when pouring out the milk without realizing it ... we would be concerned, right? we would not meet it with judgment - we would instinctively know that 'something wasnt right' - that there must be some sort of brain malfunction - we surely wouldnt meet it with "boy are they stupid - dont they know how to pour milk?" - that would be absurd, to think that we might think that - unless our brain too, was malfunctioning in a similar way - then the self centeredness, and lack of compassion that would be the cause of such a judgment would also make sense from that standpoint ...
but no - we would not judge, we would act compassionately - we would see to the persons safety - we would determine what amount of coherency there was in their thinking - we would ask after what doctor they were seeing recently - or what hospital was the nearest - and we would do our best to get competent help for them - get them to see a doctor for the malfunction of their brain ... we would stay with them and not abandon them to go have a nice lunch with a friend who knows better how to use the microwave ... right?
so, whats to prevent us from seeing this compassion come to meet ANY judgment we make?
and, can we perhaps see, that if a judgment comes in lieu of compassion, then that might be the first clue that the judgment itself is born of a (metaphoric) brain "injury"? that if Im judging something, someone, or some condition of life, then that is MY injury that is meeting that condition, and NOT the condition itself ...
expectation for example - the one thing that I notice in myself, ALWAYS contains a clue to an injury that needs to be met with compassion ... that if I see that Im rising to anothers expectation of me (and this has opportunity for me daily, I assure you), that instead of seeing their expectation as something deserving of the same compassion as we described above, I meet it with my own expectation - EVEN that its an expectation that THEY will not have an expectation .... can I see how absurd that is? just as if I would have an expectation that they will "never" spill milk, or "never" put a metal cup into the microwave oven so that I can call them "stupid" if they did - instead I meet their expectation of me, with my own expectation ... can I see the absurdity of that RIGHT in that moment? ... not usually ... there is much delay - often, too much delay - sometimes there is no seeing of that at all, until years or a lifetime later ... this is the disease of the brain, and the afflicted does not get to see it ... and in this world of ours that runs completely on expectations, whos the doctor? where do we turn for this? where is the hospital that we are to take ourselves to? (when its the hospitals TOO that run on expectations ... expectations of getting paid, expectations of meeting quotas, expectations of patience, expectations of 'thats someone elses problem', etc) ...
and so, this insight is about compassion ...
clearly, there can be no 'expectation' of compassion - that is just not possible, since true compassion MUST be without expectation, and MUST be 'for all' ... otherwise, we are merely "trading" in compassion, and such a trade is not compassion at all - it just becomes more of the trade "Ill lay off of my expectations of you, if you let up on your expectations of me, FIRST" ... thats not compassion, clearly ... that IS the disease ... the human disease of "more" - "what about me?" - "wheres mine?" etc ...
so this inquiry is about compassion ... compassion for oneself, clearly must come before compassion for another can even be considered - compassion for ones disease - for ones condition (and conditioning) ... this is the only doctor we will ever get to see on this problem ... there is no other "out there" expertise for this ailment - there is no "cure" for the condition but this ... Healing = Compassion ... and its a tough pill to swallow for the ego, for the "me" - because I AM expectations ... I AM time - the past, living in the future ... I AM that - but compassion is not ... compassion has NO connection to this past and future acting in the world ... its something else completely ....
and so, Gahndi said "be the change you want to see in the world"
and some other guru (many perhaps) said "change yourself, and the world changes" ...
there is no trade in this ... we cannot look to the world, or anything outside of us to give us this, or trade with us for this ...for this, for Love, we are alone ... but this "alone" is Love itself ... it is not "love, for me" ... its so much bigger than that ... one will either want to know this love by finding it within oneself - where it has always resided, or one will want the external to fulfill something - and that will always lead to suffering - as it is born out of expectation, and not of compassion ... |
|
THE EDGE → Discussion