Compassion is the emotional response to the pain and suffering of another.
Compassion implies an authentic and genuine desire to serve others.
It is somewhat different from empathy,
Which has more to do with understanding the feeling of others,
Detecting and reflecting the other person's emotions and feeling their emotions.
Feeling empathy is a necessary precursor in order to motivate acts of compassion.
It is not enough.
Even though empathy should develop and become stronger,
Compassion goes beyond that.
It's a journey that starts inward and goes outward,
Which allows you to release that which is difficult,
Let go of what you become aware of through empathy,
Let it go,
Alleviate,
Exhale suffering,
And that love may emerge through understanding pain.
Empathy and compassion involve our capacity to put ourselves in the place of another and to connect to suffering.
However,
With compassion there exists a genuine willingness to alleviate the pain and suffering of others.
It is not necessary to even understand.
It is something that is felt in the body.
It is wonderful to feel compassion.
It's like returning home.
I invite you to inhale gratitude and to exhale compassion.
Inhaling gratitude and exhaling compassion has to do with asking yourself How can I help you?
If there were something I could do to make you happy,
I would do so.
Feeling sorry for someone implicates a sense of superiority.
It does not mean you are being a good person,
Because it's not necessary to suffer in order to be compassionate.
True compassion has nothing to do with helping out of fear or because you think someone won't like you,
Won't accept you,
Or because of what they may say about you.
Being compassionate is not about indulgence.
It's not agreeing with someone so that they won't suffer.
Compassion is critical and should offer the other what they need even if it hurts.
Being compassionate is not a weakness.
It is not at odds with defending our rights.
It is a way of living that moves us away from guilt,
Victimization and envy.
The practice of compassion allows our sensibilities and vulnerabilities to flourish,
While at the same time help us to be more resistant,
Stronger and more courageous.
Inhaling gratitude and exhaling compassion in this modern world in which we are well fed,
Have good jobs,
Enjoy a reasonable amount of good health,
Yet we don't feel happy or satisfied.
Perhaps it's because we live in an unhappy system,
Not very humane,
One in which cultivating compassion seems to be a utopia.
This modern world,
Which appears to be injured three times over,
That wants us to live all built up in cities and to separate us from nature as if it's something that doesn't mesh with us.
Far from nature,
That invites us to stay at home,
To have us believe that connecting virtually or watching television is connecting,
That intends to move us away from other human beings.
Far from the rest,
That encourages us to cultivate our hedonistic pleasures more and more,
To search our happiness outside of ourselves,
And to never focus our gaze so we may know our own selves.
Far from ourselves.
Don't lock yourself up in your own bubble in order to avoid self-criticism.
Don't avoid those that criticize you.
Listen to them.
Don't remain in your comfort zone.
Don't be self-complacent,
Thinking you are right over and over again.
Don't be your own victim.
Don't shy away from I don't know.
Don't walk away with a full cap,
Believing you know everything.
Doing it that way makes it impossible to recognize your ignorance,
That very human veil that we possess.
Do not shy away from the other's wisdom,
From humanity,
From the rest.
Inhaling gratitude,
Exhaling compassion,
Returning home,
Present at each moment,
Conscious of yourself,
Of others,
And the world.
Allow yourself to be,
Compassionately breaking those patterns that don't serve you,
Acting with determination.
You don't have to do anything special.
Just be.
Be you.
You don't owe anything to anyone.
We came into this world to give and receive.
We came into this life to nourish ourselves with good,
And doing anonymously.
We came in order to heal through love,
And help through love.
We came in order to transcend,
To be one more drop that takes care of humanity,
And the world.
And even though sometimes we feel that what we are doing is only one more drop in the sea of suffering,
The sea would be much less if that drop was missing.
Our drop.
May we have peace.
May we have happiness.
And may our lives go well.
