Through Compassion You will Find...

...that all human beings are just like you.

“By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”

Last week I invited you to practise cultivating attitudes of friendliness towards the happy. How did you get on?

This week I'd like to explore the second portion of this sutra - Compassion for the Unhappy.

I want us to get really honest for moment - have you ever found that there is a limit to your compassion? Perhaps you have an unconscious timeline in which you'd expect someone to 'feel better' and if theirs doesn't match up to yours your sympathy, empathy & compassion begins to wane?

Or maybe someone who has hurt or wronged you is now experiencing their own pain - how easy is it for you to find compassion for them?

Perhaps you've found someone's reaction, hurt or pain too big for you to understand?

This sutra asks us to put aside our timelines & the way other people have treated us and offer compassion to them in their time of need. We do this because of the deep recognition that we, by virtue of sharing the human experience, have walked the same path, shared the same pain & need the same support. It in this way that we support our community, and that we cultivate more internal harmony and retain our peace of mind.

This week, even if the reaction is too big, you don't understand it or you don't agree with it, I invite you to offer compassion to those in pain; to step into a role of service to those around you and provide the support that you one day will undoubtedly need.

Always with love,
Katie xx