More on Real Love and Compassion

IMG_8020Nuggets of wisdom on love and compassion were flying all over the room.  I rummaged through my canvas bag for a pen and used the back of a receipt to jot down some of these thoughts:

“Violence is not completely fatal until it ceases to disturb us.”  Thomas Merton

“We need to cultivate deeply principled compassion.  Recall your intention and express compassion for all.  Beware not to fall into complacency.  Use skillful action, not reactive action.  Intentionally shift the narrative in our nervous systems.  Don’t engage in toxic conversations or tv programs.

Compassion:  The quivering of the heart in response to seeing suffering and the movement to see if we can be of help.  Make sure your compassion is balanced.  Social outrage can lead to empathy overload.

You cannot control the outcome, but show up anyway.  Consider what will really serve.  It is not about us looking like the good guy.

Love and compassion support each other.  Loving kindness is connecting, opening, non-attachment, seeing the good in someone.  Everyone wants to be happy.

Pathelogical altruism:  Engaged in taking care of others without taking care of yourself.  Sacrifice yourself to benefit others.  This is not healthy.  Those behaviors harm us.

Vital exhaustion:  You become numb by the demands of others.

Dedicate ourselves to the best outcome.  Detach from the outcome.  When hope is not possible, just show up.

Studies show that compassion is healthy for us.  It changes our physiology.  Not actualizing our compassion compromises our health and humanity.”

Roshi Joan Halifax

 

 

One Response to “More on Real Love and Compassion”

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>