Compassion: Beyond Ourselves

Beyond Ourselves

Compassion remembers so that mistakes and pains will hopefully not be repeated. However, the Universe also recognizes that pain is a very effective teacher in the instruction of compassion, since that is how we learn to feel the pain and difficulties of others.

With true compassion, we are driven to envision a world as it should be; as it needs to be because the pain of others brings discomfort to us: We have been in a place of suffering. We recognize that all beings share the same needs of being loved, having certain necessities and comforts, happiness and a place in the world just for them. We learn to think beyond ourselves and lift others up who have fallen to the wayside. Compassion gives us foresight when we truly experience it, since we are enabled to see a wider perspective: We learn to see through the eyes of others and over time, through the eyes of many.

But the Universe also wants life to understand the reality that others know and from that understanding, become better citizens of the greater whole. The knowledge is to learn which borders between things are real and those that are unreal and of the unreal ones, which are necessary or useful deceits. But most importantly which borders are the ones which must be crossed and when to cross them. Sometimes the time to cross is not beneficial to us, but nonetheless must still be crossed. It is in compassion that we gain the power to know this, do it anyway and come out stronger for it. A compassionate heart is a strong one.