If everything that exists is energy and that energy we call God, is love.
Love is loving kindness & compassion.
...
Take the test and find out.
Compassion quiz http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/9/
In case someone has difficulty reading the young lady's shirt, the quote is: "When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow." - Anais Nin
What is compassion?
The dictionary says that compassion is the feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble, etc. Sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.
The following is from a web page titled "For the Greater Good" which gives greater insight. It says,
Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.
Related concepts;
Empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help.
Altruism is the kind, selfless behavior often prompted by feelings of compassion, though one can feel compassion without acting on it, and altruism isn’t always motivated by compassion.
When we feel compassion, our heart rate slows down, we secrete the “bonding hormone” oxytocin, and regions of the brain linked to empathy, care giving, and feelings of pleasure light up, which often results in our wanting to approach and care for other people.
Why do we deem empathy as a curse?
Why is war, and disease such as cancer (self hatred) & heart disease (fear) so epidemic world wide if we say we "love" each other and are "compassionate" towards others?
Why do we hurt others?
Emotions are a part of us, but compassion must be taught.
Could it be due to a lack of compassion?
Very interesting videos on compassion;
Paul Ekman: The Roots of Empathy and Compassion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AgvKJK-nrk
Paul Ekman: Darwin and the Dalai Lama, United by Compassion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qo64DkQsRQ
Paul Ekman: Compassion vs. Emotions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdlgGBehZVw&feature=youtu.be
Paul Ekman: Heroic Compassion & Altruism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_rGtM4oonw
Paul Ekman: The Roots of Empathy and Compassion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AgvKJK-nrk
Paul Ekman: Global Compassion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLu9K_55N9Q
Often times we don't recognize the fact that we are living in the past. We fight to get what we want and never quite make it there because we are unknowingly asking for that which we don't want and we don't even know it.
It works just like it does when we "pray FOR rain" that is hard enough to get, even though we all know what it looks, feels, smells, tastes, and sounds like.
The trouble with self love, loving kindness and compassion, we have to be taught and if we were not taught and most folks haven't, we have to guess what it is we want until we get it. And often times we get the wrong things because we don't know we are asking for the wrong thing.
We go "looking FOR love" and we ask for and get lonelyness, rejection, we lose the ones we think we want and we feel envy because it appears like others have what we don't and it hurts a lot. So instead of using the Law of Attracion in our favor, we commit sins (any act doen without love.) but how can we do any better when we don't know any better?
We are here to learn, how else does a soul come to understand what love is unless we experiance what love is not?
In healing others,
you heal yourself.
Emotions come instinctually.
Compassion must be taught.
Why Practice Compassion?
· Compassion makes us feel good as it activates pleasure and reward circuits in the brain, and leads to lasting increases in self-reported happiness.
· Being compassionate can reduce risk of heart disease by slowing our heart rate.
· It makes people more resilient to stress thus strengthens the immune response.
· Compassionate people’s minds wander less about what has gone wrong in their lives, or might go wrong in the future; as a result, they’re happier.
· Compassion helps make caring parents and is known to support and other care giving behaviors.
· Compassion helps make better spouses and friends who are more optimistic and supportive with greater satisfaction and growth in the relationship.
· Feeling compassion for one person makes us less vindictive toward others.
· Restraining feelings of compassion chips away at our commitment to moral principles.
· Employees who receive compassion in the work place see themselves, their co-workers, and their organization in a more positive light, and are contentment and committed to their jobs.
· More compassionate societies where people perform more acts of kindness are the happier ones.
· Compassionate people are more socially adept, making them less vulnerable to loneliness; loneliness has been shown to cause stress and harm the immune system. Loneliness causes depression.
Since compassion isn’t something you’re born with
it must be strengthened through exercises and practice.
How to Cultivate Compassion.
· Look for commonalities: Seeing yourself as similar to others increases feelings of compassion. Something as simple as tapping your fingers to the same rhythm as a stranger increases compassionate behavior.
· Calm your inner worrier: The practice of mindfulness can help us feel safer and facilitate compassion. Where as worrying “What if this happens to me?” will block compassion.
· Encourage cooperation, not competition, A “Community Game” led players to cooperate and share a reward evenly; Where as a “Wall Street Game” made the players more cutthroat and less honest. Promote cooperative learning.
· See people as individuals: An appeal for food to feed A PERSON gets a response where as, statistics on starvation will not, even when those statistics were combined with that person’s story, because we know we can help one, but we can’t do anything about everyone in need. We are capable of making a difference,
· Don’t play the blame game: When we blame others for their misfortune, we feel less tenderness and concern toward them.
· It feels good to practice compassion and engaging in compassionate action as bolsters brain activity in areas that signal reward.
· Compassion is contagious, lead by example.
· Curb inequality: when we feel a greater than others we feel less compassion.
· Don’t be a sponge: be receptive to other people’s feelings without adopting those feelings as your own.
For more on the subject of Compassion
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/compassion/definition
EVERYTHING is connected, literally, physically and spiritually connected.
Everything leaves no-thing out, not even you.
