Compassion

Given time, I would verify the validity of the below quotes by trying to find more reliable sources for them than the Web. But (fellow scholars reading this forgive me!) whether or not they are exact and authentic is secondary to their message for the purpose of this blog entry.

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." (Albert Einstein)


"As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery...we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness." (Dalai Lama)


I'm experiencing compassion in a new way. On a few occasionss recently, different friends have confided in me about some very difficult things that they're each going through. Where once I would have calculated my response at some level, would have had a knee-jerk reaction not to share their emotion but to second-guess my own behavior in response to them, where once I would have been analytical, or at the least, detached in my response to their bad news - I felt (what a verb - felt!) instead an almost immediate and instinctive sense of empathy. My heart went out to them. I cried without thinking, and only later wondered at the change in my behavior.

Maybe I'm starting to get it.

In the meantime, maybe I can practice some compassion on myself.