Experiencing Compassion

I came across a discussion of Compassion in the book Zen Soup by Laurence G. Boldt. I decided to share it with you so we can contemplate these concepts together.

"Compassion is not sentimentality. It is not about being nice, polite, or pleasing. Indeed, compassion may often take on a wrathful form or manifest itself in a tough love. There can be no compassion without widsom and no true wisdom without compassion.

Genuine compassion arises with the realization of identity. When we experience the sufferings of others as our own and respond in love, we are acting from compassion. Compassionate acts come in all shapes and sizes. It's not the size or scope of the action but the motive that counts."

Mahatma Gandhi stateds this concept in another, poetic manner:

"My life is an indivisible whole, and all my acitivites run into one another; and they have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind."

In what way are you experiencing true compassion? How do you express the integrity of the connection between your true nature and your personality, and between your self and others? What can you do differently to bring yourself even closer to experiencing the compassion described by these two sources?

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