Compassion Is A Generous Kindness In Action!
From Rik Center:
Developing a heart of compassion is an essential aspect of mind/heart wisdom.
The Buddha in his discourses and teachings would often say: “What is known should be known. What is helpful and wholesome should be embraced and what is un-wholesome or not helpful to the spiritual life should be let go.”
Mindfulness is observing our full experience of sight, sound, smell, hearing, taste, touch, our emotions, and thoughts. Compassion is wanting to soothe, comfort, and wish well for another and for ourselves. Compassion has an action element, combined with a mindfulness element to know/see how things are. We are acknowledging our experience even if wishing that it wasn’t so.
Compassion is not passive, it is a needed action of witnessing someone and even ourselves with a loving heart: How we choose to respond to what is happening or has happened is what allows for change and transformation. This takes having compassion for us humans, as we know it's not always easy being on this human journey. Self-compassion is kindness vs. self-judgment. Self-compassion increases our shared humanity versus feelings of isolation.
A passage I found online speaks directly to the Buddha's teachings of suffering and non-suffering. Common humanity: Frustration at not having things exactly as we want is often accompanied by an irrational but pervasive sense of isolation – as if “I”, we're the only person suffering or making mistakes. All humans suffer, however. The very definition of being “human” means that one is mortal, vulnerable, and imperfect. Therefore, self-compassion involves recognizing that suffering and personal inadequacy are part of the shared human experience - something that we all go through rather than something that happens to “me” alone.
The importance of self-awareness with kindness is needed for living a human life. When no compassion is available for ourselves or others, we stop developing "heart-mind wisdom." How can anything change personally and in our world if we turn away from cultivating the kindness needed to grow our hearts and minds?
From the Dalai Lama: “If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others.
” Loving-kindness "metta" is the desire for others and ourselves to be happy and well. Compassionate action is wishing for all beings to be free of suffering. It's said that "metta" in the face of suffering becomes compassion.