Monday, 9 May 2011

a Moment for Wisdom…

DAILY WISDOM:

“Compassion, as personified by great souls throughout history, is neither pity nor sympathy. Nor is it empathy or kindness.

It is love… driven by understanding.  It is without precondition or expectation. It dwells in detachment. It alone has changed the course of human history.

As it still does.”

Vijay Eswaran

Personal Wisdom:

· Does today’s quote change your view
of “compassion”?

· Do you think of yourself as a compassionate person? Under
what conditions are you compassionate? When do you find it hard to be compassionate?

· How can your compassion “change the
course of human history”?

Societal Wisdom:

· Do you have any experience of a
“compassionate society”?

· Do you feel that your current society is “compassionate”?

a Moment with Sharif…

Greetings;

I first came across Vijay Eswaran’s work when I spent time in Singapore several years ago. I don’t know if his excellent book, “In the Sphere of Silence” is available in the US, but you should try to get a copy.

Reading his words, I pictured an elder monk in robes. Needless to say, I was shocked when I read a newspaper article on him – a 40-something billionaire telecommunications tycoon!

Eswaran’s quote challenges us to a deeper level of compassion… a compassion uprooted
from attachment. It’s easy to be “compassionate” with our family, our friends… that’s really
empathy. It’s easy to be “compassionate” with those who are disadvantaged in some way… that’s really pity. Even when I am practicing to be compassionate with the “Other”, I am still aware that there is a separation between myself and the “Other” – which means it is
not the deepest form of compassion available to me.

Love without understanding is a nice emotion, but cannot be the basis for appropriate
action. Without understanding the circumstances of the “Other”, how can your actions be
appropriate? How can your actions be loving? Without understanding, “loving” alone is like holding hands with someone… when they really need CPR.

When I was a teenager in Camden, NJ, I had a friend who found out that her brother had
become addicted to heroin.  She grabbed her brother, threw him into a closet, locked the door, then stood outside that door for three days, while he begged, pleaded, threatened, promised – said anything to get another heroin fix. She waited the three days it took for the poison to release her brother. Then she took him out, cleaned him up, and promised him she’d do it again if she found that he was back on heroin.

That’s called LOVE… with understanding. That love changed the course of one human’s history. And our willingness to “love out loud” like that, to have our actions motivated by compassionate understanding, will be the force which changes our world.

Peace,

Sharif

Acknowledgments:

All photos by Sharif Abdullah, unless otherwise noted.