On True Compassion and Helping

 

The act of Compassion...which is the balance of the head and the heart...which is the balance of the perfection, and the imperfection; of the pain and the bliss of seeing the grace, the balance of all that is compassion. And compassion is looking out at the universe and being and allowing people to suffer in the way they choose without judging their suffering...and being available [to help] alleviate the suffering people wish to alleviate ....but not the suffering you are projecting into them.

This hit home today when I was contemplating how to best help those around me who are suffering. There is so much suffering in Life...it is an integral part of the human experience. We can get lost or close down in reponse to this suffering. I have closed down so much at times. Other times I seem to drown in this sense of helplessness that comes from not being able to do enough about it. 

This helps put it all into perspective:

And you have to look around you and see that you are looking at a complete bell shaped curve of evolution all around you, and that some people have different work to do than others. And it is not better or worse...It is just different. And they ahve different work to do.

All you can do for another human being is create an environment. No matter what act you do in relation to them, you create an environment in which they can get free if they choose to get free. And if they don't, you don't lay a trip on them. You can't force people to become free. 

I especially feel hopeless in my own parenting. This was what I needed to hear.:

So like...with a mother and child, you mother, and you nurture, and you protect and you do all that and you are the epitome of motherness in the impeccable warrior sense but you are resting in that place behind all that...a place where there is no mother and there is no child...so if the child would come up for air, you are right there...becausee you have recognized that we are in the world but not of the world.

I am getting there. Grateful for this gentle reminder from Ram Dass.

All is well.

Baba Ram Dass (2024) Ram Dass- Our Salvation Lies in Our Intuition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sTFhmRZCko