We'd like to think of ourselves as compassionate, but the reality is that there are times when other emotions take over. Anger, outrage, fear, and other negativities arise in our day-to-day experiences. When that happens, we can create a safe space for ourselves by taking refuge. That means we carve out a mental and spiritual shelter where we can let the storms of our emotions safely pass.
Shri Krishna Sharanam Mama is a mantra that means "I take refuge in Krishna, and Krishna is the perfect representation of love and compassion". When we chant this mantra, we allow ourselves to pause, so that we do not react from a place of negativity. We let the negativities arise and pass, arise and pass, arise and pass, however long the process is, however cyclical the patterns are, until we arrive at that place where we are safe from our anger and we are at peace in our deepest and most innate compassion. In yoga asana, there is a pose called kurmasana or tortoise pose. We can draw inspiration from this animal. A tortoise is someone who carries his or her home within him or her. And that is what we practice too-- to find that home, to create shelter, to be safe within ourselves. While it is valuable to have the support of other people, the sanctuary within ourselves through love and compassion is the greatest tool that we have. And if we find that chanting is not the path to our shelter, we can try other practices like breathing exercises or yoga asana or meditation. We take refuge in love and compassion. No matter how chaotic the world becomes or seemingly out-of-control our emotions feel, we can find shelter, a safe space, a place to come home to again and again.
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If I were to ask you to make a list of people you love and care about and whom you would defend and make sacrifices for, it would likely be easy for you to come up with this list. If I ask you to write a second list, this time of people who you don't like or push your buttons or you don't care much about, it would be likely that you can also easily come up with such a list. Consider for a moment, though, that those who are on the second list may be on other people's first list. Given that, doesn't it show that whom we care about is based on our own arbitrary standards and not on the inherent value of those beings? Given that, doesn't it say something about the falsity and misguidedness of our perceptions?
The focus of the month is compassion, and compassion is but the golden rule. Do unto others what you wish would be done unto you. It does not set conditions or segregate by lists or qualify by certain criteria. Do unto others-- all others. To practice compassion then means that we have to let go of the divide that exists in our hearts of who deserves care and consideration. To practice compassion then means that we have to let go of the idea that there are two or more lists or groups, and we treat one group differently from the other. All war ever waged in history is because of this division, this mentality that one group is more important than the other. The only way we can stop external violence is to start to build compassion internally, to be guided by an internal compass of connectedness. When we decide that we will no longer live with different standards for different beings, that we will no longer discriminate and hate, that we will no longer pick and choose who deserves care and understanding, then the seed of compassion will inevitably grow. We then respect the golden rule-- do unto others-- and embrace it completely and unconditionally. Parts of the essay below is based on a talk by Joan Halifax.
In Buddhism, there is a goddess of compassion named Quan Yin. Quan means to perceive and yin means sound. Quan yin is said to perceive the cries of the suffering in the world. But this goddess does not only hear everything, she is also depicted with 10,000 arms. In each hand is a tool for liberation. Quan Yin is a bodhisattva or an enlightened being, and even though we are not enlightened yet, that same compassion resides within each and every one of us. We have the faculties to perceive the suffering of others, and more than that, we have the tools necessary to alleviate this suffering. It may seem as though we do not have the 10,000 hands to do it, but we have two. There is something each and every one of us is good at, or has the resources to do, or has the skill to implement, etc. Compassion, as symbolized by Quan Yin, is not merely to empathize but also to be driven to act based on this empathy. And it means that we have to have a strong back and soft front to thread this path of compassion. We must have the strength to uphold ourselves, and an openness to receive undefeated the world as it is. Not being enlightened is not an excuse to shut off from compassion. In Jivamukti yoga, we say that it is through compassion that we find enlightenment. In practical terms, it means we allow ourselves to feel the suffering of others in our heart, and we do something about it. When I think of universal compassion, I am brought back to the amazing month I spent at Jivamukti Teacher Training where one incident for me showed the complete expression of compassion.
We had just finished watching Earthlings, a documentary that exposes how we as a society exploit animals, and the floor was open for anyone who would like to speak or share their thoughts in any way. My classmate Catherine went up, and she said it wasn't the first time she saw the documentary. However, whereas in the past she only saw the animals being mistreated and slaughtered, this time she also saw the people who were committing those acts of violence towards the innocent animals. Trembling and in tears, she shared with us how she coped with each violent image that was projected on the screen. She would see the animals being treated violently, and she would chant Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu; she would think of the people who were committing these acts of violence, and she would chant Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. Scene by scene, this was how she coped. Scene by scene, her compassion unraveled. To me, her inclusion even of those whom we perceive as committing great atrocities is what compassion is about. The wisdom of compassion is not merely to see what is readily in front us, but to see so deeply, so piercingly, that we're able to see the whole picture, to put ourselves in the position of both the victim and the perpetrator, and to understand the suffering of both. Compassion is not just a feeling, although it may arise from a feeling. Compassion is pro-active in that it seeks to understand why things are so and why people act in certain ways. Compassion is to understand how much of our collective pain is invisible or channeled as anger or hurtful actions. Compassion is complete and unconditional. It does not in any way mean that we condone injustices or violence. It does mean, however, that we see others beyond their actions. We see so deeply, so openly, so piercingly, that we understand that what all of us ever want is to be happy, including those and especially those whose actions hurt others. Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. The guru beyond the beyond is the remover of darkness beyond name or form. It is our idea of God, the way the universe speaks to us, the way in which the cosmic truth that is bigger than us is manifested.
In the documentary Awake, it is said that "It's not that God is dead, it's that we need to reconceptualize the Divine." Many questions may arise when we think of this Divine: Who is God? Is he or she knowable? Is this force so far away from us that we can merely intellectualize it but not experience it? Is he or she this person up in the sky watching us and waiting to reward or punish us? For me, even if the totality of the Divine seems unknowable, there are parts that are knowable, if we are open to seeing it in unlikely places, places we've been told not to look, places we've been conditioned to think has nothing to do with God. We look for this Divine that seems out there in here, within us. Often, science and spirituality are believed to be separate, perhaps even contradicting, but not to me. When I learned from Cosmos that with every breath we take, we breathe in as many molecules as there are stars in all of the known galaxies, about 100 million molecules that came from those who ever lived before us, I found that not just to be a fascinating scientific fact but also a highly spiritual phenomenon. With every breath we exhale, it is also said that those molecules are circulated through the air, across continents, for others to breathe in. We are connected with the very air that we breathe, and that makes me think that the guru beyond the beyond may be invisible to us, but it is also closer than we think. Each person has a different relationship or perception of the guru beyond the beyond. This God has many forms and names, shapes and ways that touch us. All we need to access it is to be open to this force, not to dismiss what it is or is not, and see it manifest outside of our preconceived notions of who or what God is. The Divine is both near and far, removing our veil of misknowing. |
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