“the whole creation groans and travails in pain together” (42)
Compassion, at its root (com + pati), means: to suffer with, to bear with, and to have patience with. Compassion, by necessity, begins with oneself, begins at the core of one’s being and extends outward from here. To be compassionate, we cannot evade our own suffering. We are not to wallow in it and cling to it as professional victims, but we are to recognize our suffering and allow it to live its natural life. The only way out of suffering is through suffering.
“Unless a seed falls into the ground and die, it cannot bear fruit” is an accurate metaphor for our existence. We are like seeds sown into the ground of the universe. Imagine a seed in the dark cold ground. The seed may huddle into itself, not wishing to stir, fearful of the great unknown. It fights against any urge to crack its shell (too painful!). Better to stay with the familiar fears and discomfort than to venture out.
Those who open begin to reach out toward the light, knowing instinctively the direction. Obstacles are met: hard rock, at which the opening seed either stops or continues around or through. While it moves toward the light, the seed also begins exploration of the dark by sending roots down into its depth. Eventually the seed opens into the light and finds that along the way it is no longer a seed. In its journey toward the light, it has transformed.
Like fruitful seeds, we suffer with, bear with, and have patience with our own existence and its unfolding. This is compassion.
Entering and Blending
As we practice the eight qualities, we become aware that there are no “others,” no beings who are separate from us. Life is an unending web of existence. It is impossible to say where “I” stop and “you” begin. (The attempt to do so has brought a proliferation of attorneys with unceasing argumentation that will continue as long as our co-created secondary reality does not mirror primary reality.)
Aware that we are not separate from “others” (whether “they” are called humans or plants or animals or earth or molecules or planets or whatever names we use to designate, to differentiate, to divide and conquer) and opening with compassion for ourselves, we automatically open with compassion for all that is. The whole universe groans with its existence and its unfolding.
But you might want to start small. You might want to have compassion for one other person. Compassion is not pity. Compassion is not misty-eyed romantic sorrow. Compassion requires the use of a certain skill, a certain capability. Compassion requires shape-shifting: the ability to become another, to identify (become identical) with another without losing one’s own center. In martial arts this is known as entering and blending.
Practice of compassion automatically develops our capacity. As we open with compassion, we become roomier. Eventually we have room for the entire universe. As we practice compassion, we lose the concretization of our selves. We become transparent (diaphanous, to use Jean Gebser’s term).(43)
Practice of compassion requires fearlessness, refusing to submit to fear. Fearlessness comes from living in primary reality, from having insight into the nature of the universe. We enter into right relationship with all that is. We enter and blend.
Attention and Interbeing
For comprehension of how compassion can lead to an energetic world of open interbeing, consider the following premises:
When attention is given deeply enough, interbeing reveals itself. Interbeing is a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh to point to the interrelationship of all things. Similar concepts are Indra’s Net, wyrd, and the great holoarchy. The point is, the in depth study or deep participation in any field of interest eventually allows one to discern a vast network of interconnection. One may start one’s study as a particle; one ends as a wave.
Any field of study allows the giving of deep attention. Whatever our field of interest (science, music, sports, romance, politics ecology, etc.), we can give it our deep attention. This means more, much more, than “making a living” in the field of interest. This means that our attending is so deep that we become the field of interest.
For example, the field of martial art study allows the giving of deep attention. Instead of stopping short and merely learning techniques for defending oneself, the true martial artist embodies the principles of the martial arts revealed through the giving of deep attention.. Interbeing reveals itself. Persons encountering each other are having a conversation. Like all conversations, martial encounter takes place primarily in the nonverbal realm. What is spoken matters less than how it is spoken. Martial art or warrior principles are relationship principles and relationship principles are interbeing principles.
When attention is given deeply enough, one merges with interbeing. Continued identification of self as a separate particle gives way to the realization that all is interbeing, that one is not the center of the universe, that one is a center of the universe, that all other humans are each a center of the universe, that separation does not exist, that all is continuously interconnecting. One relaxes and merges with interbeing, while maintaining one’s unique center.
Appreciation
Though one might think of the essence of the way of the martial artist as arrogant destructiveness with total disregard for life and for others, the opposite is true. The nature of the universe is such that the most effective way to deal with aggression is through blending with (having lovingkindness for) those who appear to be the enemy. This is the way of Jesus, of Gandhi, of Martin Luther King, of the Dalai Lama, of Thich Nhat Hahn. This is the way of the highest form of the martial arts. The essence of the martial arts is selfless creative harmonious blending with what is. (44)
This necessity for appreciating one’s “enemy” is in accord with the way the universe works. We are physiologically “wired” for opening to all beings with lovingkindness. A large body of research has shown that appreciation (holding something as precious) produces positive changes within a few minutes in one’s heart rate, brain rhythms, and immune functions.(45) Feeling appreciation in the area of one’s heart produces positive physiological change.
Impedance of Compassion
A centuries-old synonym for compassion is “unimpededness.” To be compassionate means to exist in clear openness with no blocks, no obscurations, no thing present to impede the natural flowing of the clear light of awareness.
We humans appear to habituate to three major categories of impededness, of inner obscuration, of blocks that disallow compassion. These blocks, which we so assiduously cultivate, serve to reduce us to an inner world of judgmental turmoil. We grow accustomed to this self-induced reduction and come to regard it as “normal.”
Our three major favorite blocks are Wanting, Not Wanting, and Stupor. I want what I do not have and I cling desperately and with great desire to this wanting. I do not want what I have and I do not want some imaginary possibilities so I exist in perpetual irritation, even hostility. I prefer to remain ignore-ant of some things so I keep myself in a state of stupor.
In addition to the three major blockings, we also cling to three concepts which blind us to a larger reality. The embodying of these three concepts is not only socially approved, but actively encouraged by most of human society. The three blinding concepts are I, Me, and Mine. [I am the only one; it’s all about me; I’ll attack you if you bother what is mine.]
While the three blocks appear to have a place when coming from the survivor mentality of the “lower” or reptilian brain, and the three concepts appear to have a place when coming from close identification of “self” with the rooftop chatter of the cerebral cortex, perhaps the time has come for a less impeded awareness and an opening to a sense of self much larger than the one we usually entertain.
Giving and Receiving
A practice of great compassion is, while talking with someone who is suffering (emotionally, spiritually, physically), to deliberately and calmly use your breath to receive their pain. Envision their suffering coming into the vastness of your being with your inhalations and disappearing into the fertile void of great capacity. As you exhale, breathe lovingkindness into them. See them surrounded and infused with calm clear healing energy, with healing light.
During times of meditation or prayer, you might do this for your own being, for others you know, for all life on earth (including humans), for the planet, for the universe. Breathe in all the suffering. Breathe out blessings and lovingkindness.(46)
You may not be able to do this exercise unless you are practiced in the embodying of the Weapon of Great Capacity (see Part Six).
Your Compassion Practice
We are led to believe that we are to love ourselves before we can love others. To some extent, this is true. If carried too far, we get stuck within a smaller version of ourselves. When we realize the reality of interbeing, that everything rises and falls together, that life is one continuous ebb and flow, that each of us is the universe embodying, we can give ourselves permission to love “others” first, to extend lovingkindness to all we meet.
How do you embody compassion in your daily life? What form does your practice of lovingkindness take? What do you hold precious, show appreciation for? Do you enter and blend with people and situations while mindfully maintaining your center? Do you leave a wake of gentleness and healing as you navigate the day? Are you compassionate only to strangers? Are you compassionate only with friends?
What is your compassion practice, O Warrior of Spirit?
