The lost art of compasion

Good morning. Wow what a sleep. very very heavy!

I've been reading a lot as of late. Books that I've never really enjoyed before now. Spiritual self help books. The other day I spent a lot of time in indigo books reading book after book in order to find the perfect one for me in that present moment. I FOUND ONE.

It was as if it just popped out of the shelf and called my name. The Lost Art of Compassion. Such a wonderful book full of so much information. It joins the western psychology with tibetan buddhism. If you were to read this book. Which I suggest you do, you would read about such things as Compassionate vision, cultivating compassion, which talk about things like, mourning the living and ourselves. It also shows us how to overcome our fears of such things as death by recognizing that each day is a new day where we didn't die in our sleep. It allows us to lose a part of what could be called our ego because we learn our impermanence.

"In the moments when we think about how we may die today, we are letting go of the fears that hide near the core of the ego. Recall that our calcifications were born of overwhelming fear in childhood. Ordinarily, we live with an underlying sense of fear that has been part of the ego since it began. By consciously breaking through our rocky illusions of solid permanence, we start each day by facing our fears and resolving to live fearlessly. Ordinarily we live driven by compulsive desires, but here we resolve to live consciously with awareness and compassion. Ordinarily, we live our days with an unconscious belief that we're permanent, in control, and terribly important. Here, we begin the day with an awareness that we're a fragile piece of an ever-changing network of interdependent relationships. We begin the day by letting go of rigidity and desire, opening ourselves up to life, to intimacy, and to love...As the momentum of your positive awareness grows, you may find yourself starting to wake up some days like Scrooge on Christmas morning after his dream-vision of his own death, when he clasped his own chest, shouted with joy at finding himself alive, and leaped up from bed to begin sharing all that he had and all that he was with others...If we spend time engaging in these exercises, facing our own impermanence, then such recognition will dawn more and more, and we'll find ourselves approaching each day with compassionate vitality."

"The practice of cultivating a mind that is free from attachment, aversion, and indifference, particularly in relation to other people, is sometimes described as developing equanimity or even-mindedness. Some people mistakenly assume that developing equanimity means becoming indifferent toward everything. They think that even-mindedness entails not caring about anything, but this is totally wrong. Even-mindedness means being free from indifference as well as from attachment and aversion. Even-mindedness means that you can help another person cross the river without becoming attached to that person; it means that you care about everything..."

"Once you've looked at an issue in your life and analyzed just what self-centered dynamic is causing you suffering, the next step is to change things. Changing old habits always takes some sustained effort. So it's important that you've done the earlier steps well, analyzing the issue so that you deeply understand why change is worth the effort. Once your motivation is firm, any old pattern can be changed. Old habits gain their momentum because we've thought, felt, and behaved that way over and over in the past. Such patterns are not inherent parts of us; they CAN be changed. Once we've gotten started, each bit of effort that we put into changing gives momentum to a new and healthier pattern.."

I have not yet finished the book. But I was able to flip through and find that it is a very inspirational piece of work. Something that I am excited to finish reading. The very fact that I myself have lost the art of Compassion is a terrible thought, but I know through reading this book that it is possible. It also shares with us that we will not be able to snap out of it right away. It may take years, but by working one day at a time we should be able to reset our ways, which are heavily cemented in our brains creating unconscious patterns.

Oh my GOODNESS.

I do love this book. I suggest you read it.