What do you think compassion is?

I woke up this morning quickly glancing at my Facebook page and was struck with how many posts used the word compassion,suggesting that we all become these serene compassionate generous beings.I began wondering what they all really meant.I think compassion has become the new Mc Donald's,it is literally on every street corner,every home page,every blog including my own.I am kind of sick of the cavalier ,generic,unhelpful usage of the word,so I have decided to ask you who may come onto my blogspot ,"what does compassion mean to you".I will start by saying something about what it means to me.For one thing,since childhood I have daily been beseeched even in adulthood ,by my mother to be nice,to be kind,to rise to the occasion,to repay evil with kindness,to never retaliate,to have pity,to be generous,to see the other's point of view.I guess my mother was preparing me to become an angel or a saint even before I had a chance to be a person.Entering the world of angels without being a person for a while is a great disadvantage in the career of angels.To be a worthy angel, one needs to roll around in the muck and mud a lot to feel and experience the life of personhood in order to eventually do any good.Doesn't she know that,I guess not, maybe she has not had the correct angel training herself.
So,my idea of compassion is the acknowledgement that basically we are all no different from one another in our capacity for good or evil ,it is a mat ter of circumstance often that propels us to do good or evil.Saying that, I also acknowledge that in many ways we are hugely different from one another in basic ways such; as intelligence,personal appearance,ability to tolerate pain or frustration, the capacity for motivation,creativity,problem solving, how much love and care we received as children,how much love and care we individually need.I think compassion acknowledges our uniqueness and our differences and in light of that what is realistically possible for a human being to be and accomplish in a lifetime.Compassion is about knowing,recognizing and forgiving ourselves for our expansive vastness and our claustrophobic limitations.Compassion is our knowing that based on individual endowments we have different abilities.Those endowments are mostly not our choice,so instead of comparing and criticizing,perhaps it is wiser to have a broader point of view and we can share our strengths rather than hoard them for ourselves.I I invite you ask, to share what the word "compassion " means to you...





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