The Convoluted Road to Compassion

My book Engaging Compassion Through Intent and Action is based upon the premise that suffering exists and we as humans feel compelled to alleviate that suffering.  We get busy and miss opportunities to be compassionate.  Right?  Well, in part.

Over the past seven months I have facilitated Compassion Conversations and discovered a more convoluted road to Compassion.  While it is true that we are busy and miss opportunities to share, a multitude of other reasons exist as to why we aren’t compassionate.  Some people don’t set their intent to be compassionate.  Others honestly told me that, at times, they are too selfish to be compassionate to others.  According to another group of people, there exists a group of people who just don’t deserve compassion.

Initially the barriers that prevent us from being compassionate surprised me.  Then abashedly upon reflection, I discovered some of those same reasons in me.  Returning to my original thought — we get busy and life gets in the way, I realize that that pesky thing called “life getting in the way” is in reality “us getting in the way of Compassion’s Spirit.”  We get in the way our authentic self — our connection to Compassion.

How do we get out of the way of Compassion’s Spirit?  It is an ongoing struggle.  I mentally list the many reasons I don’t need to be compassionate when someone has hurt me or when I am judging another for their actions.  I am mired in my own suffering until I stop, take a breath, and ask myself one simple question, “What part of this is compassionate?”

Sometimes that question is enough to push me out of my own hurt and frustration.  If not, I ask myself another question, “How would you want someone to respond to you?”  That question usually opens the floodgate and compassion rushes out. 

Regardless of the reasons that hinder Compassion’s Spirit in each of us, I still believe that at the core of our being is a bright spark of compassion.  But, life has a way of packing dirt around it and obscuring the twinkle.  The light doesn’t go out; it is still there masked by all that grunge.  

Only when we finally power through the illusion that compassion is a reward, do we find that no matter how much grunge, our spark of compassion is not diminished.  Rather, it is waiting patiently for the moment that we wake up and realize that compassion is bigger and bolder than our smaller self.

Showering Sparkley’s of Compassion’s Spirit,

Vanessa Hurst

www.intentandaction.com