Compassion

It seems to me that honest compassion requires a high pain tolerance, or perhaps a well developed ability to transmute pain.  Yes, the latter.  And with the latter in place compassion becomes a sort of wind under your wings, which nonetheless must hold their shape and carry you up.

Compassion is vitally important to me, even though I am frequently irritable and judgmental.  In my view compassion is understanding combined with an intent to act, to help alleviate suffering.  If people are fucking up, then you do not help them by understanding and then excusing them.  Compassion is also challenging people who need it, in ways which are appropriate, and which can get through.

Most people are weak, and cannot stand to be criticized without blaming the criticizer, so as a practical matter being very soft, very indirect and very subtle are the best approaches.  I don’t deny this.

What I deny is that people can and should be spared the work of judging, of truth telling, of being as objective as possible even when surrounded by self serving lies.  How can I help you if I accept at face value the lies you are telling yourself?

There is in my view an edginess to honest, deep compassion. Christ did bring a sword.

Personally, I feel deeply the pain of the human condition.  It is at the very root of my sense of self.  I cannot begin to describe the pain which flows through me sometimes.  The best analogy is a whole body electric shock.  But I am figuring out how to add movement to it, how to harness and use it.  This is a good thing.