[Kimmitmelvirm]

Bit of a ramble

Hi dear Cobalt,

No I do not think is a ramble... is the way you have expressed your opinion and it is a good one

Often I really do have trouble truly putting myself in someone else's shoes.

I think it is important to develop some skills so to have an understanding about what, why and how has a person gone through suffering. This understanding, I feel, has to be develop with the discipline of dispassion so to avoid what has pointed out Aloka (#1) where she tells about the useless of "suffering with", which also can feed victimization feelings that do nothing to the development of the Right View about suffeing (Four Noble Truths).
"Suffering with" occurs because the lack of this skill (dispassion) and then we found ourselves ill attached to that suffering. Dispassion can give us a wide understanding about the others suffering so to consider many more elements that are involved and contribute to that suffering. The simple fact of that wide understanding can give us a clear or Right View of what is going on and to avoid an ill attachment ending in "suffering with" and then, if our interest is in helping, that help can be better.

For example, the fear that racial minorities feel when confronted with white supremacy is monstrous on a level that I can only connect symbolically to the fear that I feel when confronted with gross misogyny.

It is important drop out our own cultural conceptions so to "look at" others cultural conceptions with the less possible distortion and, again, get the Right Understanding of what is happening. Again, this can be done with the practice of dispassion, one of the Four Immeasurable. And through that you can reach the other three.

So yeah, there's a lot of suffering that I just don't "get" well enough to be inside those feelings TNH's way. That's just where I am, and that's okay. It shouldn't stop me from making the recognition that what's happening is bad on a level that should cause me concern as a fellow human being.

Just great Cobalt dear...