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**Dwemadayday** · 08-15-2012, 04:44 PM

I was looking at this short article by Sharon Salzburg this morning and then thought I'd post it here to see if anyone had any comments.

Fierce Compassion

I've spent quite a bit of my life as a meditation teacher and writer commending the strengths of love and compassion. So many times people have approached me and said something along the lines of, "I don't know about developing greater love and compassion. Surely that will consign me to only saying 'yes'/ refusing to take a stand/ letting other people be treated unjustly/ being a wimp."

I think these views to some extent are a cultural legacy, the degradation of love to sentimentality and compassion to a root cause of fatigue. It is sometimes difficult to view compassion and loving kindness as the strengths they are. They are viewed too often as secondary virtues at best in our competitive culture ("If you can't be brave or brilliant or wonderful, then you might as well be kind"). But compassion does not imply ducking our responsibilities or shirking our power. Compassion, instead, is a potent tool for transformation since it requires us to step outside of our conditioned response patterns.

Ordinarily, we're so preoccupied with ourselves and defended against the "Other" that we feel continuously threatened and anxious. We forget how connected we actually are and it is this perceived division that creates antipathy and alienation. This limited perspective prompts responses that are less creative with fewer possibilities for happiness.

My friend, Cheri Maples, used this wisdom to help move her own community forward when she was a police officer. Cheri saw that when offenders were exposed to the extended consequences of their actions, their us-vs.-them behavior could shift. When a petty thief was told that because he ripped off a certain gas station, the kid who worked there couldn't support his sister, who could no longer make the rent and ended up on the street, this information shifted the boy's sense of what interconnection actually means.

continued at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharon...b_1775414.html

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08-15-2012, 04:44 PM	#1
Dwemadayday Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 449 Senior Member	Fierce Compassion I was looking at this short article by Sharon Salzburg this morning and then thought I'd post it here to see if anyone had any comments. Fierce Compassion I've spent quite a bit of my life as a meditation teacher and writer commending the strengths of love and compassion. So many times people have approached me and said something along the lines of, "I don't know about developing greater love and compassion. Surely that will consign me to only saying 'yes'/ refusing to take a stand/ letting other people be treated unjustly/ being a wimp." I think these views to some extent are a cultural legacy, the degradation of love to sentimentality and compassion to a root cause of fatigue. It is sometimes difficult to view compassion and loving kindness as the strengths they are. They are viewed too often as secondary virtues at best in our competitive culture ("If you can't be brave or brilliant or wonderful, then you might as well be kind"). But compassion does not imply ducking our responsibilities or shirking our power. Compassion, instead, is a potent tool for transformation since it requires us to step outside of our conditioned response patterns. Ordinarily, we're so preoccupied with ourselves and defended against the "Other" that we feel continuously threatened and anxious. We forget how connected we actually are and it is this perceived division that creates antipathy and alienation. This limited perspective prompts responses that are less creative with fewer possibilities for happiness. My friend, Cheri Maples, used this wisdom to help move her own community forward when she was a police officer. Cheri saw that when offenders were exposed to the extended consequences of their actions, their us-vs.-them behavior could shift. When a petty thief was told that because he ripped off a certain gas station, the kid who worked there couldn't support his sister, who could no longer make the rent and ended up on the street, this information shifted the boy's sense of what interconnection actually means. continued at the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharon...b_1775414.html .
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