08/01/2025
According to Buddihsm, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive. It’s not empathy alone–but rather an empathic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. **Genuine compassion must have wisdom and loving kindness.** That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (wisdom), and one must experience deep empathy with other sentient beings (this is loving kindness).
–The Dalai Lama, Essence of the Heart Sutra
WISDOM: The nature of suffering from which we wish to free others– What does that look like?
The places we get stuck in our shame, hurt, need to blame (ourselves or others), our narratives that need to find fault (ourselves or others), our childhood strategies, our activated parts that come on line when we get triggered. Wisdom is understanding this–the suffering of the human condition, and realizing we are all in this together.
With perspective it helps us take our stuck places less seriously.
In Mindfulness we learn that we can turn towards and zoom in to the pain that shows up as stuck energy in our bodies (emotional or physical); OR we can zoom out, to a much bigger picture. When pain is overwhelming, it can be immensely helpful to shift to a wide angle lens to gain perspective. To see that we’re all in this together. From this vantage we can release grasping, hold on loosely, and reclaim Self energy.
LOVING KINDNESS: Deep empathy with other sentient beings, people as well as animals, plants, Mother Earth, All of life.
Empathy paired with compassion lifts us up, helps us understand other’s pain without having to be stuck IN the pain. Compassion helps us hold it loosely, lovingly. Compassion opens and expands our hearts, until it feels like not just our heart, but the place in which all hearts connect.
Compassion, as practiced in Tonglen, invites us to breathe the pain in, to wish that we may absorb the pain in our expasive heart, transmuting the pain through the courage of our compassion.
Our meditation practice—
Heart Opening Practice: working with the wisdom of the heart.
Awakening the heart center—
*Breathing into and out from your heart.
**Cleansing breath–rejuvenating and regenerating. Light & expansion with the in breath, gentle cleansing and release with the outbreath.
*Inviting / invoking the heart’s wisdom and understanding (compassion)
*Notice and work with obstacles blocking the compassion of the heart, right here in the present moment…
**Potential obstacles you may notice:
Thinking, perfectionism / getting it right, fear of feeling / overwhelm, old habits of disconnection, other various child survival strategies, etc
*Call on the wisdom of the heart to understand the nature and the function of these blocks one at a time (1 to 3),
**What is its purpose and what is it wanting?
If your not sure, you can ask the block itself and listen for the answer
*As you understand its function, notice the compassion that arises naturally in the form of gratitude, understanding, appreciation, and tenderness.
Sense how the obstacle dissolves through this heart felt connection.
As the obstacles dissolve / are held in the compassion of the heart center, notice how the heart expands.
*Bring compassion and gratitude to your own heart center for its wisdom and understanding. (expansion again)
*Finally, bring awareness to the heaviness you’ve been carrying in your heart–current issues (global warming, human suffering on a variety of topics, inner difficulties, relational difficulties, etc) and use the same process. **Invite the heart's wisdom to support you in understanding the suffering this issue brings through your own experience with suffering.
*From this deep, connected knowing, access the depths of compassion and offering it to those who are suffering, visualizing yoir compassion in any form that feels just right— flowers, bubbles, white doves carrying packages of love, fowing light, rainbow light, oceans of love washing over those in need, etc.
*Notice the expansion of your heart center throughout this practice.
The above are exerpts from our mindfulness group teaching and practice last night. Below are “Take aways” from the group.
In the present moment, I am able to notice suffering and offer kindness through small actions—-this is compassion in action.
The more pain there is, the more compassion is available. The wisdom that comes through my own suffering expands the compassion I am able to access. Grief is Love.
My heart felt like an ocean supporting me in the midst of this suffering, and our connection to each other felt like life rafts. Loving kindness connects and tethers us. There was power in this practice, and one powerful take away is that loving kindness matters in this world. This IS something I can do.
I really liked the questions, What are you guarding your heart from? And what is your heart really feeling? Those helped me access my own wisdom, and claim my own perspective.
Our group will meet again on 8/21 with Jeanine.
❤️❤️❤️
Art: Jane Spakowsky
