About love and compassion, mercy and understanding

Many times, while reading the news, the conclusion is that our world has turned into a very dry place…

So, would you try to use a bit of water of love? Just give other people something: a smile, a kind word or an object wrapped with good intentions.

Maybe a bit more water: the water of compassion. Embrace the other one – it could be physically or spread your warmth around the other person, telling them I am here for you.

More and more water… this time the water of mercy. Like a nurse, help others in their healing, by tirelessly offer them something special – maybe your role as mother, your capacity as an engineer or your ears as a friend.

But it is the last water that will make all your effort fruitful: the water of understanding. With understanding, forgive and open new doors of opportunity for people; with understanding, change the best you can and help others in their own change, and with understanding, help the world.

8 asana of the heart - when love means COMPASSION

With a friend of mine, we got into a very friendly argument in relation to the difference between mercy and COMPASSION.

The word compassion is very specific as it comes from Latin and it could be translated as concern for others' suffering. That means whenever others are suffering (passion), a compassionate person will feel for them and will embrace them.

The best example I have heard and I am sure you too have heard is Mother Theresa of Calcutta, the one whose life was of pure compassion. Even though she was not an expert of the field of compassion she has chosen, which was related to health, her mission in life was to shelter all those nobody wanted to help. In fact, she literally embraced people with leprosy and other kinds of ailments, without taking into account her own health.

OK, maybe you don’t want to get into that extreme, but think of compassion as the love that washes others' suffering. Maybe the reason for that suffering is still going on, but the person will feel that healing love within their mind.

An image I use for compassion is a waterfall. By being brought up in Brazil, I used to go to many waterfalls in different parts of the country and the sensation was not only good, but it was as if I was been cleansed.

Now, imagine a waterfall of love, falling upon you and others. A waterfall of love that heals and comforts the soul, helping others to feel hope again and to expect a positive outcome even when all looks bleak or terrible.

The argument I had with my friend was not really finalized, but I think there is a point in common: with our love we can heal.

So, just change the shape of your heart, let your love flow in such a way that others feel relief from their inner pain. It can be done by sending them vibrations or by listening to them and make them feel they are important.

Or it can be just by you remembering their birthday and telling them that no matter what they are, you love them...

 

This post is part of a series called 8 asana of the heart.

I recommend you to watch 8 postures of the heart.

Healing within

One thing I remember very well about my childhood: my bleeding knees… Yes, I used to run and fall a lot! After some time, it would create a dark skin over the wound, particularly after applying some type of painful medicine. Eventually, the skin would have gone, again more bleeding and at last I would look at my knee and see it completely healthy, ready for another run, another fall…

One day, my fall was bigger than the normal: I was practicing judo and I’ve broken my arm. My master, perhaps afraid of consequences, decided to deal with it and the results were horrible; I still have to make effort to touch my right shoulder with my right hand!

And there are wounds that seem to never leave you alone – I still wear glasses for reading, an outcome from bad reading habits.

But these are all physical and visible – or at least they can be felt. However, as humans, we accumulate many invisible internal wounds. Most will be healed in time, others will leave sequels and a few will lay unsolved.

Learning from the physical world may help us healing internally:

• We should be careful about not hurting ourselves due to the same circumstances over and over again. To practice introversion, to sustain an inner dialogue and to meditate will help us to prevent that.
• And if after talking with the self, we are still stumbling on the same stone, maybe we can go and look for someone who will help with that.
• Some wounds are too deep or too big to be ignored and they threaten to maim the soul. Patience and perseverance in healing by applying several techniques will help dealing with them.
• Let’s overuse kindness, compassion, mercy and forgiveness, particularly with the self.
• Some wounds seem to integrate themselves in our personality, changing the way we are not for the best. A therapy may help us to change ourselves back to a healthy being.
• Adopting a spiritual path will definitely help us to deal and to manage those wounds with which we will have to live.

Mercy, compassion and pity, and the art of serving

Our feelings for others matter. They have been the material with which we build bridges and are able to communicate with other people, creating this extremely powerful and yet fragile thing called society.

If we look into the past, we can't find terms like "customer service"... There was no customer service two centuries ago because there were no real customers. There were people, and the service was given to people.

Nowadays, when we see an organization that treats others as people, with respect and consideration, intelligence and gentleness, this is the result of a powerful feeling: mercy.

Yes, customer service is based on mercy. A company with mercy for a client whose luggage were damaged in a flight, who missed a flight because the company decided to depart early or simply a client with bad luck who lost their wallet somewhere, this organization is not simply fulfilling an offered product or making publicity; this company has mercy on people.

Because no matter how big we are, we serve people. Whether we sell fruits in a corner or we are part of a huge multinational, still we serve people. And mercy is a feeling of respect for others, for all their energy used to buy our products or to use whatever we offer them to use.

Mercy is not compassion. Compassion means going there and healing the person and that is not everyone's task. Those whose task needs compassion - doctors, nurses, mothers - cannot forget compassion is the basis of their lives and it can never be missing there.

But a few people would accept pity from others. No matter how bad is their shape, pity is not an option as it is depleted of respect.

Perhaps our brothers and sisters of the world are in a real bad shape and sometimes, we have to extend our hands and give something extra. Still, we don't need pity to do that. We can do out of compassion, a deep sense of compassion, going beyond mercy and with the clear knowledge that person is capable and soon will be walking by themselves. It is a feeling like a doctor or nurse has, who knows their patient one day will be out there, healed.

Next time you have to serve someone, open your heart and just let those feelings emerge, and watch for the outcome.