Xmac
12-7-12, 1:40am
I came across an interesting piece of inspiration (if there is such a thing), that I thought was the epitome of compassion:
I was recently told of an African tribe that does the most beautiful thing.
When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done.
The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness.
...
But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.
They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he'd temporarily been disconnected: "I AM GOOD".
Passion, strangely enough, comes from the word, "suffering", as in the Passion of Christ. The prefix, "com" means with. So compassion is, with suffering. Not pity, not sympathy or "I feel your pain", just with suffering. No judgments of "poor you", "lucky me".
A close friend/family member of mine is apparently suffering severly from thoughts he thinks are true. I've decided to be "with suffering" just before the holidays with a list that I'm asking others to compile with me. From the outside in, it looks as though he has caused a lot of suffering of others and most people would have zero compassion for him; almost none do.
Anyway, being the newly self appointed advocate for lost causes, I'm thinking that his recent outward homelessness might not overwhelm his spirit if the people that he has crossed can help him to remember who he really is.
Without going all the details, he's tried suicide twice, been jailed twice, has nothing and nobody: Rock Bottom.
As I see it, sympathy may have prolonged his situation. This time being with, and not being drawn, into his story may be the only help that is effective and nothing else.
I was recently told of an African tribe that does the most beautiful thing.
When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done.
The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness.
...
But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.
They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he'd temporarily been disconnected: "I AM GOOD".
Passion, strangely enough, comes from the word, "suffering", as in the Passion of Christ. The prefix, "com" means with. So compassion is, with suffering. Not pity, not sympathy or "I feel your pain", just with suffering. No judgments of "poor you", "lucky me".
A close friend/family member of mine is apparently suffering severly from thoughts he thinks are true. I've decided to be "with suffering" just before the holidays with a list that I'm asking others to compile with me. From the outside in, it looks as though he has caused a lot of suffering of others and most people would have zero compassion for him; almost none do.
Anyway, being the newly self appointed advocate for lost causes, I'm thinking that his recent outward homelessness might not overwhelm his spirit if the people that he has crossed can help him to remember who he really is.
Without going all the details, he's tried suicide twice, been jailed twice, has nothing and nobody: Rock Bottom.
As I see it, sympathy may have prolonged his situation. This time being with, and not being drawn, into his story may be the only help that is effective and nothing else.