compassion  

God calls all of you to take the path of the inner truth--and that
means taking responsibility for everything that's in you:  for what
pleases you and for what you're ashamed of, for the rich person
inside you and for the poor one.  Francis of Assisi called this,
"loving the leper within us."  If you learn to love the poor one
within you, you'll discover that you have room to have compassion
"outside" too, that there's room in you for others, for those who are
different from you, for the least among your brothers and sisters.

Richard Rohr

The truth is, this quality of compassion--and the word means "to suffer with"--has
been transforming the world.  And especially in the last century or two.  It was
the force that abolished slavery and put an end to child labor.  It was the power
that sent Florence Nightingale to Crimea and Albert Schweitzer to Africa.  Mobilized
in the March of Dimes, it helped to conquer polio.  Without it there would be no
Social Security, no Medicare, no ASPCA, no Red Cross.  But the most remarkable
thing about it is what it can do to--and for--the person who feels it deeply.

Arthur Gordon

One of the ways to learn to "feel with" is to get to know others
beyond a superficial level.  When we experience another's
life the way he or she experiences it, our world expands
and we begin to develop the ability to "feel with."
We develop compassion.

Anne Wilson Schaef

The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize
the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves
"inside the skin" of the other.  We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental
formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering.  Shallow observation
as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering.  We must become one with
the subject of our observation.  When we are in contact with another's suffering,
a feeling of compassion is born in us.  Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."

Thich Nhat Hanh

Albert Einstein

When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient
beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning,
almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness
of each moment and each being, and from this can
grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Arthur H. Stainback

If we make our goal to live a life of compassion
and unconditional love, then the world
will indeed become a garden where all
kinds of flowers can bloom and grow.

Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross

Next time you encounter someone in pain, don't just wince and
pass by with a shrug.  Hurting people need a bit of color to brighten
their dark places, and they need to remember the promise that God
is with them right where they are.  Where rainbows grow,
angels sing and courage becomes contagious.  You can be
a rainbow gardener by opening your heart
even if you're in pain yourself.

Barbara Johnson

Patsy Clairmont

Be understanding and compassionate,
but not responsible for others.

Stephen C. Paul

Though people may try to stop you from following the correct path
they can never divert you from correct behavior.  Just make sure
they don't force you to lose compassion toward them.

Marcus Aurelius

the Buddha

True compassion flows fast, as if we were wounded ourselves,
yet without diminishing our strength.

Modern Japanese inspiration

 HOME - contents - abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - advertising - aging - ambition - anger - anticipation
apathy - appreciation - arrogance - attitude - authenticity - awakening - awareness - awe - balance - beauty - being yourself
beliefs - body - brooding - busyness - celebration - challenges - change - character - children - choices - Christianity
coincidence - commitment - common sense - community - comparison - compassion - complaining - compliments - compromise
confidence - conformity - conscience - contentment - control - courage - covetousness - creativity - criticism - cruelty -  death
desire - determination - discouragement - diversity - doubt - dreams - earth - education - ego - encouragement - enlightenment
enthusiasm - envy - eternity - experience - failure -  faith - family - fault-finding - fear - finances - flowers - forgiveness - freedom
friendship - fun - gardening - generosity - gentleness - giving - goals - God - goodness - grace - gratitude - greed - grief - growing up
guilt - happiness - hatred - healing - health - helpfulness - home - honesty - hope - hospitality - humility - ideals -idleness  - idolatry
ignorance -  imagination - impatience - individuality - inspiration - integrity - introspection - intuition - jealousy - joy - judgment - kindness
knowledge - laughter - laziness - leadership - learning - letting go - life - listening - loneliness - love - lying - marriage - materialism - meanness
mindfulness - miracles - mistakes - mistrust - mystery - nature - negative attitude - now - oneness - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism
pain - patience - peace - perfectionism - perseverance - perspective - pessimism - play - positive thoughts - possessions - potential - prayer
prejudice - pride - principle - purpose - relationships - religion - resentment - respect - responsibility - rest - revenge - risk - role models - sadness
safety - self - self-love - self-pity - self-respect - serving others - shame - silence - simplicity - solitude - spirit - stress - stupidity - success
thoughts - time - today - trust - truth - unfulfilled dreams - values - vanity - war - weight issues - wisdom - wonder - work - worship - youth
spring - summer - fall - winter - worry - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - America - zen sayings - Native American wisdom
The Law of Attraction  - obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents - our most recent e-zine - articles

Compassion springs from a mind and heart deeply rooted in
simplicity, integrity, and a profound understanding of the
interconnected nature of all life.  Compassion is a transforming
quality of heart we cultivate, nurture, and refine.  It is rediscovered
through the falling away of the layers of fear, resistance, and anxiety
that have the power to veil the innately compassionate heart.  Our
challenge may not be so much one of becoming more compassionate,
but one of learning to let go of the clouds of confusion that
obscure the powerful compassion within us.

Christina Feldman

Joseph M. Marshall III

Compassion is both teacher and student.
When we show it, we teach it to others.
When we feel it, we learn how it heals.

Leslie Levine

Everyone alive has suffered.  It is the wisdom gained from our wounds
and from our own experiences of suffering that makes us able to heal.
Becoming expert has turned out to be less important than remembering and
trusting the wholeness in myself and everyone else.  Expertise cures,
but wounded people can best be healed by other wounded people.
Only other wounded people can understand what is needed,
for the healing of suffering is compassion, not expertise.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Compassion simply stated is leaving other people alone.  You don't lay trips.
You exist as a statement of your own level of evolution.  You are available
to another human being, to provide what they need, to the extent that they
ask.  But you begin to see that it is a fallacy to think
that you can impose a trip on another person.

Ram Dass

Compassion is a far greater and nobler thing than pity.  Pity has its roots in
fear, and a sense of arrogance and condescension, sometimes even a strong
feeling of "I'm glad it's not me." . . . To train in compassion, then, is to know all
beings are the same and suffer in similar ways, to honor all those who suffer,
and to know you are neither separate from nor superior to anyone.

Sogyal Rinpoche