About Compassion

About Compassion

What is Compassion?

Compassion isn't an emotion. Compassion is a fundamental drive of all social mammals. We will adopt and protect other mammals regardless of their species. When you finish this article, type 'cross-species adoption' into YouTube. Pets are examples of cross-species adoption.

Compassion is the drive to diminish the suffering of a being that we identify with. 

The more separate we feel, the less compassionate we become.

The more separate we feel, the less human we become.

How compassion becomes eroded

Each culture has a cultural narrative, which is a collection of morality tales (stories or narratives that teach right from wrong). Each cultural narrative describes how to think and feel to be 'normal' in that culture. A cultural narrative is like a story. A story has a plot (history), dialogue (a moral message), and actors (heroes and villains). We can see our cultural narrative play out in the modern world on TV.

By implicitly or explicitly announcing what is right or wrong, good or bad and who the heroes and villains are, the culture creates a boundary between us and them. Us and the others. Once we are clear about who the others are, we will inevitably become indifferent to their suffering.

Nothing separates people more than this process of 'othering' people.

The more separate we feel, the less compassionate we become; conversely, the more compassionate we become, the more connected we feel. It can be difficult to feel connected in a world with so many 'bad' people in it. Because of the continuous stream of division and separation, we need to practice compassion continuously.

The more compassionate we become, the more connected we feel.

How to build and enhance compassion

I teach compassion meditation and compassion practices. Once we learn to connect to the present moment through mindfulness, we must reconnect to the present moment, our minds, bodies, nature, and others.

Connection, Compassion, and Meditation is the topic for the class this Saturday, 24 August, at 10 am online on Zoom and in person in Bromley.

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RobertMitchell

RobertMitchell

#meditation, #resilience and #mindfulness teacher (I’ve taught about 3,000 classes). Founder of @bromleymindfulness and @themeditationcourse
London, England.