Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Compassion
'Compassion' is an awareness of the suffering experienced by
other beings and an earnest desire to help.
It is something felt rather than thought.
Being conscious of suffering is not enough - you must be driven to act.
Clarity
A
taoist
sees the world
as it is.
They do not create boundaries of race, age, species, nationality, gender,
religion or creed.
Humans are not
separate
from other creatures.
Everything matters.
Everyone matters.
Life
You see an insect crawling across the floor with a broken limb, stumbling,
falling, getting back up again.
This is a life.
You see a creature
dying on the road
after it has been hit by a car; you see the pain, the confusion.
This is a life.
You see a
person in the
street, curled in a ball with his dog, begging for food and money.
This is a life.
A human
being is a part of the whole called by us 'universe', a part limited in time
and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something
separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal
desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be
to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
(Albert Einstein)
Ignorance
We all know that suffering occurs in the world and it is so easy to ignore
it and pretend that it does not affect us.
If this is your choice, so be it.
Yet, when you
die, will you go
peacefully?
Will you let-go of existence knowing that you have done some good in your
life?
You may not
care.
You may think that one person cannot make a difference, so there is no point
in trying.
You are entitled to
believe this.
While you excuse, think and speculate,
others will be doing.
Page created 7 August 1998