What
is compassion exactly? They didn't teach it in any of the schools I
attended and yet Karen Armstrong, a blessedly articulate scholar and
humanitarian thinker who recently won $100,000 from the TED Foundation
to help the world create a Charter of Compassion, has people all over
the world contributing to this new creation. Last Sunday she talked about this on CBC Radio's Tapestry show, and if anything can save
humankind from destroying ourselves, it must be compassion.
So what is
compassion? Watching people, including myself, steadfastly ignoring the
things that would help keep us strong, indulging in that which harms
us, has brought me the following glimmers:
judgement is blind; condoning only
what fits into its limited view, it can not see beyond its own
constructs; if I think what you're doing is dumb, I won't see the
wholeness of you;
empathy is fellow feeling, as in I feel for you because I can imagine how you feel;
sympathy is sorrow, mine for you;
Compassion: with passion. Even a little
awareness of the endlessly shifting mishmash of thoughts and feelings
that are my self allows me some understanding of the wholeness of you.
The Hindus go further, saying 'Namaste' to each other, which means I
recognize the divine in you, whomever you are.
Karen Armstrong
just wants people to honour the Golden Rule. It exists in every one of
the world's longstanding religious traditions:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Just
do this a little bit every day, she suggests. It's already happening,
she says. When the Copts in Egypt were being persecuted, Muslims
formed a human chain around the churches on Christmas Eve so these Christians could get to mass safely. Wealthy Pakistani business people are closing their
businesses to donate their expertise and wealth to the flooded areas of
their country. All over the planet people are feeling for each other,
but no one knows because the media do not consider these stories news.
I
wonder if we can evolve to the point of making political,
governmental, military and economic world decisions with compassion
before our planet destroys us. Namaste, Jane
