Perennial Meditations (Saturday Review)
Notes, Takeaways, and Saturday Meditations (28 May - 3 Jun)
Compassion is Our Nature
This week’s Saturday meditation comes from Jack Kornfield’s book, The Wise Heart, a guide to the universal teachings of Buddhist psychology.
Alan Wallace, a leading Western teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, puts it like this: ‘Imagine walking along a sidewalk with your arms full of groceries, and someone roughly bumps into you so that you fall and your groceries are strewn over the ground. As you rise up from the puddle of broken eggs and tomato juice, you are ready to shout out, ‘You idiot! What’s wrong with you? Are you blind?’ But just before you can catch your breath to speak, you see that the person who bumped into you is actually blind. He, too, is sprawled in the spilled groceries, and your anger vanishes in an instant, to be replaced by sympathetic concern: ‘Are you hurt? Can I help you up?’
“When we clearly realize that the source of disharmony and misery in the world is ignorance,” explains Kornfield, “we can open the door of wisdom and compassion.” Buddhism teaches that we suffer not because we have sinned but because we are blind. Compassion is the natural response to this blindness; it arises whenever we see our human situation clearly.
Contemplation Questions (Pick one or create your own!):
How can you begin to cultivate more compassion in daily life?
What might stand in the way of living with a wise heart?
This Week’s Meditations…
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Thank you for reading this week; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions!