photo by Mara ~earth light~

The notion of practicing compassion for other fellow humans has been with us since the beginning of time. After all, Man is a social creature in need of meaningful social connections in order to grow on all levels of his being.

The concept of compassion however has in recent times been appraised in value. Its importance is starting to be understood under the new light of a drastically changing world where people are getting more connected, economies collapse and new global crisis emerge.  Compassion is becoming increasingly tied to the future of humanity. In order for Humanity to keep the balance against the impounding waves of change we need to grow collectively in mind, awareness and in consciousness.  One essential ingredient for this growth is cultivating compassion and loving kindness

Compassion compels action and social change

“You know, there’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit — the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the steelworker who’s been laid-off, the family who lost the entire life they built together when the storm came to town. When you think like this — when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers — it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.” Barack Obama

President Obama mentions the empathy deficit but why does he put emphasis on it?

What his words imply is that real concern about the future does not stop around financial and monetary issues. These are important but to stop there is shortsightedly missing the whole point about positive social change.

Yes, the economy is a driver of social well being and change but both well being and social change are also driven by something which runs deeper than the balance books and the cash tills. It is driven by social cohesion, understanding, comprehension, extended cooperation, empathy and compassion.

Compassion is empathizing with other beings that are suffering and left behind. It is exactly “the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes” and see their predicament with their own eyes through their own perspective.

Compassion is the deep desire to free others from suffering. It is the understanding that we are not alone and that others have exactly the same desire to be happy as we do and the same right to attain it.

Compassion begets positive social change because it compels action. When you empathize with the suffering and pain of others “it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.” This means that when you genuinely open your heart and mind to the problems of others, you shift your perspective in such a way that you are inclined and motivated to help and alleviate their pain and suffering. Action is a natural consequence to compassion.

Action brings about change. Even better, action grounded in compassion, in the awareness and understanding of people’s problems and with the intent to improve their condition brings about positive change and one step closer towards the diminishing of suffering in the world.

Society is a living system. It is a dynamic network through which millions of interactions take place every second and through which ideas, joy, love, energy and compassion can flow between human connections – the nodes of the network.

When empathy and compassion are missing those connections can break and bend. What follows is an ever increasing segregation and detachment between groups of people and individuals giving rise to misunderstanding, inequality, intolerance and unhappiness running from the individual to the social.

Buddhism on Compassion & Loving Kindness

The practice of compassion and loving kindness is central to the Buddhist way of life. The Dalai Lama made it his special mission in this lifetime to spread the teaching of compassion and loving kindness.

I think it is not a coincidence that he chose the teaching of compassion to be his lifetime work in this particular time we are living in. I believe that this is a particularly ripe time for the world to wake up and expand its consciousness, cultivate compassion and sow the seeds of love. There is no better time.

In Buddhist philosophy, compassion is the deep desire and highest motivation to free all sentient beings from suffering. However this notion of compassion is not rooted in subjectivity, judged according to proximity or executed through uncontrolled emotions.

This means that true compassion is unconfined. If I am compassionate about my family but not for those who suffer in far away places or for those whom I dislike then it is not true compassion although it is still a good starting point.

“True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the needs of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy…This is genuine compassion.”  The Dalai Lama from ‘The Compassionate Life’

True compassion is not rooted in the ego. Sometimes we feel distraught by some tragic story because we cannot bear the thought or the emotion of what it ought to be like to pass through that experience. We feel sorry but at the same time we want to stay detached because our heart is not strong enough to bear it. This is because we are seeing it from our own ego-centred standpoint which is natural for an untrained mind.

This has happened to me lately. I went to visit my parents one day. The day before a tragic traffic accident happened where the lives of a whole family were lost including a 3 year old girl. The car they were in was smashed beyond recognition. The story was all over the papers. I did not want to look at it nor the photos of the family. It was like my heart couldn’t bear it. I didn’t want to think about it. I must however admit that this is not compassion. It is feeling deeply sorry but with a detached heart.

Compassion is seeing the suffering of the world with an open heart – a strong heart.

“Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear.” Sharon Salzberg

Expanding our consciousness through compassion

The natural questions that springs out of this is “Ok it’s nice to help others when needed but what good does it bring to soak into the sufferings of others?”, “doesn’t this dull your mind or depress you?”, “does compassion has any other value besides being an ethical or moral thing to do?”

I understand that these are legitimate questions and they should be asked freely.

The answer is simple but not straightforward at the same time

When we understand the concept of true compassion as held by Buddhist teaching and hopefully practice it in our daily lives, we are doing something more than just doing the ethically right thing and helping others that are in need. We are doing more than being responsible humans who reach out for other people.

What we are doing is expanding and shifting our consciousness.  We are freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the ego-consciousness because when we “put ourselves in someone else’s shoes” we are shifting our perspective and center of focus from the self to others. We expand our view and the purpose of our lives.

We start to break away from the self-centered whims and desires that hold us from expanding ourselves. We start breaking the illusion that we are separate from others and the world around us. In fact the Buddhist notion of compassion is intimately tied to the understanding that we are one and the same. Separateness is ultimately an illusion.

When we come to realize more and more of the interconnectedness between all sentient beings, we start to realize that compassion is not only a polite or ethical thing to do. It is the only sensible thing to do. It is the way forward for humanity.

Compassion is a way of realizing ourselves. When we are compassionate and seek to free others from their suffering, we are effectively freeing ourselves. We are part of the grid network. We are connected to it and if we contribute just a little and do our part to expand it by showing compassion and loving kindness to others then we are also expanding ourselves. This is the great web of life.

Cultivating compassion through meditation

There are many ways to practice compassion and loving kindness.  Like most things it takes time and commitment but it can be done in small and easy steps.

Meditation is one way through which compassion can be cultivated. It is good to know that scientific research is now starting to discover through various tests that compassion helps the mind to better cope with stress and conditions such as depression.  Here is one such article from the science daily.

At this point I am tempted to jot down a few practical tips on practising compassion meditation but that would be a bit pretentious from my part. It’s better to leave that to people who know way more than me about compassion.

Here is a short video of 9:56 mins  from Angela Carole Brown in which she gives a guided meditation on Compassion for beginners. It’s a very good place to start.

I’ll leave you to it. Enjoy and may compassion be seeded in your heart.

Related posts:

1. A Note on Happiness
2. From Ego-Consciousness to Eco-Consciousness:10 Meditations

I always wondered about the deep connection between humans and music. The origin of music is unknown or at least we only have a very vague idea as to how far its stretches back in time, mainly through the findings of rudimental bone-made musical instruments found in early cave dwellings.

It would also be interesting to know at which stage of the human evolutionary process the appreciation of music emerged. Although we know that other creatures such as higher mammals can respond positively to sounds and music, it is a distinctive mark in humans to really have an aesthetic affinity to it. This is mainly because of our higher and more complex cognitive makeup.

The brain being an intricate pattern-matching organ can recognize subtle sequences and variations in sound waves which are then consolidated and matched to a broader pattern or rhythm, eventually giving rise to that subjective feeling of aesthetic beauty, joy, elation or whatever emotion matches the musical style or our present mood.

Music and Consciousness

It is because music imparts these subjective and qualitative feelings or emotions that it is automatically linked to Consciousness.  These qualitative experiences cannot be described objectively by the languages of Science but only recalled from a first-person point of view.

What Scientists can describe are only the physiological effects of it such as the detections of neuron activations during a brain scan or the release of endorphins (pleasure inducing chemicals) in the blood. Besides that the experience remains within the confines of the subjectivity black box in our heads.

Notwithstanding that it cannot be truly measured or described scientifically, our deep relationship with music is a universally shared perception which is known and celebrated across cultures since time immemorial.

The Music of the Spheres

The other side of the coin is that Music has an objective and universal existence.

The ancient mathematician Pythagoras believed that musical notes can be translated into mathematical equations. He and his followers believed in something call ‘the harmony of the spheres’, where the planets and stars moved according to mathematical equations which corresponded to musical notes in a grand symphony.

This point of view is another way of saying that the beauty of music is not only in the eye of the beholder but rather in the mathematical harmony inherent in itself and this harmony can resonate within our soul. The mathematical structure of music has a rhythm of its own (pun intended)

Music as a tool for Self-Development

Music has been used for different reasons throughout its history. Its main use was always for entertainment but other uses have been recognized as well such as spiritual practice, healing and therapy, meditation, political and commercial campaigning, celebration or protest, funding and world compassion, courtship and even learning.

Music can also be a very powerful tool for self-development and this aspect of music is rarely talked about in personal growth books or resources. Here are what I believe to be great uses for music along the path of inner-growth:

• Learning: When I was doing my thesis for the Masters programme, I used to listen to Bach a lot. Although I always enjoyed classical music, I never had an affinity with Bach before so I used to find it a bit curious why I used to unknowingly choose Bach for background music while I studied. The answer came a few years later when I was watching a video by famous hypnotist Paul McKenna about learning. He stated that listening to Baroque music such as Bach’s or Vivaldi’s while studying is extremely helpful since their music is based on 64 beats per minute. Bach’s music has a kind of  ‘mathematical and rhythmic fluency’ in it which makes part of the brain ‘follow it’  and ‘lock on to it’ subconsciously while at the same time keeping itself from wandering off and therefore more concentrated on the task at hand. I had the same feedback from people who have listened to Bach while studying. I now appreciate his music more than just for study accompaniment.

• Meditation: No doubt that just as there is music which tunes-in your mind for studying there is music which help you out in doing meditation. There are many background music CDs out there for Meditation or Yoga. Although I believe that some of them are very good, I don’t use any of them. What I use for my meditation is a CD that I have been keeping close to my heart and spirit for many years till present. It is a CD called ‘Zen Garden’ by Kokin Gumi. It’s divine and every time I hear it I swear I have an instant shift in consciousness. Listening to it, one has to agree with Pythagoras that some music is in divine harmony.

• Mood Enhancer: This is a no-brainer. We all know that music can lift up the spirit in those moments when we’re feeling a bit down or depressed. I must say, however that this doesn’t always happen. One must be cautious because there are times when for example someone is heartbroken because of a relationship ending and he or she ends up listening to some love song which talks about heartbreak and the like. This is a very common thing. It’s so common that the whole music industry thrives and survives on it. There’s nothing wrong with those type of songs per se. What happens is that in those moments when someone is suffering a heartbreak, it strengthens and amplifies the feeling. It becomes the soundtrack of the moment which the person identifies with himself and his/her suffering. It becomes our soundtrack which wrongly reminds us how victimized, unlucky or sorry about ourselves we are. It is best to find more uplifting type of music in those situations. Music that can inspire you, encourage you or motivate you in getting back on your feet again.

• Creativity: Music, being a performing art, has always been related to creativity. We always presuppose that music has been composed and created out of an act of inspiration and a sublime creative process.  I think this is a widely accepted notion. However I also think that music can also trigger off a creative process in the person listening to it. This has to do a lot with the left-right hemispheres of the brain. As you might know, the left side of the brain is more responsible for logic, linear thinking, linguistic processing and understanding things in detail. The right side of the brain is more responsible for holistic understanding or seeing the big picture, intuition and insight. Research has shown that exposure to background music promotes what is called interhemispheric activity which in simple words means there is more ‘talking’ between the two spheres. This greatly increases creativity, enhances the creative process and the other aspects related to it such as problem solving.

Related posts:

1. Overcome writer’s block: Understanding the Yin and Yang nature of the creative process