Compassion

“You’re so wise, how do you stay sane on this planet?”

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It can be a daily challenge, trust me. It helps to adopt a compassionate perspective whenever possible, and to let its absence ring loudly when it falters. There is a lot of pain and violence in the world that can make you turn in on yourself, but when it crosses your path there is the opportunity to become a witness to it. If you can see that the violations a person commits against others stems from deep inner turmoil you help absolve the struggle a little bit every time someone unconsciously acts out. This does not mean we condone malevolence, we honestly recognize it as an active force in the world and that awareness, if compassionately acknowledged, aids in shifting such polarities.

“Repression leads to violation. Violation leads to repression. Unexamined, each sets the stage for the other, played out from one generation to the next. Recognized with compassion, the cycle is ended, and we go on to something else.”

— Rodolfo Scarfalloto, The Alchemy of Opposites

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