Compassion

A lot of times I expect people to respond a certain way to something that I have told them. I feel a little unnerved when they respond in a completely different manner. I am expecting interest and questions and I get a shake of the head. I am expecting them to understand something that they could never completely understand because their perspective is different than mine. They do not have all of the information that I have. Either through neglect of me telling them, their previous life experiences, or even just their memory or perception of events. Everything is completely different than mine. How can I possibly expect their reaction to be the same as mine?

Yet, we are all here sharing this one experience. We are separate at a physical level, but we are united at a spiritual level. How can those levels reside in complete ignorance of each other? Or maybe there is information shared, but it is given in small doses so that we do not notice it. A gradual change and merging. It all starts from within.

You can’t expect to end the world of suffering at a wish. It starts with you. Give yourself the loving-kindness that you deserve. Really feel it in your heart and let it expand out to your whole body. To your family. To friends. To people you might possibly hate or hold a grudge towards. To people you meet in passing. To people you don’t know. To the whole world. To the whole of existence that you cannot even possibly begin to imagine.

Slowly and gradually we begin to become one with everyone that we meet. We treat them with the respect that we want ourselves. We empathize with their situation since we can relate to it. They are not suffering… we are. The sooner we let go of that desire to see them in a different situation, the sooner that we will ourselves be free from suffering. They only suffer because we think they suffer. We only suffer because we project our suffering on other people. It can end.