Reflecting on krkhst's post on compassion

[sabrinamari]

think about how many times I have fallen
spirits are using me, larger voices calling

Southern Cross, C, S &Y

Comments

[krkhst.livejournal.com]

I love that song.

"Cause the truth you might be running from is so small.
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a coming day."

Love it, love it.

[(Anonymous)]

Those are the other lines I think of often. : )

[sligoe.livejournal.com]

One of my very favorite songs.....I used to drive my younger son to school and we would listen to this and sing our hearts out.....that memory has kept me from going over the edge many times.....

And it's SO good to still be here, listening to the larger voices and being used by the spirits.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed!

[skyefyr.livejournal.com]

It's always been one of my favorites. Thanks for putting happy music in my head today Bunny!

Compassion? We don't need no stinkin' compassion!

[davidt4e.livejournal.com]

For me, compassion is what happens when the animal meets the divine, and the divine wins out.

The divine never destroys. It always forgives (which can be downright maddening at times.) The divine can also absorb pain from someone who is angry, more-so than a mere mortal.

The divine never hurts anyone, or anything. It never interferes. It may provide consequences, but will not obstruct freewill.

We see the divine, and if we are honest, we know that we are not the divine.

This was true in the Garden of Eden; the name of the tree of forbidden fruit was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; eat of it, and you will surely die. Man and women eat, and feel ashamed, naked. We have the capacity to be like the divine, but we are not perfect like the divine. We are, after all, only human.

It comes up again in Ezekiel, the wheel in the wheel -- the larger wheel moving by faith, and the little one moving by the "grace of God."

We see it in the Sistine Chapel -- God and man, almost touching, but not quite.

And in the Asian story of the king, about to go to war, and the god trying to convince him not to do so, because of the carnage that will follow, but the king's mind is made up, and the god Vishnu, the destroyer, because man cannot be blocked from baser instinct. We choose the gods we follow.

We are like the animals. We are like the divine. Being human is in some ways a continual predicament to be negotiated. Acts of compassion are divine acts. Acts of warfare and destruction are those of the animal kingdom.

Even Sun Tzu, author of the Art of War, recommended that war be practiced only ten percent of the time. Practice it well, he said, so that the other ninety percent of the time one will have time to enjoy civil virtues.