The difference between compassion and pity!........It is like the difference between day and night; light and darkness. Pity is egotistic and compassion is altruistic. You are only concerned about yourself – the other is only a reflection of some aspect of yourself. When you feel pity, you don’t really see the other person nor do you respect them. You are not interested in the other person; you just want to be relieved of your own problem because the other person’s suffering is making you uncomfortable. Their suffering is reflecting your own suffering which you refuse to see. Tears of pity are superficial because they are born from the mask of the good one, the charitable one. This mask is covering up egotism. Behind this mask there is a frozenness that prevents you from feeling empathy and from truly putting yourself in the other person’s place. You can only truly feel empathy if love exists and there is love for others. Then you respect what the other needs to experience. If you love the beggars on the street, put yourself in their place and you will see that giving them money won’t help them. In some cases it might indeed help, but in most cases you are only participating in the habit of begging and the illusion of impotence, amongst other fantasies that keep people in these conditions. If love is overflowing from your heart and if you really care about the other person, find a way for them to stand on their own two feet. Compassion is selfless. You really want to see the other person happy. You want to see the other person shine and you respect the process they are going through. So how do you move from pity to compassion? By freeing yourself from projection. (these are not my words)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:47:13 +0000