Compassion

All people should master the skill of compassion.   Compassion is a skill people tend to overlook and do not care a lot about, but yet if all people took the time out to be compassionate to one another, then there would be a great deal of harmony all over the world.   Compassion is a human emotion prompted by the pain of others, and wants others to be free from suffering.   In the Bible compassion is affirmed by the commandment, “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you”.   If people took the time out to master the skill of compassion then the world would progress to a compassionate place.   Compassion is the desire to ease another person’s sufferings.   We as humans can show compassion in many different ways.   Being generous, providing service for another, kindness and caring are just a few ways you can show compassion for another person.   Compassion is prepared to meet others wherever they are, recognizing that the circumstance or challenge they now face is as much a part of their life as any other part.   Compassion can laugh or cry, joke or commiserate, be curious and inquisitive, chatty or silent.   Compassion is not afraid to be fully present, hopeful, or lighthearted.   It does not turn away, or is never afraid to see beauty or find humor or share a fractured heart.
Compassion arises out of the deepest, most pure essence of humanity.   And yet it is not magic, not some unreachable thing that you have to be a monk or nun to understand.   You feel it and act on it every day.   Almost all of us have held a door for someone juggling a lot of packages.   We have an instinctive reaction that stops a toddler who's headed into the street - even if we've never met that toddler before.   When you read to your children, the underlying feeling is compassion.   When you laugh with a friend, it's compassion that allows you to laugh.   When you cry at a sad movie, it's compassion that makes your feelings parallel to the ones on the screen.   Even cheering at a football game arises...