Compassion through social strife

[Diana]

1) Discuss how compassion might be offered during times of high emotion and social strife, like now, especially when engaging in discussion with those we disagree with.
2) Share our feelings about the current strife, whether it’s specific to the ongoing protests or just the general social strife in our culture that seems to be ongoing. I encourage a focus on claiming ownership of our feelings and discussing our internal world with an angle of desiring to use this as catalyst to increase our capacity to love.

There is so much heartbreak in this world. If recent events have brought this to anyone's attention and opened up compassion more, then already we have a positive result. This result however doesn't usually feel good, because dealing with the suffering here is a difficult task. A heart that is open to others is a heart under pressure to evolve further, to a place where the suffering of others is somehow balanced within self, so one can feel it and not be destroyed by it.

It makes me consider that my focus tends to be on where I see a lack - a lack of compassion, a lack of understand, a lack of empathy. But it's possible that this lack only stands out to me because of the increase in light that makes it more apparent. Hearts are opening too. My own heart opens, yearning for empathy, and it becomes noticeable when I do not feel a similar yearning in others. Yet the pain from that is a challenge, or opportunity, to seek deeper empathy for those who I see as lacking.

I can only relate my own experience. I have been in this "boat" for a long time, trying to balance empathy with its corresponding wisdom. For me, seeking deeper empathy for others regarding lack of awareness or empathy on their part, has some efficacy. But not as much as staying focused on my own evolution as a being. As I move forward in consciousness (consciously), I get closer to that balance. It is the real, underlying strength which is built, the wisdom of a balanced perspective that is attained little by little. When I try to find empathy for others' lacks, it is more like treating a symptom, and may yield some results, but is more mired in emotional baggage and emotional responses—only skimming on the 3D surface of a lake of deeper comprehension. So what I do in all things, is to ultimately focus on my own responses, my own reactions—not indulging in them but observing them with a mind to uncovering my own stumbling blocks in growth—and thereby staying accountable to my own evolution.

You may be different, and find this catalyst easier to handle. I think it is a major catalyst in this world, to deal with the suffering here. It has ramped up recently, and the follies of humanity are being demonstrated in a big way. Most people here are very caught up in the maelstrom, as Ra puts it, but I do think that some Wanderers are building connecting threads like spiders weaving silk between this hugely veiled (in more than one sense) reality to a larger reality.

Anyway, I ironically feel your pain too. I am no sage or master at anything, so what I throw out there for consideration is my experience with this reality only.