How does one develop compassion?
Swami Radha writes in Mantras: Words of Power (p 89):
Observe yourself; practise awareness in order to gain understanding of yourself. Wrong conduct must be discarded, not condemned. When you see and forgive your own failings, you will be ready to forgive the failings of others and have more understanding for those you wish to heal. In the process of healing, we meet ourselves.
And In the Company of the Wise, Swami Radha writes (p 206):
You have to have made mistakes in order to develop compassion.
With gratitude to the teachers who encourage us to cultivate compassion – for ourselves and for all those we encounter.
1) Compassion for Yourself
Compassion isn’t “niceness.” It can be fierce.
The most compassionate action is to break the cycle of illusion. Illusions are built from unrealistic expectations. They create a sense of a false reality. That’s the thing with the Light, it keeps breaking the pots. Krishna breaks the pots and keeps things moving, so your life doesn’t become a museum. He frees the rich butter to become available instead of being hidden away.
You can ask for the Light of understanding to reveal what you need to see in yourself and it will happen. Reality takes on a different form. The Light keeps breaking the illusions and bringing us to a subtler and subtler place inside ourselves. It becomes the building block. Can you see what really is and not just what you want to see? Reality is always better than an illusion.
(Living the Practice, Swami Radhananda, p 142)
- Practice the Divine Light Invocation placing yourself in the Light of understanding, asking: what do I need to see in myself? Which ‘pots’ may need to be broken? Write.
- Practice the Divine Light Invocation placing yourself, at your best, in the Light. Keeping the sense of Light within, quietly reflect on what has come forward and write.
2) Exploring Compassion through Hidden Language Hatha Yoga
- Utthita Trikonasana – Triangle Pose
… The first three chakras are the first three steps of development – the most difficult steps in overcoming base instincts and emotions. They lead to the heart chakra and allow love and compassion to flower.
(Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language, Swami Radha, p 81)
Visualize the Triangle pose.
- Reflect on the image of the Triangle. The upward-pointing triangle can be symbolic for reaching up to the Divine; the downward triangle is the help that you receive. Write whatever comes forward.
Go into the Triangle pose and reflect on the following:
- What is the help that you receive?
- How does this ‘help’ allow love and compassion to flower—for yourself and for others? Write.
- Garudasana – The Eagle
Eagles are symbolic for sharp sight, for penetrating vision. If you can see through yourself, how you lay your own traps, you can avoid them. Because the eagle has clear sight, it can recognize things from a distance in time to take action.
(Hatha Yoga – The Hidden Language, Swami Radha, p 181)
- Ask yourself these questions to help you gain an eagle’s perspective: “Can I see through my traps? Can I avoid getting caught in them? What am I aiming at?”
- How do you see yourself? Go into Garudasana looking at your life with compassion and seeing with divine vision. Write. (p 187)
- Padmasana – The Lotus
She (Tara) is seated on a lotus blossom, calm, aware, ready. Floating above the mountains of the world, she rides her double lotus on waves of sky. Embodiment of compassion, Tara symbolizes our potential to care, to respond and expand beyond self-concern.
(Inner Life of Asanas, Swami Lalitananda, p 122)
- Reflect on Tara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, as you do the Lotus. Ask her a question important to you and listen for her response. (Hatha Yoga – The Hidden Language, Swami Radha, p 131)
3) Compassion and Opening to the Light
When we begin to practise and open to the Light, many incredible thoughts that we have never had before will come to us. And we will wonder: How can I know this? Where did this knowledge come from? Why did I have to wait so long? Because we have not laid the foundation, which is building character, becoming dependable, changing emotions into true feelings. Only then can we be compassionate. And when we have become compassionate, when we can love without expecting anything in return, we have become truly human.
(Light and Vibration, Swami Radha, p 88)
- Visualize your heart centre and imagine a blue flame on the altar there. Take the flame and place it on the heads of friends, loved ones and any other people in need of Light. (Living the Practice, Swami Radhananda, p 125)
- Allow yourself to reflect on the thought of offering love without expecting anything in return. Notice your response, at every level, to this thought. Write.
- Place these same individuals in the Light. Repeat the Divine Light Mantra several times. What is your experience of offering love without expecting anything in return. Write.
Like a good father or mother, the Divine will say to its child, “This is wrong. You must not do it again. I will give you another chance.” To be given another chance is probably the highest expression of compassion. We may be given chance after chance, many, many times. How many lifetimes? That depends on our response to Divine Compassion and our willingness to increase awareness, to increase the Light of understanding, and to thereby create a source of Light within ourselves, making that source a magnet to attract more Light.
(Light and Vibration, Swami Radha, p 94)
- Sit in quiet reflection and practice the 4/4 breath. Then quietly repeat the Divine Light Mantra a number of times. Reflect on on a time in your life where you were given another chance. How did you experience this as ‘compassion’? Write.
- How can you offer this gift to others? What qualities within you will you call on? How does the Light of understanding and awareness contribute to this offering? Write.
4) Compassion and the Mantra
When you chant for others, be sure that you are acting out of compassion and not just sympathy. Be aware of any desire to influence the outcome or any strong emotional response. You must keep your own will out of the way, surrendering to the power of the mantra.
(Mantras: Words of Power, Swami Radha, p 89)
Through reflection and spiritual practice, the learnings of life can be extracted. Keeping the mind focused on the Divine – the Light, a mantra, an image of a god or goddess – can bring us closer to the essence or divine play of each situation. These feelings of closeness and devotion also enable us to respond to each other with more understanding and compassion. This is the foundation on which we can trust and accept life events as valuable – without judgement.
(Living the Practice, Swami Radhananda, p 174)
- Take time to chant a mantra. Notice the effect of the chanting. Write.
- Continue with a mantra practice. Reflect on the concept of ‘compassion’. How does holding a personal opinion or judgement block your ability to be compassionate?
- How does your view of reality expand as you respond to others ‘with more understanding and compassion’?
- How do you offer compassion to yourself and others? How can you access compassion within yourself in order to offer compassion to others?
- What is your understanding and experience of compassion now?
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