A friend of mine who was once District Attorney of Santa Cruz County in California and then later became a Catholic Priest was telling me about counseling one young man not to kill himself. His girlfriend and his family were there trying to give the young man good reasons not to kill himself. The Priest had done everything he could think of to get the right kind of genuine reaction from the young man. The young man was handsome, his girlfriend was beautiful, his family was financially well endowed etc. but still the young man was bent on killing himself.
Finally, out of desperation the Priest cocked his head to one side and said, "You do know that everyone is crazy don't you?" This finally caught the young man's attention and he listened intently to the Priest. The Priest went on, "I have never met anyone who is completely sane. So, if you feel a little crazy as a human that is perfectly normal." The young man needed to hear that, that the human condition is not a sane or perfect condition. And that what humans and all organisms here on earth deal with everyday is not necessarily sane ever. So, asking the young man if he had realized that no one is really sane did the trick. Misery loves company. No one is completely sane.
And the more people make demands based upon their perceived notion that anyone is completely sane the more you tend to know that these people are really crazy and potentially dangerous to everyone.
I think this is why I have discovered that Right Mindful Compassion works as a path so well for me.
Truth, because no one is actually completely sane is often sort of like the addage "Figures don't lie but liars use figures." Life is like that, Truth both saves and kills like a two edged sword and you never really know what it is going to do in any given moment. So, acting in compassion with wisdom is always the best policy in life I have found.
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