The Wisdom of Compassion

When I was young like many young Christian men in our American Culture I was into a path of Truth and power. However, as I got into my 20s and before I started to notice that a path of Truth and power often harmed (to a greater or lesser degree) the people around me. So, I began to realize that a path of Truth and power was basically selfish in the end.

What I saw was that truth is a two edged sword and though necessary in one's life to have sanity and Success it also tended to harm and kill people around me as often as it saved them. So, as I saw that truth 50% of the time saved people and 50% of the time harmed them I was taken aback by this and became more and more cautious in my life in sharing "Absolute Truth" with people because I didn't want my "absolute truth" to cause them to self destruct in their lives. I found that many people were insecure in their bodies and minds and in order to keep them alive I had to do something different.

So, in my late 20s I began to discover the Wisdom of Compassion. Though the Wisdom of Compassion is also found in Christianity, I found it in ways I Could more easily relate to in Eastern Religions. I first began to understand compassion more fully by watching how Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and his Brother Bobby dealt with compassion for the masses of the world. And then I noticed that people like Jesus, Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, his brother and Martin Luther King all were martyred for bringing compassion and forgiveness to mankind. Actually, Mandela is one of first great compassion bringers to die of old Age which is remarkable in this world.

So, by the time I was 32 my wife wanted to introduce me to Tibetan Buddhism. I had had a hard time with non-dualism because it didn't feel right to me because I was brought up a mystical Christian mostly in San Diego and the Los Angeles Area growing up. So, though I was raised in the "Controlled Chaos of absolute creativity and experimentation" that Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco generally are, I still was having trouble grasping non-dualism.

Non-dualism basically means that Good and Bad are relative to the needs of the individual or group or nation one is considering. Only when teaching very small and ignorant children is even the concept of Good and Bad useful at all. As people grow up and see that life often is ONLY infinite shades of gray and not good and bad in any absolute way they often wander from their Christian churches because they look at them and see them as childish in the extreme which is unfortunately true when one is an adult.

So, non-dualism when grasped by an adult combined with the Wisdom of Compassion I have found to be an infinitely powerful path that brings relief from all sorts of pain to all beings.

So, non-dualism can most simply be defined as being like the weather.

Is rain and snow good or bad?

It is neither and both depending upon the circumstances. (infinite shades of gray). Rain can be helpful to some people in an area while causing flooding to others in nearby areas. California is experiencing this right now. In fact 9.5 inches of rain fell in one area of Los Angeles within 2 days just this week. And this might be somewhat more the norm when rain does come there too in a Global Climate change context.

The same is true of snow. Too much snow turned into an avalanche in Montana where it came down a hill and crushed several houses and three people were buried in the snow but eventually their neighbors and rescue personnel dug them out before they died within an hour so they lived.

But, just enough snow for example, in the High Sierras of California means the difference between whether farmers in some areas of California can grow food or not from June to October because we theoretically have 4 growing seasons in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys year around.

So, the wisdom of compassion combined with non-dualism recognizes all these infinite variations in situations worldwide and wisely tries to help in any way that it can.

When you try to apply a one size fits all truth or power to all situations you are going to have problems like when totalitarian communism tried to do this in Russia and China. It just can't work very well. The same is true of dualism applied to people's lives. It is just too childish to work for people of any intelligence. It might work great in Disney movies for children but in real life it isn't a complex enough system to work all the time in the real world.

Whereas non-dualism and the wisdom of compassion can work every time to a greater or lesser degree.

And here is another level of this. Once you begin to move into a path of the Wisdom of Compassion and take vows of Ahimsa not to kill or cause harm to any being or beings (practicality has to come into this too regarding poisonous snakes, mosquitos, house flies, spiders etc.) (in other words it isn't always useful or practical to usher every single bug outside alive)(But you can at least try). This also tends to keep nature in balance and one your side as well.

Building up karma killing anything or anyone is going to bite you in the ass sooner or later. So, as you are helpful to all beings in ending their suffering by not killing them needlessly you also reduce your own suffering by thousands of percent and begin to live a life of constant bliss internally and externally.

So, there is a tendency when you do this to become powerful, kind, rich, helpful and a world traveler if that is your wish.

This is what happened to me when at age 32 I began on the Path of Compassion towards all beings in the universe. My life slowly changed to where I was wealthy by my mid 40s just by practicing compassion towards all life in the universe 24 hours a day waking and sleeping and even in my dreams.

My suffering slowly ended and my life on earth became more and more of a heaven realm experience every day from the time I took Ahimsa vows to not kill anything anymore, even a bug unless there simply was no other choice given to me by life.

However, I have always been a fearless being naturally (in not being afraid of other living beings) so my wife and daughter (and anyone else afraid of bugs or animals) tends to call me for help in dealing with almost anything wild because I tend to be an expert in that kind of thing because of both my fearlessness and my compassion for all living beings combined.