Every human being is crazy to a greater or lesser degree. In a sense (in reality) we are domesticated animals. And when you domesticate any animal you are also going to make that animal (human or otherwise) a little crazy. You can see the craziness of some people who are "Over Domesticated to the point where they become somewhat dysfunctional in their lives.
So, in some ways I have always cultivated "Wildness" and "Wilderness" because without wilderness overly domesticated humans are basically all not just crazy but also insane as well.
So, it is about "Balance" then in trying to get along with your self and others.
And how do you do this?
By developing understanding first of yourself and then of others. On one level it doesn't matter whether you learn to understand others first or yourself first. But, likely doing both at the same time would create the best results in your lives.
And how do you start to learn compassion and understanding?
You start by learning how not to hate yourself and others.
Sometimes the adults around us are paranoid from being abused in their own lives and in not understanding themselves or others.
First, often you have to remove yourselves from paranoid dysfunctional people when you are old enough to leave home and do this. Often removing yourself to a wilderness might help along with friends if you can so you have other people of like mind to talk to along the way.
I didn't move into a full path of compassion until my late 20s and early 30s. I observed the paranoid people I was raised around and decided that paranoia (though useful in some immediate survival situations) wasn't necessary as long as you removed yourself from insane situations to begin with and started over in our life.
I began to really understand how powerful it is to retreat to the wilderness in life. My first attempt was in 1974 first moving to Mt. Shasta and then to Hawaii with my first wife. However, because I was still young (26) at the time I didn't fully succeed yet. But, the motto is: "If at first you don't succeed try try again". So, that is what I did.
Over time what I realized is that although I could find peace in the wilderness it is also much harder to make a living there. So, over time as my children started growing up I returned to San Francisco and bought another business and stopped home schooling my children at our 2 1/2 acres with a house on it in the wilderness of Mt. Shasta so they could return to public school for junior High and High school and college. Though doing this eventually broke up my wife and I because we were much happier in the wilderness living ourselves than near any city, it did give all our children a chance at a college education and a financially secure future as a direct result. And all three of my older children now have one or more college degrees because of this too and are married now in their mid to late 40s.
So, finding compassion for yourself and others seems to be easier to do in the wilderness areas of your choice. However, financially trying to make it in the wilderness is very hard, especially because if you are married with children this is very expensive to do.
However, without compassion for yourselves and others life is basically meaningless which is why many people either kill themselves directly or indirectly through drink or drugs or just driving their cars off a cliff in desperation.
So, in this sense developing compassion for yourself and others is survival in a human body itself.
So, if you want to stay alive we all need to develop compassion for ourselves and all others as a necessary long life survival tool.
By God's Grace
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