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.

I try to recognize that the pain I feel for another suffering being is nothing compared to the pain they feel. This at least puts a little perspective in the situation, and allows a step back to the position of being an observer (of the other and myself). If someone(thing) else is suffering, it's about them and not me (aside from the catalyst offered to me as a learning experience), so I can then do something to help without focusing on my own empathetic pain. I can focus on sending love to that suffering being instead, or if possible do something more concrete.

Carrying the energetic signature of allowance plus love and empathy, without succumbing to the despair of it, is what I aim for.