Compassion through social strife

[Diana]

@ peregrine: I think you and agua were actually saying the same thing.

Putting together Agua's two posts, what I see is a process of putting compassion for self ahead of compassion for others.  In a practical way that makes sense.  In another sense, doing one without the other limits the synergy one can experience when they are combined--when other is to some degree recognized as other-self.  Not saying that the second way is any better than the first for any given individual, just trying to pry open the conversation a bit further.  Perhaps more light will find its way in that way?
 
 

I take your point. And I'll do a little more prying. The way I see it is that one HAS to be accountable to one's own evolution in order to effectively help others. Otherwise we get into the realm of martyrdom. Martyrdom is separation, because it denies the self, or puts others above self. I'm not saying martyrdom is bad, just that it is unbalanced.

Ideally one can balance work on self with service to others. But if you try to serve another in areas that you are blocked in, I think it can cause problems and even result in an effort to control (albeit unconsciously). For example: a counselor who is trying to counsel a person who is depressed, and the counselor her(him)self is depressed, each having different a history of trauma which has triggered the depression. The counselor's triggers cannot help but influence the patient's care.

In addition, an STO-oriented individual will radiate. This radiation in itself is service to others. What I am, I am at this moment. I radiate what I radiate because of where I am at and who I am. I embody a certain amount or quality of compassion. I can't force that. But I AM radiating that. So my most efficacious activity (the matrix of the mind) would be to reach for the infinite pool of evolutionary possibilities (the potentiator of the mind), and increase my ability to radiate, along with a maturation in consciousness which increases discernment and comprehension of this existence and the way it works.

My above conjecture does not negate the idea that I physically help those within my reach to help in balance with my own situation.