What the Old Monk Who Was Tortured Told the Dalai Lama

DaltheJigsaw

"A few years ago, an elderly monk arrived in India after fleeing from prison in Tibet. Meeting with the Dalai Lama, he recounted the years he had been imprisoned, the hardship and beatings he had endured, the hunger and loneliness he had lived with, and the torture he had faced.

At one point the Dalai Lama asked him, “Was there ever a time you felt your life was truly in danger?”

The old monk answered, “In truth, the only time I truly felt at risk was when I felt in danger of losing compassion for my jailers.”

Hearing stories like this, we are often left feeling skeptical and bewildered. We may be tempted to idealize both those who are compassionate and the quality of compassion itself. We imagine these people as saints, possessed of powers inaccessible to us.

Yet stories of great suffering are often stories of ordinary people who have found greatness of heart. To discover an awakened heart within ourselves, it is crucial not to idealize or romanticize compassion. Our compassion simply grows out of our willingness to meet pain rather than to flee from it. "

Excerpt from "She Who Hears the Cries of the World"
by Christina Feldman, Shambhala Sun, May 2006.


http://mettarefugedharmanuggets.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-old-monk-who-was-tortured-told.html

aura

She Who Hears the Cries of the World is known by every culture on the face of the earth, reflects the face of every culture on earth, and is known by countless different names worldwide. She manifests visibly as the gold light. She hears the cries of all, even the inner cries of torturers, and regards them also as her piteously lost and crying children. To lose compassion for the torturers would be to ignore her plea to give her lost crying children the opportunity to learn compassion. Traumatic death under torturous circumstances gave this experience.

AMH

Oh dear, that reminds me in a current situation to have compassion for the one I am very angry at and scared for. Big job here