Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
compassion?
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
Compassion is often praised to the satisfaction of the one doing the praising.
But does the one acting compassionately imagine compassion is somehow "compassionate" or is s/he simply acting in accordance with circumstances?
Is praise necessary or even especially relevant?
But does the one acting compassionately imagine compassion is somehow "compassionate" or is s/he simply acting in accordance with circumstances?
Is praise necessary or even especially relevant?
2
Comments
It very much depends on each individual doesn't it?
I find it challenging attributing any action to anything other than 'accordance with circumstances'.
I think neither praise nor gratitude are necessary or relevant... but they do have their place in the pantheon of human interaction.
In the beginning of our spiritual development, in order to nurture compassion, we typically have to think consciously about performing compassionate acts and then do them, but if consistent with the practice over time, they will occur without much thought given where compassion arises without discrimination in response to any situation in need of it.
However, this is not to say that we have never experienced the spontaneous arising of compassion because we all have, and that should provide us some confidence to struggle on, but it can easily be tainted in ourselves with pride, so we also must be watchful and apply the antidotes our spiritual paths prescribe for that contrary and poisonous attitude when necessary.
Ideally we would exhibit the quality without expectation of positive reinforcement or even self acknowledgement.
The value of good companionship is reinforcing the good qualities and ignoring, deriding or allowing the lesser behaviour to die.
@Silouan raises a good point of pride. Eventually one becomes 'ashamed' if good qualities are revealed. That is a growth of humility. Beyond that we neither care nor attempt to veil.
The important thing is developing kindness, compassion, metta - whatever it takes . . .
:clap:
Anyway, one doesn't do acts of charity expecting to be congratulated. That would be an egoic thing, not a compassionate one. As soon as the thought arises that you might get rewarded (if only verbally) for your compassionate act, you've left the moment. You've lost the connection with the person/s you're motivated to help. Your motivation has changed completely. So it's not at all the same act anymore.
Intention is everything. Change the intention, and you've altered the resulting karmic seeds for yourself.
I think it's important to remember that most people (in the West at least) aren't Buddhists, and don't subscribe to anything like Buddhist ideals. If people don't receive at least an acknowledgement of their kind acts they will start to feel that they are being taken for granted, and so may be disinclined to be helpful in the future.