26. Compassion?

1:33 of the Yoga Sutras – Patanjali says we must be compassionate with ALL things. So what is compassion? Translated, it means “to suffer with” so does that mean we all have to be in the same cesspool of whatever life has to bring and if someone is bumming out big time, then we have to bum out too? Me thinks no.

From where I sit, which is in a chair at the beach right now, compassion starts with non-judgment. Being truly compassionate, is to not judge where someone else is based on my certain set of priorities, upbringing, veils, preferences and prejudices, but to accept that everyone has a unique path. If I look at someone who is “less off” than me, haven’t I made a judgment  that I am then “better off?” And “better off” in what regard? Financially? Hair color? Job? Relationships? Geographical location? Culture?

How can I really have the balls to say that someone is better off or less fortunate than me? Is my point of view so great that we need to base every single solitary other person, place or thing against the standard of Me? Wow. I had no idea I was so powerful. And controlling. And judge-mental.

If we base it on finances, which most of us, at least in the US of A’s culture, and I mean, what other point of view and standard of living is really even in the running, then I guess Jesus or Buddha would be WAY less fortunate than me, since I have a house, and food in my refrigerator and a nice bed with clean sheets (when I do laundry – see dirty laundry post), so yeah, I must be better off.  By these standards, I should feel sorry for Jesus, who was murdered, or Buddha, who was homeless.

But WAIT! Oh blasphemy! Did I really say those things? Yes I did. But it doesn’t count because Buddha was/is, well BUDDHA and Jesus is JESUS for Christ’s sake! How can I compare the homeless to these guys? 

I’m just saying, and I’m probably not making any friends here, not that anyone is reading this anyway, but isn’t the most compassionate thing I can do is to live in a state of non-judgment? Of acceptance of others and their choices? Of choosing to see the world as “equal to” instead of “greater than or less than?” Some might argue – but how can you do that all the time? In order to be in that state of non-duality, you have to be in it all the time or you are a hypocrite and how can you sustain it? I say, “you’ve got to start somewhere, and the best place to start is where you are.” So that’s where I am. Changing my worldview from duality to totality one moment, one choice, one non-judgment at a time. So what if I’m not there yet. I can’t judge myself either. Aren’t we all just doing the best we can in any given moment? The phrase “I/you should have known better” is kind of ridiculous, because if we knew better we wouldn’t have done what we did to make ourselves say it!

So compassion. It’s not just feeding stray cats or handing out sandwiches. It’s not judging while we do those acts of kindness.