8/27/2013

A "Thought 4 the Week" : How Timely!! :-)

As i have been working away, I ran across this that I saw to be so appropriate and timely as America gears up to remember Dr. King and his "speech for the ages".     Dr. King and those who stood with him (John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, Paul Newman, and all others) saw it and conforted it.   America and the World is better for it because of what they did 50 years ago.  The question is will the World have the courage to deal with the current challenges of extreme weather to truly "think different"?

Sometimes we think that to develop an open heart, to be truly loving and compassionate, means that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let anyone do what they want with us. Yet this is not what is meant by compassion. Quite the contrary. Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion...is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception.
  Sharon Salzberg, 
Lovingkindness: 
The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
Sometimes we think that to develop an open heart, to be truly loving and compassionate, means that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let anyone do what they want with us. Yet this is not what is meant by compassion. Quite the contrary. Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion...is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception.
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
 

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