Compassion

Compassion is not an emotion. Compassion is a process of mindfulness. This struck me between the eyes today at my fitness center. I found myself feeling badly for a very obese man, whom I see there every time I go. He is trying so very hard. And I caught myself feeling badly because I was superimposing all my crap about obesity on him. Feeling badly was not compassionate. The understanding that he is an unique individual with a very large body with which he is living in his unique way, which at times appears very hard, is a compassionate process in the making. Being open to him as another human being without judging what I should do in relation to him is also the beginning of compassion. Habitual compassion is very hard because it requires both a sense of self and also selflessness in the same moment. It is not being nice. It is not being socially or politically correct. And it is very, very difficult for me. That is why I practice.