Compassion, December 16, 2009

Built within the very fabric of Being, is Compassion. Compassion is not an emotion or a feeling, but an actual quality of Being Itself. The precondition for tasting that level of Compassion is to dive into Being — to open up into the silence of the Self and to feel what actually is characteristic of Existence Itself.

Of course, Compassion can also be seen in terms of discrete acts of kindness; being nice to people in an intentional way and in many other forms as well. But the quality of Compassion that actually enlivens your Consciousness as a whole is the one that is connected to the very fabric of your intelligence. Intelligence, therefore, is Compassion. Your compassion is in the form of your intelligence, in the depth of your mind.

So, we move, then, from compassion that is demonstrated through action to Compassion that is radiated out of the Heart of Consciousness, the center of Being. That’s the most powerful form of Compassion. It’s powerful because it works on the level of vulnerability itself, dissolving that place where separation occurs, the kind of separation that traumatizes people and hurts them. Opening up the Compassion within Being tends to reduce the amount of harm that’s done on the external level, on the level where the opposites of kindness and cruelty abide.

So when you’re talking about the opening up of this immense space within Being, you’re talking about an all-time radiation of Compassion, not something that comes and goes, or manifests with intention and then dissolves later on when the intention fades. So this Compassion is inseparable from the Ecstasy of Being. That Compassion is Ecstasy in a certain form, a form of warmth or love.

Most human beings open up a tiny aspect of this deeper level of Compassionate, Radiant Consciousness. In fact it’s so infinitesimally small that it’s hardly even felt, which is tragic. In fact, the whole tragedy of the human race could be said to be that nullification or absence of the Being-based Compassion that is connected to the total intelligence and spontaneous functioning of the human being.

The path, therefore, to that immense Compassion is through meditation. Only meditation can open up that field in its fullness. Only the descent or dissolution of the mind into its Prior Essence can make the conditions ripe for the dawning and expression and radiation of that kind of Compassionate Force. Under such a condition, Compassion will become a form of darshan. It will communicate something, a sighting of the entire reality of Pure Consciousness. You’ll not be able to separate, at that point, the purity and bliss of Pure Consciousness from the heartfelt feeling of Love. They will have merged.

In this instant, we are watching for the birth of that Compassion, as we side with our meditation-based approach, or our approach through Self-observation or Self-inquiry or simply remaining with What Is. All of those summarize the innocence, the prerequisite toward the opening into this Spiritual Fullness. I hope that we can all merge tonight in the compassionate and radiant Bliss of the Self.