Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies 1899
by Claude Monet
Thanks to a Friend for sending us this image
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The truth is, this quality of compassion--and the word means "to suffer with"--has been transforming the world. And especially in the last century or two. It was the force that abolished slavery and put an end to child labor. It was the power that sent Florence Nightingale to Crimea and Albert Schweitzer to Africa. Mobilized in the March of Dimes, it helped to conquer polio. Without it there would be no Social Security, no Medicare, no ASPCA, no Red Cross. But the most remarkable thing about it is what it can do to--and for--the person who feels it deeply.
~Arthur Gordon
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The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with."
~Thich Nhat Hanh