Compassion

Look around, my friend,

See that all that is, is not;

Clinging on to what was or what could be,

Deludes us from what is.

Afflictions arise from this attachment,

Suffering arises from this delusion;

Believing that we are immune from this process,

Only festers the wounds.

See first your own existential agony,

Your own grasping onto the unreal;

See how you too are drowning,

Behold your own immersion into the grand ocean of delusion.

Recognizing this delusion allows us to see

that we were not drowning at all;

It was a dream,

Mistaken for the real.

See the how your neighbor and loved ones,

Are also apparently immersed;

Caught grasping for a life-raft,

They act in fear and insecurity of impending doom.

Insight into the nature of impermanence,

Allows us reel ourselves and others to shore.

Compassion is the life-raft,

To free all from being caught up in sorrow.

Compassion is the wishing that,

All be freed from their misery;

Freed from believing we’re drowning,

When we are safely ashore.

Our thoughts can create our reality,

Insight can take us beyond thought;

The greater insight into our well-being’s dependence on others,

The greater our compassion will be.

Compassion is the steps we walk towards enlightenment;

For it allows us to go beyond our self-centered delusions of our own fate;

Every sentient creature deserves freedom from suffering,

Especially from the suffering of suffering.

It is harder to be compassionate to those,

Whose delusion appears as wealth or fame;

They find it harder to recognize the suffering of change,

How all that is, is not.

Fear of loss, overconfidence of gain,

These cause people a lot of pain.

Suffering is also a by-product of “cyclic existence”,

Being caught up in negative emotion or thought;

These breed sticky karma,

Bringing the past to bear its burden.

Gaining insight into the nature of suffering,

Allows us to see it’s pervasiveness;

Compassion is the urge to go beyond this,

Into the loving-kindness of graceful karma,

The wheel of suffering stops when there is no desire;

When there is no self to desire.

Compassion is acting empty of preconceived notions,

Urging all life onto the graceful way.