25 February 2020 — COMPASSION — WALKING A MILE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES

How easy it is to develop the habit pattern of judging and criticising others and to ridicule and make fun of them. We usually find it far too easy to a make excuses for our own behaviour if we are left feeling uncomfortable about our reactions. One of the many sayings I was brought up with is ‘There but for the Grace of God Go I’ and it often occurs to me when I pass others seemingly less fortunate than I, how fortunate I am as I recall situations in my life which have brought me close to the brink through no true fault of my own.

Yes, I do believe in karma — that we reap the results of past actions in this lifetime and in past lifetimes — and perhaps in this lifetime I am reaping the results of good actions in the past. But that, however, does not give me permission to look down on others less fortunate than myself.

I am well aware that in the past seeing someone in unfortunate circumstances has caused me to feel smug and perhaps to feel that I am not in their position because I am better than them in some way BUT, and it is a BIG BUT, if my heart is not open, loving and compassionate towards others then perhaps fate might interfere and help me to develop these qualities through personal experience.

PUTTING ONE’S SELF IN THE PLACE OF OTHERS as the saying WALKING A MILE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES, implies and thereby feeling compassion without feeling superior or judgemental is very much, I believe, A SAVING GRACE.