If awareness is the seed of spiritual development, compassion is the flowering. But compassion has been misunderstood as something focused and projected onto the other. The fact is that compassion like anything else begins at home, with your own self (if there is such a thing?).
So begin with awareness, disciplining the mind in identifying psychological and emotional, as well as cultural and collective patterns. Be aware of what you think and feel, and look at all that is going on inside of your heart and mind from a perspective of a watcher. Understand that you are not what you think and feel: you are the blue sky upon which all the dreams of mind and heart are projected.
When you are acutely aware of what is happening in body/ mind and soul, the heart is purified and a distance is created between the observer and the observed. In this gap you may get a glimpse of your true nature, but beware not to overestimate those beautiful peak moments. Many years ago I met a wonderful man who had spent his whole life in Zen- Training. He had heard about me from a mutual friend and asked me if I ever reached anywhere during my search for the nameless. I answered: “Thank God, no!” He then slapped me on my back and said: “Good boy, keep going. The moment you think you have reached anywhere you are deceiving yourself.” Yet these moments of understanding are precious and they open a door to another dimension. In these transcendental moments, remember compassion. As I mentioned earlier, begin with yourself, and then let life take its course. Awakening is a process that we are all involved in: the lotus is opening its petals one after another.
Tonglen, a Buddhist technique to generate compassion
The historical Buddha is reported to have said to his monks: when meditating always remember compassion. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition there is a technique that suggests three steps to compassion.
- Think of someone you love and imagine that you are breathing in all their suffering and pain with compassion. When breathing out send them blessings, health, love and happiness.
- Think of someone you feel indifferent about and imagine that you are breathing in all their suffering and pain with compassion. When breathing out send them blessings, health, love and happiness.
- Think of someone you dislike and imagine that you are breathing in all their suffering and pain with compassion. When breathing out send them blessings, health, love and happiness.
Perhaps you want to experiment with this beginning with sending love and compassion to yourself first, before you focus on others!
The Reiki path to Compassion
The technique mentioned above fits well into our Reiki Practice since the origin of the mental/emotional healing symbol represents Avalokiteshvara or Senju Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. This Bodhisattva is not a far away deity, but it is our human potential: and I trust that every one of us will find this quality in his own heart sooner or later.
Usui Sensei made it easy for us to focus on compassion and to find this Buddha nature. In the Gokai, his five principles, he suggests that you begin by letting go of anger and worry and feel gratitude instead. This gratitude needs neither reason nor attribute- it is a means to itself. Once gratitude has developed in your heart, you tend to live responsibly and do what needs to be done, beyond your personal will and desire. When this attitude has evolved naturally, the next step is to share what you have learned with your fellow men, to put your compassion into action. Usui Sensei found out that a good way to live his qualities were to give and teach Reiki to others, to help them get a sense of their original nature.
When giving treatments or while teaching Reiki pay attention to the development of compassion. Look at the other as the perfect manifestation of the divine — god becoming man. It is helpful for me to touch and see my clients/students the same way I tend to my wife and children. This way it is easy to give them all your love and attention without conditions. There is no need to change or improve anyone to suit your own ideals, you just look at them as they are and the rest of the magic happens all by itself.
Recently I spent a delightful week in Colombia with Mari Hall who told me that her daughter had once said to her: “Mom, now I understand how you do it; You just love them!” And this is the utmost secret, so simple and possible for all of us in every moment of life. Make the right choice and make it now!