To take responsibility empowers you to do something about whatever it is that’s hindering you. As long as we blame, as long as we avoid or deny, we are removed from the realm of possibility and power to do something about our lives. ~ John Daido Loori
There is a prevading myth that is repeatedly memeified, attached to cute animal and ‘uplifting’ videos, and used as click-bait. It often appears as a form of spiritual angst, discomfort with perceptions of the world. It is a myth that states this is a rare earth one in which human-kind is a mass of twatwaffles and so inexperienced in or incapable of the ways of lovingkindness there a vacuum of compassion. It is expressed by “my faith in humanity is restored” or “I wish more people were like this (referring to people)” or “I wish more humans were like this (referring to animals)” or “If only the world were more like this, then…”
Stop it. Just stop it.
Compassion is everywhere. It exists inside and outside of you. You are the one who has the power and choice to engage with it anytime, anywhere. But it requires action.
It is not other humans responsibility to engage in the way you would prefer them to. It is yours. Yours alone. If you are not choosing to act with compassion, lovingkindness, and open-heartedly start now. When you begin that practice, you will see it everywhere because it will be returned to you tenfold.
Gandhi’s ‘Be the Change You Wish to See in This World’ wasn’t meant to be a mere ideal aspiration. It was a directive to help change your perspective on the state of humanity–by first changing your own.
Instead of wishing that things would be differently for you to see, put your rear in gear and mind in motion. Ask yourself how you show compassion to others. What did you do today or can you do tomorrow to share a loving act? What can you do to restore your own humanity? Be the human you are admiring in another? Behave like the animal you’ve humanized? Move past discussion of what consciousness looks like into what conscience is?
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