Compassion: doing what is possible to alleviate human suffering, treating other members of our human family with love, generosity, and forgiveness. By Steve Brunkhorst
A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Affirmation: I release my isolation from the universe, to embrace the beauty of all.
Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.
Affirmation: I stand in the power and truth of my emotions.
Three passions have governed my life:
The longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
(Adapted)
Affirmation: I will live a compassionate life worth living
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because, someday in your life, you will have been all of these.
Affirmation: I will celebrate the phases of my life with compassion for those I share it with.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Affirmation: I will find happiness in offering kindness to myself and others.
With courage you will dare to take risks, the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.
Affirmation: Today I am brave, strong and wise, and I live a life of integrity.
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.
Affirmation: Today I will open myself to the boundlessness that is my heart.
Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.
Spinoza
Affirmation: Today I embody a state of peace.
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Affirmation: Today I will great confidence, profoundness and love through kindness.
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations
of strength and resolution.
Affirmation: Today I resolve to be strong enough to offer tenderness and kindness to those I encounter.
He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.
Affirmation: Today I will offer empathy and compassion with encouragement.
One joy scatters a hundred griefs.
Affirmation: Today I will offer joy.
Love truth, and pardon error.
Affirmation: Today I will be loving.
Life's most urgent question is, what are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Affirmation: Today I offer service.
Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is
to be kind. And the third is to be kind
Affirmation: Today I will be kind.
Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for your own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.
Affirmation: Today I will be compassionate.
Make no judgments where you have no compassion
Affirmation: Today I will not judge, I will only love.
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion event the
most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
Affirmation: Today I will inoculate myself with compassion.
“ I came upon a doctor who appeared in quite poor health. I said
‘There is nothing that I can do for you that you can’t do for yourself.’ He said, ‘Oh yes you can. Just hold my hand. I think that would help.’ So I sat with him and a while then I asked him how he felt. He said, ‘I think I’m cured.”
Affirmation: Today I will do what I can, and it will be enough.
Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
Affirmation: Today I forgive.
Spirit Unity Ministry, Ameya Spirit.
Copyright © 2006 by [Spirit Unity Ministry]. All rights reserved.
Revised:
05/27/08 13:58:22 -0700.