“The purpose of human life is to serve and
to show compassion and the will to help others.”
Albert Schweitzer
(Theologian, writer, humanitarian,
philosopher, and physician)
Some people think that compassion
has no place in the natural order of the world, a world which operates on the basis of necessity because it opposes this order. I cannot relate to this. I
think that much of or our planetary woes are due to an immense lack of
compassion.
Eric
Hoffer (moral and social philosopher)
is of the opinion that compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is
compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Being
compassionate is a way of living an ethical life, for there are few things as
heavy as compassion.
Milan
Kundera (writer) wrote in his “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, that
not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for
someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred
echoes. We only need to look at our compassion (or shall I say the lack
thereof) towards non-human life to realise that we lack the attribute of being
compassionate.
In
Eastern philosophies, compassion is of great importance, but this is not the
case in the Western world. Our lack of compassion for animals reflects well in
our lack of mutual human compassion. My plea to you today is to nurture a
compassionate heart and spirit towards all living beings. The Dalai Lama said
that if you want others to be happy, practice compassion; if you want to be
happy, practice compassion.
Compassion is a form of kindness,
to harbour a fellow-feeling…
Whether in times of sorrow or bliss,
whether in times of hurt or heeling…
Comments
Post a Comment