His Holiness the Dalai Lama refers to compassion as the supreme emotion. In Tibetan the ability to show compassion or to empathize with another is shen dug ngal wa la mi sö pa, or “the inability to bear the sight of another’s suffering”. How many of us have developed that inability, or on the other hand have taken Dionne Warwick’s advice from her 1964 hit song, Walk on By, and just do as the song says and walk on by.
You know the stories as well as I do, they don’t make the short-term, attention grabbing news cycle on MSM but we see them on the fund-raising info commercials every night . . . children starving in (name your favorite continent), homeless walking the streets of (pick a city), violence against (name a group) in (just about anywhere in the world). Fifty five years ago my mother use to tell me “. . . eat your peas, there are children starving in Africa that would love to eat your peas.” The problems haven’t gone away, probably because we just walk on by.
When I think about how big the problems are and how little I am I feel overwhelmed and insignificant and it’s easy to walk on by. What can I do to show compassion to this big, beautiful, suffering world? Some of you, like me, are products of the 60s and we remember the phrase, “Think globally, act locally”. That has become my way to dealing with the too-big-to-handle social issues. I can’t solve world hunger, but I can help alleviate where I live. I can’t stop violence across the globe but I can mediate for peace wherever I am . In short I can develop the inability to bear the sight of another’s suffering where I am and do something about it here and now, one day at a time. When that seems too hard then I give a listen to John Lennon singing Imagine or even better Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole singing Somewhere Over a Rainbow. Both songs give me a kick in the pants, change my mind set and get me back on path. Find something that moves you too and get to work.
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