What does it take to be Compassionate? A Paradigm Shift.

Walking down the street during the midday rush, people are everywhere.  I notice that some passerby’s meet my eyes, some look down or have placed their attention elsewhere.  Understanding genetics, every person has different face, we know this is so, yet, it’s still rather amazing that no one face looks alike. In a mixed crowd, they are Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, bi-racial. Their old, young, and middle-aged.  Among the crowds there are ideal beauties within the range of healthy weight, others too thin, some corpulent; others are obviously homeless, pushing their carts full of wrinkled clothing and odd, inconspicuous belongings. It's sill, but, sometimes, I play a game trying to decide what the person drives or what they're like: happy, sad, generous, stingy, rich, poor, married, single, just by looking at them. Though, overall, I practice looking at everyone as having a uniform character and an equal nature. 

 I practice viewing everyone as a suffering human being; this helps me practice to keep compassion at the forefront of my mind and my interactions. This is a practice because I have had times when I deem someone an inconsiderate ass, or worse;  this has happened plenty of times when I'm driving, for example, when I’ve been cut off and have to slam my brakes on.  I easliy have some choice words roll off my tongue! There are other times too; when someone doesn’t hold a door when they see me, or anyone else, right behind them-even with arms full- and they go ahead and let a heavy door swing back. They never think to hold the door open for one second. Yet, I do know, that once anyone is revealed, we can no longer be defined by our faces and sometimes even by an action. 

Paradigm shifts happen when more knowledge enters our perception. We wouldn’t lash out calling someone an ass if, for instance, we discovered that the person who cut us off just left a doctor’s office and just had bad diagnosis delivered. Or, if we knew, the person who didn’t hold a door was distracted because they just lost their job. With a little information compassion takes the lead in our interactions and judgments’. Truly, all humans are suffering because of their humanness; we all have something that is in our lives, on our minds, that is distressing.

Therefore, a face does not tell someone’s story and a single unthoughtful or reckless action shouldn’t define anyone either.