“Should We Have Compassion… For Some People and Not Others?”

I was confronted with someone the other day who was angry. He’s usually very composed and never upset. But today he was ranting and raving that someone hurt his feelings. And I asked him: Should we only have compassion for special people?

Are We to Have Compassion for Those Who Hurt Us?

It’s really easy to have compassion for people who are kind and loving. But compassion is more than just caring for those we love. Even the Dalai Lama has compassion for those who took his country away.

Are We to Have Compassion for Those Who Do Evil?

Many people would say that if someone does evil they don’t deserve my compassion! Yet that is not what compassion is all about. Compassion is for everyone, even those who do the worst things in the world. It does not absolve them of what they have done but we can have compassion for them as a wounded child that is lashing out. For some people, I feel this would be hard to do. In fact, s while back, a man went to an Amish School and killed many children and all the Amish people got together and prayed for the gunman and forgave him.

Are We to Have Compassion for People We Don’t Like?

What about having compassion for people that are not in our top ten hit parade? People that we tend to dislike, even political people? Can we have compassion for them and still send them love even though we don’t agree with them? Compassion is universal it has no boundaries… is your compassion universal?

Are We to Have Compassion for Difficult People?
I had a family member who was very difficult and early on in my lifetime I would get angry. But as I grew I started seeing him as just a little boy who was never loved. And because of that, the only way he felt he could get attention was to be difficult with everyone in his life. At least having people upset with him was better than not having any attention at all. Thus I could see the little boy who needed love and could love the little boy within.

Are We to Have Compassion for People Who Bother Us?

Sometimes we have people who are downright terrible to us and want to call us names and do anything they can to make our lives miserable. Can we have compassion for these people? I feel that Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and many others were people who could look beyond the trappings of the outer person and see their soul. And yes everyone has a bit of light in their heart that is covered up by lots of stuff that obscures their love. But the avatars, the great teachers of old, could love them and compassion for them no matter what. Is this what we are to do? Are we trying hard enough to make that happen? I see this every single day, people are becoming more irate instead of having more compassion and love for everyone.

If we are to survive as a human species I feel that we need to have universal compassion for all beings… perhaps this is our species great learning lesson.

Many Blessings to Everyone!

Dr. Paul Haider