The Psychology Of Compassion
What makes us the way we are?
Our attitude is our karmic load.
Where did that attitude come from?
Attitude: an individual’s predisposed state of mind.
Where did the predisposition come from?
We have an abstract attitude (thoughts) and a concrete attitude (reaction).
Where do the abstract thoughts come from?
The pre-abstract.
‘Pre-abstract’ is a feeling before thought, and is either conscious or unconscious. It is whatever has influenced us subliminally, below the level of sensation or consciousness. Advertisers get our brains to identify a brand automatically before we even realise it: even pre-school children do it!
Most of the time, we aren’t talking to people 🙂 – we are talking to an attitude, a predisposition. We all recognise types, attitudes and realms in which we all dwell, if we know how to look: argumentative, lacking humour, proud, complaining, puffed up, hoping, fearing … When we have looked at our self, we will know how to look at others, and will be able to recognise every emotion.
First, we see that we have been manipulated by others who have also been manipulated, and we can empathise and forgive because … they know not what they do. Unless we can empathise, we cannot have compassion.
What we think of as our enemy is actually our teacher.
This is the psychology of compassion.