The Practice Of Being Kind

The practice of Dharma is genuine compassion. It’s understanding the cause of why we suffer, with the intention of doing something about it through disentanglement = clarity.

It’s like gently untangling an owl from a fishing net, with the wise old owl understanding what the intention is. This is what Dharma should be about – disentanglement. We might, however, find a snappy little chihuahua in the net who doesn’t understand our intention, so we have to more mindful. 🙂

The point is that we do not ignore or dismiss a situation as being someone else’s karma. If we have no intention of communicating, we’re not a practitioner, but just an passive observer – while we’re ignoring our karma.

Most people steer clear of troublesome situations as they just want to project and protect an image, rather than connecting. This is not Dharma. Practice means practising actively, being practical.

We cannot untangle anyone if we refuse to touch the net. True compassion is not a sterile passive concept. It requires stepping into messy, complicated situations and applying deep mindfulness to alleviate suffering.

Dharma is not a one-size-fits-all formula. It demands that we look at the entity in front of us, assess their specific conditions, and adjust our energy to match their unique suffering.

Experience teaches us to have empathy with those who are suffering, and compassion for those who are ‘happy’.

We don’t run away to sit on our cushion and chant.