*Compassion*


B:  SHARING!

Q:  As I've been accelerating I've noticed just recently that people that
I'm close to are being concerned for me.

B:  All right.  (Audience laughter)

Q:  And what my reaction to that is: concern, that they're concerned.
I don't wish them to... ah... fear for me... or...

B:  All right.

Q:  ... but obviously I don't make....

B:  Do they fear for themselves?

Q:  That's what I think they might be doing. Maybe it's threatening their
belief system or something. I....

B:  Maybe, maybe not.

Q:  But I realize that I have no control of that, and I don't want to.
But I just don't want to create...

B:  If you are always clear and concise within YOUR openness of
communication and your integrity, in this way, then you are being
responsible /to/ /them/ by being yourself.

Q:  Umm um. Another thing I would like to talk about is compassion.

B:  Yes.

Q:  When I feel someone is having a problem or a physical ailment or
whatever... an obstacle that they feel they have...

B:  Yes.

Q:  ...I /feel/ for them in a... I understand what you mean when you say you
don't say you're sorry.

B:  Or pity.

Q:  Or pity them, exactly.  But I feel for them and I...

B:  Yes, compassion is not pity.

Q:  What is your definition of compassion?

B:  Compassion is recognizing... it is similar to what you usually think of
as... pride. Not in a negative sense. You are proud of them for the
strength that they have, to undergo the limitation they have created for
themselves. And you KNOW that they have created it from their strength and
they can choose something else if they desire to. But as long as they are
in what they have chosen to be in, you have compassion for them as a fellow
being, who has chosen to express their strength in the manner that they
have chosen to do.

Q:  Umm.

B:  That is compassion.

Q:  I feel more a sense of feeling what they're feeling....

B:  That is empathy.

Q:  Yea, I guess that is it.

B:  You can form that type of identification if you wish, and still do not
have to allow it to transform into /sympathy./  

Q:  Yes, it is not sympathy, it is more of an empathy.

B:  All right.

Q:  And in this way it does not make you cold. Recognize that individuals
in your society are not used to exercising /compassion./
And compassion, because it is in a sense a KNOWING state of existence, may
seem to be detached from the, so to speak, normal range of emotions.

B:  That is the next thing ... you just told me that I'm not emotional.

B:  Understand in this way, emotionality is a tool like anything else and
it falls in your terms, below knowingness. If you are in a knowing state
you simply know what you need to know, without necessarily having to go
down through the gamut of the emotion to understand it.

Q:  Exactly.

B:  You are not without compassion and understanding. And in this way, if
that allows you in the eyes of another to maybe seem aloof or cold, simply
recognize again that if you know you are functioning within your integrity
and are willing to communicate this idea to them IN compassion, then you
have preformed your responsibility to them; and you can, beyond that, not
be responsible for their choice of reaction.

Q:  Umm um.

B:  Allow them to share the idea and see if it is something that they also
might be able to get in touch with for themselves - while they do not have
to chose it.

Q:  Thank you.

B:  THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SHARING!