“Seeing others as basically compassionate instead of hostile and selfish helps us relax, trust and live at ease. It makes us happier.”
Reading this, my thoughts came to some people, and even students, whom I have found myself disliking at work.
I tried to come from the viewpoint of – we are all victims of the system. No one wants to be in such a system, yet it is where we all are. None of us started it, yet we are all in it. No one wants to be judged, yet we are all forced to pass judgement, formal or otherwise, on each other. Isn’t that enough to make one feel a stronger sense of compassion for everyone?
And if I could learn to see that others may not always mean what they say, and look at their intentions instead of their words at face value – I might start to realise that behind every seemingly harsh word and action, is also a being who yearns to be accepted, to be told that they are doing their job well, to be loved and to be understood. Isn’t that enough to generate a sense of compassion towards even those who appear mean and rude?
And if we could learn to see everyone in a better light, it would make us less troubled by them, their words and actions. It would, ultimately, make us happier, because we would really feel that the people around us are not hostile and selfish. We would then try to be nice and caring towards them, and they in turn would become more nice and caring towards us. It’s a positive cycle.
This is if we lived in an ideal world, of course. If we were all saints, we would be able to do so with the snap of a finger, and I would not be sitting here, typing thoughts like these out.
Till that time comes, I guess I’ll have to be content with trying. And trying. And trying 🙂
Along Life's Path 