compassion

[kvnchrist]

What is more important in being a compassionate person. Is it the way you see yourself or the way you see others around you. I know that everybody needs to provide for themselves, as much as possible, but should we not do what we can for our fellow man. Should we only be helping those that are actively helping themselves, or should we invest our time and resources even to those who have all but gave up on themselves?

 

Should our compassion be based on the rate of progress anyone we try to help makes in becoming sufficiently able to provide for themselves, or should we, at some time step away and let a person, who seemingly is stalled out in life continue down the path they've chosen?

 

How far should we go to reach out to even the most self destructive of those in our society.

 

Is it compassion or stupidity to physically reaching out to these people, even placing ourselves and our security in jeopardy, to help those that are down and out? By jeopardy, I mean going down in rough neighborhoods to fix up houses for the needy,

[Nintii]

What is more important in being a compassionate person. Is it the way you see yourself or the way you see others around you ?

 

Well it's not so much how I "see myself", it's more a case of "if I don't love myself then how can I love anyone else".

My compassion for people is directly related to the amount of "love" I have in my heart ... if I am a person of little love then you can be sure of one

thing ... that I'm not going to love you very much either.

 

The only alternative is that I'm doing it for a return ... spiritual, finacial, political etc.

 

This love that I have in my heart does not or rather should not act in isolation ... Question, would you drive down the freeway open your window and toss out

your money into the wind ? ... No, of course not, that's beyond dumb.

So then why would you throw your money - because that seems to be the direction that your "compassion" is blowing, Into a "hole" where people don't want

to do anything for themselves and expect handouts for nothing ... No, the people who TRY should receive my compassion and those who don't care

shouldn't receive anything.

 

One of my favorite programs is "The Secret Millionaire" I have only seen the UK version ... A millionaire will go for a week into a poor rundown neighborhood and

pretend to be "just getting by" themselves, they will then look for people who need help and at the end of the week they will give away sometimes 50, 60 70,000 pounds

to the needy.

Guess what ? ... THEY ONLY EVER HELP THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTIVELY DOING SOMETHING ... you see, people with money understand the value

of action ...

And people of no money fail to see that ...

So to conclude this portion, I will say that: COMPASSION (LOVE) + WISDOM see's ACTIVITY, which results in RELEASE of COMPASSION which is MONEY.

 

"How far" should we go to help those who need help, well I would go to those who had a "program" of some sort and assist them who need assistance, they

would obviously be far better equpped and knowledgable than you and I as to the nature of the people who need the help.

This would also eliminate me having to go to places which would not be beneficial to me or others.

There are some neighbor hoods where i live that a single kilometers walk would see you being raped, robbed and possibly murdered ... so how extremely

intelligent would it be for me to go there ? ... not even going to answer that one, except to say, leave it to the people from that neighborhood who are actively

involved in assisting what they already know.

 

The problem KVN, is that those in a position to show compassion don't, even a small monthly donation to the local crowd who feed the homeless would be a

start ... and I'm pretty sure that once you get involved in something even this small, it's sure to ignite your love for people.

[marharth]

Being able to see yourself in others situations is what compassion is really about.

 

Quite a few people seem to lack that ability.

[Tidus44]

Compassionate? No, not ever. Particularly when it comes to helping someone.

Altruistic, I can live with and if anything this is more likely.

 

I really only have 2 rules when it comes to being involved in some cause to help.

The semi-hysterical discourse of the compassionate advocate tends to have me walk away – at least from them. Generally, I find their idea of “help” is not necessarily the way those requiring help need or want. I’m more concerned that those seeking help want or need it than supporting the compassionate cry for action.

The second is if the advocate isn’t beside me all the way, then I’m not there. I find the compassionate to be much less of a doer than a talker and typically have excuses for not doing more than providing lip service to their cause.

 

If anything, I prefer an individual with a sense of duty, who I rarely fail to be impressed with and become involved in their cause. In most cases they are committed to actually helping rather than being emotional about something.

 

As for how far does one go to provide help (and I mean real help), you help those who need it and want it and you help them in a way that provides the best result for them. Sometimes that achieves no actual progress, and at times it’s just sufficient to not having the situation get worse. You can’t help everyone, especially those who do not need it or want it and who can even resent the attempt.