The latest book I am reading, A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World by Daniel Goleman, invites us to look at compassion in a new way. Muscular compassion is what the Dalai Lama calls compassion in action. What a great title?! He goes on to talk about the 3 main ingredients of compassion in action; transparency, fairness and accountability. Also not three words that I naturally connect with compassion. He moves beyond just kindness and gives us a grander picture.
The Dalai Lama explains the 3 principles that exude muscular compassion. With fairness, he asks that everyone be treated the same. With transparency, he asks for honesty and openness and with accountability he asks that everyone is answerable for misdeeds. This gives us the next step after inviting small acts of kindness into our daily lives.
Our society is so out of practice, I am always encouraging others to demonstrate compassion through small acts of kindness. Now I can take it further with openness, fairness and finding different ways to hold myself and others accountable. I have enlisted an accountability buddy when making big decisions and also when resetting goals. Perhaps now I can enlist one to also help me stay fair and honest.
He encourages us to use our emotions in the best way possible. Use anger in constructive ways to respond to injustice effectively. His description of compassion is about opposing the act, but loving the person. As he says, "Even if a person's actions are destructive, maintain a sense of concern for their well-being; if you have the ability, you must stop wrongdoing." For me, this certainly works hand in hand with forgiveness. I can forgive and do not forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment