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Transforming fear into compassion.


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I strived during my life to be compassionate. As a physician always took all the time a patient needed to be listened to and for that reason my practice remained small, this was my choice to be empathetic /almost too much/. I was told by my Buddhist monk patient that I have earned merit. I still do not feel the rewards of being compassionate. I am fearful about my wife’s health condition, I am stressed, anxious and fearful. The Buddha teaches that fear can be transformed into compassion. How ?? How come that I am compassionate and still feel fear, anxiety. Please explain this and enlighten me. I am grateful for any comment.

  • 2 months later...
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Posted

Roshi Joan Halifax has a great Ted talk on compassion:

https://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifax_compassion_and_the_true_meaning_of_empathy/up-next

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Also her book "Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet" seems to be written for our conversation here. 

@Compassionate I am sure there's manyothers out there asking very similar questions.

  • 8 months later...
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When I started to join Buddhist societies in my adulthood, I realized compassion is always been one of the "top priorities" in our practice or objectives. Not that I'm short of compassion, I always noticed something amiss about the "compassion" promoted by my fellow practitioners. They tend to unknowingly tied their compassion to a "hoped" outcome. And probably because of our Eastern culture , everyone hoped to gain good merits through the process. But I never buy into that, nor I coached myself to have a compassionate heart.


To me, compassion has no string attached and is very pure by itself. To have it coming naturally to my mind and fused into my body would be the greatest reward. How about the other receiving party? Why worry? If you are so pure, their heart would have received it warmly, no matter what would be the outcome.

We don't have to be "forever" compassionate; just one solid heartfelt compassion would be enough to melt your heart for your entire life! And once you felt it, there's no turning back. ?

 

  • 11 months later...
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Posted

This is a very powerful practice. I find my attempts not always successful in this, but if you know how to do it, then you have really reached a high level.

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