yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete puruṣhaṁ puruṣharṣhabha sama-duḥkha-sukhaṁ dhīraṁ so ’mṛitatvāya kalpate
The person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and is steady in both is certainly eligible for liberation – Bhagavad Gita 2.15
This month’s Jivamukti Focus was written by co-founder Sharon Gannon and entitled “Compassion During Crisis”. It is a beautifully crafted piece that offers a guide to the healing medicine we need so desperately in this challenging times.
The following is an excerpt from Sharon’s composition:
Devdutt Pattanaik, in his commentary on the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita speaks of the yogic development of darshan—clear perception that arises through compassion, “A world based on judgment evokes rage, life becomes a battleground where both sides feel like victims, where everyone wants to win at all costs, where someone will always lose. In judgment, the world is divided: good and bad, innocent and guilty, polluted and pure, oppressor and oppressed, privileged and powerless. In darshan, one sees a fluid world of cause and consequence, where there are no such divisions. A world created by observation evokes insight, hence affection, for we see the hunger and fear of all beings. Life becomes a performance on a stage. If you can empathize with the fears that make people heroes, villains and victims, then you are doing darshan. For then with compassion you can look beyond the boundaries that separate you from the rest.”
Sharon then goes on to reference Patanjali’s Yogasutra 1.33 (translation from the Jivamukti Yoga Chant Book):
maitrī-karuṇā-mudita-upekṣāṇāṁ sukha-duḥkha-puṇya-apuṇya-viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātaś citta-prasādanam
To preserve the innate serenity of the mind, a yogin should be happy for those who are happy, be compassionate toward those who are unhappy, be delighted for those who are virtuous, and be indifferent toward the wicked.
This teaching is also included in the Buddhist tradition wherein it is known as the Four Immeasurables and presented as the practice development of immeasurable love, immeasurable compassion, immeasurable empathetic joy, and immeasurable impartiality.
A few years ago, while hiking between monasteries in Nepal, I passed by a monastery tea shop and they had several books written by the abbot, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. I purchased a book entitled “Cultivating True Compassion - Bodhichitta and the Bodhisattva Vow” - Based on Atisha’s “Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment”.
https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-True-Compassion-Bodhichitta-Bodhisattva-ebook/dp/B00PL5KZYK
It’s been on my bookshelf in the “to read soon” section since (that section has a tendency to grow…). Then this Focus dropped into my Inbox and I remembered that I still hadn’t read the book. It’s a gem and I’ll be drawing from it throughout the month.
This passage, in particular, is speaking to me and I’ve greatly enjoyed sharing it with you: “Impartiality is developed by cultivating a state of mind in which you do not allow yourself to feel concern for some at the exclusion of others. You do not allow yourself to exclude any being from your concern, and you try to cultivate and equal amount of concern toward all beings. Once you have cultivated a state of impartiality to the point where your subsequent development of love and compassion will not lead to attachment to some and aversion to others, then on the basis of that impartiality you can cultivate actual love and compassion.”
Mic drop.
Hope to see you in class soon!
Om mani padme hum.