For the last several weeks, the quote below, on happiness, keeps popping up either in my email or on sites that I look at.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. - the Dalai Lama
I decided that I really needed to look at my happiness and look at whether I was truly happy. We know that happiness comes from inside you and not from external sources. And yet, as I examined my life and my home and yard and all our friends and neighbours, I concluded that I am happy. I love my life! I love that we have beautiful flowers and a bountiful garden and herb garden. I love that we can sit and have coffee on the deck in the morning. I love that I have time to meditate and to walk in Nature, and to sit on the Earth and feel the life that flows from it.
I then looked at my compassion. The meaning of compassion as defined by the University of Berkeley in California is:
Compassion literally means “to suffer together
.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. - https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/compassion/definition#:~:text=Compassion%20literally%20means%20%E2%80%9Cto%20suffer,though%20the%20concepts%20are%20related.
Based on this definition, compassion is at the far end of my bar of happiness. I do not feel compelled to search out people that are suffering. I realize that compassion is something that I need to work on.
May you all have much happiness in your days.
Many blessings,
Judy
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Thanks for reading this blog post. Sharing is good if it is kind and either has questions or tells about an experience. (Rudeness and profanity are excluded.)
Blessings,
Judy