posted on Dec, 1 2019 @ 12:48 AM
Nothing teaches us compassion like suffering does.
We're all capable of suffering - all on the verge of it, and in one state, in one mode, we can act like we are bigger than the objects we speak of.
Petty issues which need to be handled RIGHT NOW with my vociferous fury - or a toned down, condescending criticism - pour out of a person when they
aren't operating with the intersubjective precision that reality demands from us.
Motivations
Motivations are hard. I spend my days studying the most complex subjects, and I consider myself very informed in the realm of what motivates humans;
and yet, I constantly overstep, constantly go too far. Its a lack of discipline, a lack of care for the other person whose needs - sensitivities - are
less important than the information I need to share with them. This is a frequent enough occurrence that I can readily say that I have a definite
problem here. And so does most of us. We all have issues with speaking when we need to speak, and not speaking when we need to keep quiet.
The issue really boils down to having the right values. If I value in the right way, I will act in the right way.
Prickly Time
Time makes us suffer. If I'm afraid of not being able to sleep, there's a whole slew of time-based reasons for that. If someone looks at me a
certain way, it takes time for me to fret about it. For good reason have human beings come to hate time. Only a person who has never suffered can fail
to gather the motivation behind the desire to deny time.
Time is an illusion in the sense that it is always the now. Time exists - but its a sort of "newness" quality. Something new is always emerging, and
we should be looking forward, and not back.
Yet, the truth is, denying time, denying memory, is a recipe for future disaster on a scale much greater than any suffering time may inflict upon you.
In sickness, time needs to go bye-bye; but in health, you need to pay every bit of attention to the past and to the future in order to maintain an
ideal relationship to the now and future now's. How many people do we mistreat because we fail to take seriously the significance of a persons
history? Their history matters - as does mine, yours and every thing that exists.
This makes tensed time a very subtle, very difficult matter, as we both need to shove it aside when we suffer, and yet we need to pay attention to it
when we're healthy. The rules-of-existence are constantly changing, constantly revolving, and we got to be attentive to the situations we're in to
know which rules apply at which times.
I know all too well this lesson. I've been tortured by reality on many different occasions, and right now, with stomach issues, a cold, and insomnia,
I am finding myself frustrated with the difficulties existence foists on humans.
Yet Solomon's wisdom will probably end up being true: there's a time for everything. Every situation merits a different response; and every moment
transforms into a new moment, with a new set of truths which make the facts of yesterday seem unreal.
But it is the acme of wisdom to learn from suffering. It is the acme of compassion to take that suffering and deploy it to help the lives of other
humans who can avoid it. Maybe much of what we regard as our 'wisdom traditions' contains wisdom learned in just this manner - with suffering
leading to compassionate service for the rest of humanity?
For me, I don't want to get angry at time, or existence, or reality. I want to learn so I can get better at living, and at thriving with life.