A recent post on Raptitude has got me using a new Sanskrit word: Dukkha. It's cool. It reminds me of "dookie", which is exactly the kind of connotation it should have.
Dukkha is like the Buddhist term for... uh... Life outside of the moments when you're happy. It's like when clouds are blocking the sun. In Seattle.
Anyway, meditation gave me some instructions I'd like to share. With myself. I have a hard time separating the problems of people around me from my own, and it was very good advice. No idea where it came from. Maybe the paper I wrote it on has some idea. Anyway, as it goes:
Do not take on, adopt, another's dukkha. It is a poor copy, and only a strengthening of your attachment to your own.
The true goal, Compassion is the understanding that all possess their own dukkha, that we all share angst and frustration, that it is what we have in common.
Compassion... Do not demand another to release his attachment to dukkha. To some, the attachment is the most rewarding thing they can see. Your attachment to the results of that demand fortifies your own. Compassion is letting others alone with their dukkha, and understanding their plight. And your own.
Everyone wants to be happy.
And everyone wants happy neighbors.
That this is not a reality is universal; it makes it so. Unites us.
Feeling at peace because relative suffering is universal? I feel like some weight has been lifted from my heart. No one suffers alone. And yet, no one is ever rescued from dukkha.
There is no one to rescue another. You may only release your self from your own.
Might write another one, since this was not "fresh brain juice" as promised. To myself...
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