8th Kyu Essay

When I began Aikido, I was trying in earnest to see the connection between the physical training of the art and the many interactions in my daily life. I tried to understand each person I met in the same way I was trying to understand my connection to my training partner.

During the essay, I make the statement that there must be more settings to our compassion than on and off. I see it differently now. My current understanding has compassion in a permanent "on" state. However, the source of that resonance is different for me now. I am not sure I can explain it at this time. Anyway, this is what came out.

The Essay...

originally submitted in August of 2004

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Compassion

Is sympathy the same as compassion? Does it mean having a bleeding heart? With all the horrible things that happen each day, compassion means being aware that the people we encounter are affected by AIDS, rape, poverty, violence, hunger, hatred and all the various carriers of misery. It means being ready and accepting of those you meet in life that have been affected somehow by these many miseries.

In this day, our society is greatly desensitized to suffering. We have a reactive compassion. This is why it takes terrorist bombings in our own hemisphere, murders in our own town or disease in our own family to touch that sense of compassion. We react. Sometimes we pour ourselves into that situation, seeking to heal those wounds. Sometimes we stand helpless in the middle of our own fear and frustration. Then, as time

widens our distance from the event, and the vivid experience fades into memory, we

eventually return to the numb awareness of our daily lives. In this way, in many ways, we are not truly in touch with compassion.

Compassion is not a light switch. There are more settings than ON and OFF. What if we could maintain that contact with compassion? Not just when Uke is pulling, but when he is pushing. If we can engage this life; if we can engage this universe, then we can touch everywhere. When the universe pushes, we pivot and direct our energy into the universe. When it pulls, we can move in kind. When we stand off from the universe, the push rushes towards us and hits us like a freight train.

As you close with this universe, all becomes one in you. It does not require everyone on the planet to do the same. You transform the world from the ground on which you stand. This liberates us within the misery of the universe. Bombs will still explode, diseases will still weaken us, and babies will still die.

So what changes? The way in which we react is what changes.

How will we respond to this marvelous life? Will we blend with the flow of life, or will we let it hit us like a freight train? How will we engage the universe around us? Hopefully, we can learn to engage it with a continuous, ceaseless compassion.

Push, pivot. Pull, blend.

No gaps.