Dear John B,
I would agree that "...compassion that shields another from the truth, which can be hurtful, or frightening, in an attempt to lessen his or her pain, is not compassion at all..." Pain is natural IMO and, therefore, should not and cannot always be avoided. True compassion, it seems, requires wisdom, tolerance, and a great deal of patience.
the Bard
----- Original Message -----
From: John Beasley
To: moq_discuss@moq.org
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 4:30 AM
Subject: Re: MD Overdoing the dynamic
Hullo Bard,
You said "The catalyst for creation (Dynamic Quality) is passion; and the catalyst for creative responsibility (necessary to sustain a viable Static Quality) is compassion."
It's a great aphorism, but I'm still thinking about it.
I suspect one can have a passion for truth, and a passion for beauty; and there are real differences between them. Perhaps that is not significant.
Compassion is in the intersubjective realm, and that is the one Pirsig seems to have most difficulty with. I am very taken with the mystic understanding of compassion, which roughly equates to being aware of the amount of pain another can bear in the pursuit of the truth. (Adapted from A. H. Almaas.) This pulls together the individual's pursuit of truth and concern for others. According to Almaas a compassion that shields another from the truth, which can be hurtful, or frightening, in an attempt to lessen his or her pain, is not compassion at all. True compassion is to speak that truth which another can hear, despite any pain it may bring.
Does this fit with your understanding of compassion?
John B
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:01:42 BST