Dear Spiritual Partner,
Compassionate Holidays require that you act consciously each moment.
Unconscious caretaking and pleasing others (giving gifts because it is the
"season") are NOT
compassionate deeds. They ignore the humanity of the recipient because the
recipient is being exploited by frightened parts of your personality. This type
of interaction multiplied billions of time each "Holiday Season"
makes the experience much less than it could be.
Compassion is being moved to and by acts of
the heart.
I am not speaking of the sentimental "heart," the "heart"
that feels pity and need to fix other's problems (these are experiences of
frightened parts of the personality). I am speaking of the most healthy,
inclusive, grounded, and loving part of yourself. If this heart is not
involved, no compassion is present. Therefore a compassionate Holiday, like a
compassionate family dinner or a compassionate country requires you to replace
the experiences of frightened parts of your personality (which also include
anger, impatience, frustration, and judging) with the experiences of loving parts (gratitude, appreciation, patience,
caring). This creates authentic power.
People who do not know about
authentic power want very much to experience compassion, especially during the
Holiday Season, but they don't know how so they try to will compassion into
themselves. This makes compassion even more difficult to experience because the
effort to experience it is really an effort to make themselves feel better,
which is the opposite of compassion.
Most people are not aware of this
close relationship between creating authentic power and experiencing
compassion, but it is obvious to those who know even a little once they begin
to think about it. You cannot be compassionate and angry at the same time, or
compassionate and jealous at the same time, or intend to exploit someone and be
compassionate with that person at the same time.
There is no such thing as compassionate Holidays. There are only
compassionate individuals, and in each instance, compassion is a matter
of choice
- the choice to create authentic power, to challenge frightened parts of your
personality and cultivate loving parts. A compassionate Holiday is impossible
without a compassionate day before the holiday, day after the holiday, and
compassionate days before and after those.
Happy Holi (Holy) Days,
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