In hindsight
God gives you a talent so that you can do your best to make the best of it, not so that you can insist that you're the best.
It's easy to say that, but practicing what you preach is a different matter. Often, experience is the only thing that can teach us lessons that we cannot learn through mere recitation. Experience is the only teacher that helps us to go beyond a mere intellectual delight in ideas; it brings us to understand the things that will make a real difference in our lives, and in the lives of others.
Experience will show you the best and worst things that lie within yourself.
We can never depend on ourselves to see where we've gone wrong in life. It doesn't matter if you're a decidedly rational and objective person, or born under the Libra star, or given authority by man to pass judgment over others. We are all imperfect, ill-shaped things, and we cannot see it, just as our physical eyes cannot observe our entire body on their own.
When someone decides to hold a mirror up to you, and call you out on all the things you cannot or will not face, you will get the chance to revisit your understanding of compassion. Is compassion always sweet, tender, and accepting? Perhaps, sometimes, it means hurting people and forgoing healing (in the basic sense), so that growth can begin anew.
Enough fear will help you to avoid doing evil. Enough shame will motivate you to pursue good deeds. Too much of either will paralyze you, making you unable to do the right thing, and rendering you incapable of having the right motivations. I'm sure that we've all had times when we were so ashamed that it was hard to go out and face the world... Sometimes our failures feel to heavy to bear... But I believe that we can accept our shame; we can accept that it has its place in our heart, not just as the emotional recognition of what is (or has been), but as the indicator for what can and should be. You can see it as the mark of personal inadequacy and shortcomings, but you can also come to recognize that it is a sign for you to go forward and improve yourself.
If you can come to see things in this way, then shame will no longer impede your willpower, but fuel it instead. When we reach that point, I know we'll be able to do bigger and better things, both for ourselves and for those whom we care about.
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The Vietnam trip is turning out to be more beneficial than I'd first imagined. It's an opportunity for us to revise our language foundations and to iron out all the dislocations and fractures that have gathered during the years.
Compassion
–noun
1.
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
“What you are comes to you” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"People who complain weaken their Ki. Those who understand the power of language speak less." -Kushinada Chikage, from "History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi".
It's easy to say that, but practicing what you preach is a different matter. Often, experience is the only thing that can teach us lessons that we cannot learn through mere recitation. Experience is the only teacher that helps us to go beyond a mere intellectual delight in ideas; it brings us to understand the things that will make a real difference in our lives, and in the lives of others.
Experience will show you the best and worst things that lie within yourself.
We can never depend on ourselves to see where we've gone wrong in life. It doesn't matter if you're a decidedly rational and objective person, or born under the Libra star, or given authority by man to pass judgment over others. We are all imperfect, ill-shaped things, and we cannot see it, just as our physical eyes cannot observe our entire body on their own.
When someone decides to hold a mirror up to you, and call you out on all the things you cannot or will not face, you will get the chance to revisit your understanding of compassion. Is compassion always sweet, tender, and accepting? Perhaps, sometimes, it means hurting people and forgoing healing (in the basic sense), so that growth can begin anew.
Enough fear will help you to avoid doing evil. Enough shame will motivate you to pursue good deeds. Too much of either will paralyze you, making you unable to do the right thing, and rendering you incapable of having the right motivations. I'm sure that we've all had times when we were so ashamed that it was hard to go out and face the world... Sometimes our failures feel to heavy to bear... But I believe that we can accept our shame; we can accept that it has its place in our heart, not just as the emotional recognition of what is (or has been), but as the indicator for what can and should be. You can see it as the mark of personal inadequacy and shortcomings, but you can also come to recognize that it is a sign for you to go forward and improve yourself.
If you can come to see things in this way, then shame will no longer impede your willpower, but fuel it instead. When we reach that point, I know we'll be able to do bigger and better things, both for ourselves and for those whom we care about.
---------------------------------------------------
The Vietnam trip is turning out to be more beneficial than I'd first imagined. It's an opportunity for us to revise our language foundations and to iron out all the dislocations and fractures that have gathered during the years.
Compassion
–noun
1.
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
“What you are comes to you” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"People who complain weaken their Ki. Those who understand the power of language speak less." -Kushinada Chikage, from "History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi".
Labels: retrospect
posted by moet at 9:13 AM
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