THE PRACTICE OF COMPASSION IS EVERYWHERE
The practice of compassion is everywhere, and everywhere available
One of the most difficult realizations which emerges from the recent debacle is how much we do not control. That is a hard lesson, perhaps even more difficult because many of us thought we were heading into a better place and are now realizing that we are entering into a darker one.
However, there is another realization available to us. It is a difficult realization and a hard truth, but it is the nature of Samsara that there is a great deal of suffering in the world which, as individuals or even as local communities, we cannot alleviate. We can be mindful of that distant suffering, in Gaza or Ukraine or Afghanistan or our own North American rural and urban poverty, and we can work within our limited means to contribute to its alleviation and redress.
But we will not end it on a global scale. Suffering is eternal, and much of it happens at such a remove and at such a scope of cruelty that as individuals or as small communities we cannot stop it.
One Tibetan teacher I know said that, if one witnesses suffering and can take action to alleviate that suffering, the Dharma demands that we do so. But, the teacher said, if it is suffering of which we are aware but which we truly cannot alleviate with any immediacy, the teaching is is to remove that from the mind, to avoid dwelling upon it, at least long enough to preserve one's own sense of agency. The alternative is the psychological equivalent of doom scrolling —and doom scrolling feeds this endless consumption of distant and seemingly irredeemable suffering: distant wars, genocide, starvation, environmental degradation, abuse of the vulnerable. The axiom is, “If you can alleviate the suffering, take steps to do so.” But the more difficult part of the axiom is, “If you cannot alleviate the suffering, keep it out of your mind when necessary: because simply consuming it at a distance feeds us a sense of helplessness and despair.”
As an alternative, my own observation, my own commitment to self, is to remain mindful that there is suffering all around us, on immediate and tiny scales, as well as distant and overwhelmingly enormous ones. Take the trapped moth outside. Sweep your neighbor's front porch. Use the recycling bin. Water thirsty plants. Identify the tags on the lost dog and help it get back home–or a good new one. Find the local organizations for which you can volunteer an hour. and engage with others who are doing the same work. Get up from the chair. Practice self care. Spend time outside, moving, talking, drinking water, feeling the air and the sun and the wind and the cold.
There is suffering everywhere around us, including that which is distant or out of our control. We cannot alleviate it all. We can be aware of it, but we cannot allow that awareness to paralyze us or lead us to despair.
In order to step away from despair, we look to our immediate surroundings. We look at those small things, many local, that can be fixed, or at which the beginning of a fix can be made. We look at those beings proximate to us who are suffering, perhaps in small as well as in large ways. And we make conscious choices, moment by moment, with present awareness, to engage with that proximate suffering, and to alleviate it with immediacy, attention, and compassion.
It’s all we have.