We held our Monthly Meditation & Communi-Tea practice yesterday at Yoga Bliss. One Sunday a month we will offer students more time to go a little deeper and make new friends. We’re drawing inspiration from Karen Armstrong’s “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life”. Ms. Armstrong is a best selling author and TED Prize Winner who created and launched the Charter for Compassion.

Last month we focused on the 1step:  learning about compassion. This week’s  2nd step: taking a deep hearted look at the world around us and focusing on how we can actualize compassion within our family, workplace and nation.  Life passes quickly while we are swept up in our day to day busyness and digital distractions.  Having a regular mindfulness practice – developing a habit of pausing to simply be in the present moment completely aware of unadorned experience – makes a sincere examination of the world possible.

We can learn about the workings of our own minds and, hopefully, come to understand this human nature we share more clearly.  In our second meditation period, we did a “commonalities practice” drawn from the resource material at Seeds of Compassion.   At the root of it all, we are all human beings. We need food, and shelter, and love. We crave attention, and recognition, and affection, and above all, happiness. We reflected on these commonalities.  You can do this practice any time you cross paths with someone:  a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger. See them in your mind’s eye, do the best you can to feel their presence. Tell yourself:

 “Just like me, this person is seeking happiness in his/her life.”
 “Just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her life.”
 “Just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness and despair.”
 “Just like me, this person is seeking to fill his/her needs.”
 “Just like me, this person is learning about life.”

Karen writes that creating a compassionate family life is one of the ways we can all make a constructive contribution to a more empathetic society in the future. She asks how we can make our families  schools for compassion, where we learn the value of treating all others with respect?   We used reflection questions to consider our relationship with our families.

How do I really feel about my family?  
How do we nourish each other?  
How do we handle our arguments and disagreements?  
How do I model empathy and compassion for my family?

In her book, she asks us to consider our workplace and realistic criterion for a compassionate company.  If your profession made a serious attempt to become more compassionate, what impact would this have on your environment and global community? Do we treat fellow workers as cogs in the wheel – like tools?  Is our competitive drive feeding a destructive “me-first” attitude?  She encourages us to take a dispassionate look at our nation. What do we love most about it?  What has it done for the world in the past, what can it realistically do to make the world a more just, fair, safe and peaceful place? Has our country been guilty of oppressing peoples in the past or present?  How compassionate are our penal and social systems, our health care and environmental policies? How does we treat immigrants and ethnic minorities? Is there gross inequality between rich and poor?

As a way of practicing this 2nd step I decided to read Matt Taibbi’s latest book: The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap.  I’m learning, between bouts of incredulous outrage, about income inequality in the United States and its impact on our justice and legal system.  We talked about how easy it is to be overwhelmed at the scope of our problems and to sink into the quagmire of inaction.  Yet I feel we are so incredibly privileged, we have a responsibility to act.  The Dalai Lama prays that together we may feel we are

“. . . fortunate to have woken up, to be alive, to have a precious human life . . . let’s not waste it. Let’s use all our energies to develop, to expand our hearts out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Let us have kind thoughts towards others; let us extend tolerance and understanding to others; let us to benefit others as much as I can.”

It’s up to each of us to take concrete steps to actualize compassion.  Long time social activist, Joanna Macy, reminds us that we have the courage to see and the power to choose.  She conducts trainings around the world in The Work That Reconnects to empower us to keep taking the next steps.  We can start by considering these five vows:

To commit myself daily to the healing of the world and the welfare of all beings.
To live in Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products and energy I consume.
To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, from our ancestors and the future generations, and from our brothers and sisters of all species.
To help others in their work for the world and to ask for help when I feel the need.
To pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart and supports me in observing these vows.

This work is never done – it’s a way of life.

You can find some practice suggestions and resources at:

February Meditation & Commune-Tea Suggestions & Resources