Shabbat Experiment Week 2 - Compassion

This Shabbat the Torah portion contains the story of Noah and the flood. It is a story of compassion (for Noah and the animals in the ark) and lack of compassion for all other creatures killed by the flood. Our theme on October 24th will be compassion--compassion to others---compassion to our selves.

God created the world and then is disappointed in humanity's inability to live up to God's vision. God brings the flood to wipe the slate clean and start over again. But I would like to suggest that God comes to understand that you can never start over again. The past is always present. Nor is perfection a realistic goal for human beings. Then God places a rainbow in the sky as a sign that God will never destroy the world again. No matter how disappointed, God and the world will go on. The rainbow with all its colors suggests that life consists of the diversity of human endeavor--its successes and failures.

Our world is a world of compassion--where forgiveness not just justice are the basic operating principles. A basic Buddhist meditation begins with the sending of compassion out in to the world. Then you send compassion to people you know; then compassion to close friends and family. Finally you give compassion to yourself.
Compassion is bringing a gentleness rather than anger to your life. The verse for the week is: Haboteah b'adonai hesed yisoveveini-translated as follows: if you approach life with some faith and trust, with an open heart then hesed yisoveveini then you will be surrounded with love. If you have faith in the goodness of the universe that allows you to live a life surrounded by hesed--love rather than fear, envy or anger.

The flood is only over for Noah when he is willing to open the ark/his heart and to send out a dove into a world of seeming devastation. The dove will return carrying an olive branch and thereby become a symbol of hesed yisoveveini--the love that surrounds us.

Below is a teaching on compassion.

Open Yourself to Yourself

When you don't punish or condemn yourself, when you relax more and appreciate your body and mind, you begin to contact the fundamental notion of basic goodness in yourself. So it is extremely important to be willing to open yourself to yourself. Developing tenderness toward yourself allows you to see both your problems and your potential accurately. You don't feel that you have to ignore your problems or exaggerate your potential. That kind of gentleness toward yourself and appreciation of yourself is very necessary. It provides the ground for helping yourself and others.

Chögyam Trungpa, "The Sanity We Are Born With" (Shambhala Publications)