Authentic Impeccable Compassion - A Practice That Might Save the Human Species ...

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking.

Today, I wish to discuss the subject of authentic impeccable compassion with regards to our interactions with ‘others.’ So, what do I mean by the phrase authentic impeccable compassion (AIC). Well, I mean genuine, sympathetic consciousness for the distress of others, together with a desire to alleviate it, undertaken to the highest possible standards.

It means that no matter what the circumstances are, that we treat everybody with the highest degree of compassion, respect and love, not just when we are with them, but when we are not with them, perhaps discussing them with a friend or our family. There is even a higher degree called radical AIC, where we even check our thoughts and feelings about others, for negative representations. The practice of AIC will lead one to be continuously in a state of holding the other in the highest regard.

I use the word ‘authentic’ here because it must be a deeply trustworthy offering, which arises from the heart, and not just a disciplined ‘intellectual’ approach. Of course, in the beginning of the practice itself, it may need to be a more methodical approach. But the intention is that it is about holding compassion, love and respect for the other in the highest esteem.

Talking and thinking negatively behind people's back, will I suggest have in the long run a negative impact upon one's own self-worth! There is a beautiful aphorism, which states that ‘do onto others, as you would like them to do unto you.’ When one begins to practice radical AIC for others, then one is sending out a signal into the universe, that you will not let your complaining negative, parts grab your attention and pull you out of compassion for the other.

For when we begin to practice this approach, working on the basis that we are one inter-connected consciousness, then we are really respecting and having compassion for ourselves, because we recognise that inter-connectivity and see that when we ‘diss’ another, we actually ‘diss’ ourselves.

Compassion entails opening our hearts; compassion entails being empathetic with the other, even though they maybe acting in a way that could be disrespecting ourselves. It is essential to give the other the ‘benefit of the doubt,’ and not take the negative road of thinking poorly about them. For we don’t know what is going on for them, what their history is, what traumas are triggered and running in their systems; what type of day that they have had, which causes the dynamics of the negative interaction that we have just had with them. This is why it is more prudent to treat everybody with the highest level of compassion respect, empathy and love.

Dear reader, I urge you to contemplate upon this prospective process, for when we can check our thoughts about others, and examine them, digging deep into the potential root causes of the negative framing of the other, then we will perhaps find within ourselves, that perhaps we too have been treated by others in the same way. Are we only getting our own back, picking unconsciously on another in a spiteful way? Let us not forget all times that we have been hurt, where others have treated us badly, for all the traumas that we have experienced and suffered, which have been collected into our own unconscious. Perhaps the way that we treat others is an indirect consequence of all the amassed misdemeanours, which have been brought upon us. For we are full of biases, and unconscious grievances, simmering just below the surface of our consciousness. So how we treat others is sometimes a reflection of how we have been treated ourselves.

Negative suspicion about the motives of others, is perhaps the root cause of so many conflicts that have ravaged, not just our lives, but of all human interactions across history. Negative suspicion that the others want to do us harm, pervades perhaps our deepest fears and worries. Sooner or later, if we are to survive as a human species, this pervasive ‘stumbling block’ of negative suspicion, will need to come to some sort of end.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘be change that you want to see in the world.’ This is the challenge that humanity faces, we have reached the grand tipping point in our world, for the hour is later than we think it is, and global catastrophe looms large. Let us not bury our heads in the sand and turn away from the other in disgust or repulsion. The time is nigh, be that change, be the individual that looks to help more than to hinder, looks to accept more than to reject, looks to assist more than to be selfish.

So, implement radical authentic impeccable compassion into your life, bit by bit, moment by moment, day by day. Forgive yourself for any failures to implement this completely. At the close of each day, review your interactions with others, review what you said about others to your close friends and family, review the thoughts that you had about others. If you find that you were not as impeccable as you could have been, balance that incident out in your mind, visualising what you might have said, how you might have acted in a positive compassionate way. Send them love, send them compassion, send them respect. This will balance out any negativity that arose.

I propose that your life will radically improve if you can be a beacon of respect, the light of love, the heart of compassion, bestowing upon others your greatest concern, giving the gift of kindness and goodwill for the difficulties and challenges that others might be suffering, as if they are you - As if they are a mirror onto yourself, staring back at you, saying 'how may I be of service to you'?