Whenever we come across such life-situations we generally find ourselves in great dilemma whether to express feelings of compassion, etc. or not.

Why do we decide to limit ourselves? What is that element which tries to pull us back? It is only through the spontaneous expression of these feelings that we can truly know what we essentially are. Won’t it be a better option to eagerly await such opportunities rather than simply shy away from them?

Let us examine this issue a little deeply. Since we have been brought up and conditioned in a society where true expression of our feelings is considered cowardly, we have developed it into a habit. At a grown-up stage, hiding the emotions seems the only way to live life. Yet, the whole purpose of bestowing mankind with a multitude of emotions would be defeated if we decide to suppress them. The emotions are the tools which connect us to our roots, the most potent channels to carry the messages across the world. Let us not try to block the channels. Whatever is sweet, delicate, loving and tender in life is being carried through these channels. And compassion is one such feeling which should be allowed to travel freely.

The seeds of love and compassion have been deeply ingrained into our system by nature. But we have not allowed these seeds to germinate. They have to be consciously invoked and nurtured to germinate and grow.

The only pre-requisite is to acknowledge their existence within us and to provide the right nutrition and environment. Some of the techniques for this are:

Remember a loving incident

Try to remember some incident where you have been deeply loved by some one. Remember the situation with all its associated feelings and sensations as to how deeply you felt the surge of loving tenderness, how you responded to the situation in a wholesome manner. Visualize the scene in graphic details. As you go deeper into the specifics of the situation, recapitulate the sensations in your body. At these moments, the very fountain of compassion, which has been lying inactive, is energized and our potential power to express love and compassion gets unleashed.
Once our psychological system is saturated with these fond memories, then compassion overflows. Then the fragrance of compassion will charge the environment around us. At such opportune moments, we may choose to direct the flow towards our close friends and colleagues including the strangers as well. The best results can be obtained by including those who might have indicted hurt upon us in the past and even enemies who may get transformed with the over-whelming power of compassion.

Feel like others

In this technique, we direct our mind to understand the sameness with that of the other person. It is a real fact that howsoever different we may appear to be from each other, we are essentially made up of the same stufff. At a deeper level, we are all one. We all go through the similar experiences of joy and sorrow. The intensity and quality of hurt, which is felt by the other person at any depressing moment, is the same that we have all felt at one time or the other.
When our mind accepts the idea of sameness even at intellectual level, it breaks open the doors of our heart. This level of understanding has the power to bring our sense of universal connectivity into our experiential reality. At these moments, we feel open and connected to the other person. This instantly unlocks the hidden reservoir of compassion to flow out. In this technique, we transcend the limitation of mind.

Exchanging places

This technique involves exchanging one’s position with that of the other, who is in distress. This may seem to be a little difficult at first. Our mind will resist this idea for the simple reason that our ego may get threatened. The point from where we perceive a given situation is the result of all our past thoughts, memories, identifications, material possessions, social status. We tend to cling to this point and like to operate within this comfort zone. However, it’s not that we have never done it before. We have gone through these situations when our close relatives, may be our parents or our daughter or spouse has been physically or psychologically hurt. We have felt the same pain, in our minds as that of our ailing spouse. Remembering such a situation may help us in stepping into the shoes of the other person and perceive the reality from his viewpoint.

This exchange of position opens the flood gates of loving kindness, transforming and filling our hearts with abundant compassion. Our whole system starts brimming over with celestial joy and compassion tends to overflow.

We feel connected to the infinite reservoir. This is in line with the law of Universe, which knows only giving out. As soon as we are in alignment with universal life nergy, we become a medium to give out more and more.

In this technique, we have used the image of a close relative or friend to invoke the feeling of empathy within ourselves. Since our motive is driven by the sense of reaching out to the other and render all possible help, all the beings involved in this exercise are ultimately going to benefit immensely.
The person who is reaching out, the person who has helped invoke the feeling of empathy and the person towards whom the compassion is flowing - all feel the blessings from higher plane.
Such is the all-encompassing power of compassion. It immerses one and all with the immensity of glorious experience.
The writer is Additional Chief Engineer, Water and Power Consultancy Services (I) Ltd.