Compassion

Power and Compassion are related ways of interacting with people. They come from the same place. They are sisters of the same mother. They are related by being opposite ends of one great continuum.

I have spent so much of my life fascinated with the way people control and influence each other. My question has been the same...Why? Why do we do it? Why are we so determined? Why do we even want to?

Call it my upbringing or my ethic or my over-moralist mindset - but to me with the ability to influence people comes the responsibility to take care of them. If you are going to have an impact on the way someone acts, or the choices that they make in their life, you have a responsibility to be sure that your use of control, influence or seduction is done with more than your own best interests in mind.

When you think about that, it sounds more than a little naive and maybe even crazy. After all power is about getting what you want.

I am not sure why I think that way. Although I do not think I am unique in this, I do believe this way of seeing power and responsibility is not as common as it might be. I think most people seeking power of one kind or another, do so with the desire to rise above others and satisfy some twisted need that, to them, represents happiness.

I think all people are on a constant quest toward happiness. It is the singular thing which drives us all. It is just that some people have some pretty weird ways of being happy. And for many of those, when they get what they want, they realize it didn't make them happy. As a result of the inadequate, fleeting or evasive feelings of happiness, they wonder what to do next. So they do more of the same hoping that it was not a question of what to do but of how much of it to do.

It's just a yearning for happiness.

We are all the same. We look different. We talk different. We act, eat, sleep, walk, choose and dream different. But notwithstanding all the differences in everything we think, say and do, we are still pointed at that same quest for happiness. We are all the same.

Power is a quest for happiness using others' needs to get what we want. Compassion is the quest for happiness believing in the oneness of us all.

To use power - to exploit others' needs - is the pursuit of the self. It is the raising of the individual. It is the focus on the uniqueness and supremacy of ourselves as individuals. It is happiness at the expense of others.

Compassion is the acceptance that we are all the same and together we will reach happiness or none of us will. It is seeing the need of another person not as a tool for self gratification but as the link between us, the common ground we experience, the common trait that makes us one. Compassion is using our ability to satisfy their need not a a means to an end but as an end it itself.

Power is an attempt at happiness for one. Compassion is a acceptance of happiness for all.

I believe that when we release power from our methods of seeking happiness and replace it with compassion we will evolve forever as a species.

That is my belief.

So if everyone knew how to use power, wouldn't we be forced to consider new ways? If everyone knew how power worked, wouldn't we be forced to acknowledge its corrupt nature? If everyone were to see this connection between power and compassion wouldn't we start to be truly happy?