The Quiet Within Which Is Compassion
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- Published: Sunday, 13 November 2022 06:42
[This article appeared in the October 2022 issue of The Theosophical Movement. For more articles published in this excellent magazine follow this link: https://www.ultindia.org/current_issues.html]
If it is the teaching that Kama is hard like iron it is not difficult for you to see where the hardness of the streak comes from. It is a well-known fact that feelings, i.e., Kamic expressions, are very changeable; but throughout the changes the hardness remains. It is the separative quality of Kama, the begetter and sustainer of the “I” notion or Ahankara. It is the “I” of Kama which separates—itself from others, as also one thing from another. It is the hardening quality that is separative, the maker of heavenly bodies and the rest. All feelings are separative; therefore Compassion cannot be placed in the hierarchy of Kama. If it is not a “feeling” what is it? It is a Power, a Shakti born of Buddhi, which, when active, uses Manas: it is Buddhi using Knowledge, which means understanding expressing itself as helpfulness. When a mother loves her child, or a friend his friend, often there is no true Compassion, but the instinct of Kama, very often beautiful and even noble, on the way to Compassion, but not Compassion.