“Compassion is the good deeds we do to alleviate the sufferings of others.” —- Illens Dort
Every good act is charity. Your smiling in your brother’s face, is charity; an exhortation of your fellow-man to virtuous deals is equal to alms-giving; your putting a wanderer in the right road, is charity; your assisting the blind, is charity; your removing stones, and thorns, and any other obstructions from the road, is charity; your giving water to the thirsty, is charity. A man’s true wealth hereafter, is the good he does in this world to his fellow-man. When he dies, people will say, “What property has he left behind him?” But the angels will ask, “What good deeds has he sent before him. —Mohamet
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Thank you for your time!!! Illens Dort – authour of Thinking and Acting with a Compassionate Heart. To buy a copy go to https://www.amazon.com/author/Illensdort.
Use over time for: charityhttps://www.gstatic.com/onebox/dictionary/ngram/en/desktop/bc53e29a13b7af025d09b1659ea17ba531655367.png
Charity. Compassion. Empathy. What do these words mean to us? How do they affect our ability to survive and find fulfillment in our lives? How can we put these words to work for ourselves?
Empathy is the feeling of understanding one another. We make social connections throughout our lives that encourage feelings of empathy. Empathy fosters our connections with other people. Frans De Waal suggests that, “Empathy comes naturally to our species, though it doesn’t always find expression.” The expression of empathy is compassion and charity.
Compassion is the concern for others that pushes us into the act of charity. We must be able to recognize another’s suffering and need for help and our ability to fulfill that call for help. According to Dalai Lama, ” Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
Charity is the voluntary giving of help and the ability to show mercy in our judgement of others. “The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Without empathy, we fail to connect. Without compassion, we fail to see the needs of others and our own need to serve. Without charity, we fail to act upon what we know and live in the misery of selfishness thus destroying our ability to survive and experience the joy of a fulfilled life.
One of the most simple ways to encourage empathy in your own life is to, “Simply learn to recategorize one another in terms of commonalities.” (David DeSteno, Compassion Made Easy). A friend helped me see this idea in a whole new light. When someone cuts him off in traffic, he used to get really mad. Now he reminds himself that the driver is simply human and; therefor, imperfect like every one of us, and then he says a prayer for the other driver to be protected in his travels.
Deepening your compassion requires you to listen to others, watch for opportunities to serve others, and take time to see another’s perspective. This opens us up to see ways to provide charity, love, and support.
Charity can be given in many forms. As Illens mentioned, a simple smile may be all that is needed. Being kind and forgiving to all those around you provides a certain safety that we all crave. I work with the geriatric population in my community. I love my patients. I love the plethora of opportunities to show charity. I come into work every day, excited to share the day with my patients. I greet them with smiles and often hugs. They know I love them and they appear excited to share their day with me. I go into work with an attitude of love and service and leave knowing that my patients gave me far more charity than I gave them. I get a huge amount of satisfaction and joy in this service.
In society, we are all responsible to connect, love, and serve each other. This allows for our survival and the ability to live fulfilled lives of joy.