Fertilizing the Soil of Compassion

China feels far away.  But the news estimating that 10,000 school children were killed in the earthquake and the photos of grieving parents has an imploding effect on the heart.  As if the earthquake happened in me.

Sharon Stone got in trouble last week for suggesting that China's devastation was simply a result of karmic law due to their treatment of Tibet.  (Watch Video).  

Karma is a difficult concept to comprehend.  And when it's employed lightly to explain an event as complex and tragic as the earthquake in China, the war in Iraq or the AIDS crisis in South Africa it justifies a lack of investigation and understanding.   It creates a safe distance between one and the event and eliminates the possibility of real compassion.  

Within the intimate community of Lulu Bandha's, more than a handful of people are navigating the difficult and daily relationship with cancer.  Again, to systematically see the disease as someone else's karma is to cut off the opportunity to experience the dance with them.  To be near the probability of death is to experience one's own vulnerability while simultaneously connecting to the possibility of our ever ongoingness.  

But as a culture we are afraid of death.  We do not like to see it or consider it.  We put our elders in homes, and there are no pictures from funerals.  We are relieved when our sick friends act strong and positive as if nothing bad was happening.  A Sunday article in the NYT, "When Thumbs Up is No Comfort," addressed this phenomenon within the context of celebrity and the perpetuation of the myth of the "Strong Cancer Survivor".  

Stephen Levine, one of our country's foremost experts in the realm death and dying, points out that in the western medical system, death is seen as a failure.  In "Healing into Life and Death," he suggests that instead of trying to boost a dying friend's moral, allow them and you the space to experience the truth of our very real fears of the unknown.  To investigate is to heal.  But healing does not necessarily mean "staying alive," healing means becoming whole beings.

Part of our work seems to be to allow the pictures from China and the journeys of our friends to penetrate deeply and fully.  Feel our connection to everything and everyone and taste the temporary and ever changing nature of our sweet and beautiful existence.  This creates the rich soil in which true compassion can blossom.