Quote of the Month
"Your happiness & success not only depends on your own accomplishments, but also depends on the happiness & success of others."Fable
Compassion
There is an old Japanese story about the monk Ryokan. One night, a thief enters the holy man's hut, but finds nothing worth stealing. Ryokan then gives the thief his cloths and sits naked, looking meditatively at the moon. "I wish I could give you this beautiful moon," he says.This story reveals the challenge of compassion: going beyond concern for ourselves to feel deeply what someone else is experiencing. Compassion asks us to have the courage and the openness to sense both the pain and the pleasure in a life different from our own. The tale of the compassionate monk is startling because it turns our values upside down. Not only does the monk give freely to the thief, he perceives the thief's deeper need for nature and beauty.