Compassion

From "Living Your Yoga" by Judith Lasater

Compassion:
"The projection of friendliness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity towards objects - be they joyful, sorrowful, meritorious, or demeritorious - bring about the pacification of consciousness
- Yoga Sutra 1:33

What is compassion? Whom do we feel it for?
The word compassion comes from the Latin prefix com-and the Latin word for pati means "to suffer with"

Compassion must start with yourself- to be compassionate towards others and see their pain you must understand that you suffer as well.
This is not always easy to face your suffering. No one likes to go through pain but we must go through it to understand and see where others are coming from as well as where we are coming from.

In the chapter of compassion Judith talks about her children, she asks herself: when does she back off and let them learn life's lessons, when does she step in to help. She also stated that she tries not to to judge their behavior but see it from their point of view. This is something we could all try to add in our daily practice.

Mantras for your Daily Practice:
I have compassion for myself
I have compassion for others

When I act from the heart of compassion I always know what to do.

Plant compassion, get compassion

Compassion comes from clarity and creates clarity