Sutra 1.33: Developing Attitudes: Greet Suffering with Compassion

Sutra 1.33: maitri karuna muditopeksanam sukha duhkha punyapunya visayanam bhavanatas citta prasadanam

By learning how to be with ourselves and others in a way that promotes peace is beneficial to all. We can greet happy with friendly, unhappy with compassion, virtuous with delight, and non-virtuous with disregard.

Dukha: suffering

Karuna: compassion

Sutra 1.33 guides us from head to heart, from the management of the mind to the betterment of our being. Wether we are happy, unhappy, virtuous, or non-virtuous, we can learn how to better be with ourselves and with others so as to hold and create space in a sacred way.

Today we delve into Dukha or what we have generally labeled as unhappy. This would include noting wether yourself or another is in pain, sorrow, misery, or suffering. If Dukha is the cake on our plate then we would ice it with compassion or Karuna.

We could debate the differences and definitions between compassion, empathy, and sympathy for many moons, yet what I believe this sutra is asking us to develop is our ability to witness our hurts and not hate ourselves or others for them. And beyond that, it is asking us to habitually hold moments of reverence for this universal feeling of which we could describe as hellish.

What this sutra is asking us not to do: is to judge that hurt and pain, or compare it, or belittle it, or diminish it, or perpetuate it. So when we feel held hostage by our sadness or depression, perhaps, the spoonful of sugar we actually need, is a moment in our own embrace, the allowance for an ugly cry, or the permission to feel without justifying having the feeling in the first place. How often do you utter the phrase, “I shouldn’t feel this way,” because you know there are people in much worse situations than you? Yet when you refuse to acknowledge your pain, you numb yourself, and when that self-administered anesthesia takes effect, you have also cut off your ability to fully be present for someone else’s pain.

When we learn how to honor our own hurt from a place of love in our hearts and not from the bench as judge Judy, then we can begin to transcend sins into sunrises. And it is from here, in this sun soaked place of glory that you are gifted the grace to truly see yourself in all living beings and bless them with the kindness that was not mistakenly woven into the collective humankind.

Gracias mi Hermanas y Hermanos,

These sutras humble me weekly and also help me to stay on the yogic path of self observation, intropspectation, and reflection so as to remain steadfast in my intentions. I hope that these writings and my very limited interpretations help you to do the same. As always, I am honored by your presence and attention.

All my love,

Andrea Dawn