Having Compassion for our Enemies
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2020
- Table of Contents:
0:54 - Why bother having compassion for our enemies?
3:33 - So called “Idiot Compassion”
5:27 - Compassion as "suffering with"
6:51 - Justifying our enmity through our perceived moral superiority
7:40 - The selfishness of forgiveness
10:22 - Letting go of our superficial self-importance
12:51 - Developing self-awareness
15:10 - Developing courage and a taste for authentic existence
16:35 - Experiencing danger, and transcending the limits that define us
Sigh, to truly forgive is to let go of this weight and be that courageous grain of sand. I'm trying to give this gift to myself. To slip the sticky, desperate grasp of my ego. Thank you for the ongoing counsel, Eric. Hat tip to you too.
Well, part of the trickiness of the ego is that it's both a strength and a weakness simultaneously. In other words, the trick is to let the ego help us along in life, but at the same time not be ruled by it. So, it not a matter of diminishing the ego's importance in our lives, any more than it's a matter of exaggerating it. Instead, it's a matter of striking a kind of fruitful balance with it. Also... I think that if you're trying to give the gift of forgiveness and courage to yourself... that you'll get better and better at it with time. It's a kind of skill that takes a fair amount of practice. So, keep practicing it, Matt. You'll get there. After all, half the trick of life is just to keep moving forward. Anyhow... thanks so much for the inspiration. Gratitude. Eric D.
@@ericdodson2644 What a life this is, the textured, layered learning. I'm walking a tightrope of sorts, imagining there's an end in sight but there isn't, and that is both a thrill and a reason to stop. It is hard to stay focused. Everything seems to come back to balance. All striving for certain answers seems fruitless and yet endlessly rewarding. I'll focus on seeking self-awareness, relating with kindness to self and others, and to understand that no matter how little influence I may have doesn't mean I can't be the change I want to see in the world. I'll focus on myself as that work of art. Again, many thanks for your work, Eric. Take care.
I guess I am kinda randomly asking but does anyone know a good site to watch new series online?
@Jasiah Augustus lately I have been using Flixzone. Just search on google for it :)
My ex brother law was not a good person for a long time and had me falsely arrested after I threatened to call the police on my ex wife for theft of a check do to drug addiction. A couple of years later he was given 6 months to live and changed for the better and towards the end he was only used for his pain meds and then that left alone and I made sure that he was taken care of almost every day and the last months he told me he was sorry and we didn't know it at the time but we ate his last steak dinner and I stayed with him in hospice where i watched the light in his eyes disappear I'm glad i made the right choice for both of us.
You're giving me a headache!!!.....Thank You
Brought me to tears. Thanks for your insights.
Insightful and Inspiring. That should be a chapter in your autobiography. :)
Having compassion
Is a blessing and a curse
Ignorance is Bliss
I sense you have grasped
The essential paradox
That marks compassion
Agreed
Great video, Babe! The world could use a little more compassion!
Well, thanks, Mrs. Dodson. Yeah, I agree that the world could use more compassion... especially these days. Gratitude. Eric D.
If one forgets that their enemies exist, will that Do?? I have accumulated quite a bit in this Lifetime... It is quite Perplexing, and I don't have the energy to bother with Haters at this Juncture in my Journey.... 🤷♀️.
Therefore, I save my Compassion for my Animal Friends.... 💖
Thank you professor for your insight.
Eye for an eye and the world goes blind...
Yeah... it sounds so simple. But in practice it can be so slippery. Eric D.
What a timely message for the dark times we are living through. Someone once said (Joseph Campbell?) that the most radical of Jesus’ teachings was the idea of loving one’s enemy. I just want to thank for being a beacon of wisdom in a world where we seem to have lost our way
Well, thanks, Walter. Yeah, in my last few videos I've been trying to act as a force that helps us find points of connection with each other. Of course, as a holist I also see an inevitable place for division and separation. But it seems to me that there's already plenty of that in the world these days. Anyhow, thanks for watching & listening. Gratitude. Eric D.
I absolutely love this video. Thank you so much.
Four myths of forgiveness (if you can think of more don’t be afraid to add):
One: it is an act of granting/bestowing something upon someone
Two: requires the other person to feel apologetic
Three: forgiveness pardons the others actions
Four: you consider what happened as being okay.
Forgiving someone is the same as telling them you have forgiven them.
Another myth: Forgiving people gives them permission to abuse us (you might be saying that with #4). Forgiving people means that we're weak, or that it makes us weak. I also agree with Bhanu's myth... that forgiving someone is that same as saying we've forgiven them. Anyhow, thanks as always for listening, Tanner. Gratitude. Eric D.
Agreed
Hi,
Could you please talk about mathematics in your next video, you talked about Latin and how it helped you fulfil your life and acquire a better understanding of many things. I would love if you do the same with maths.
Thank you so much for sharing your ideas with us. :)
Nice human values that you said there: Compassion, forgiveness, self awareness, suffering with, non hierarchycal relationship... All that things are good to humanity kindness and i actually find it in religion and are recommended to be used with all humans bieng, but in the case of dealing with an "Enemy" that want to harm you deeply! What about self difense in first place and to reject him and after that we can think what realy motivate people to harm each others!
Well, I think that it's best when self-defense and helping others happen simultaneously. But of course, that's not always possible. Sometimes we need to find shelter first... and only then do what we can to help someone who feels compelled to be attacking us. Eric D.
Thank you. Great video... very insightful tips to for continuing personal growth.
Well, thank YOU for taking the time to watch this video. It makes me happy that you're able to use this stuff to help your own process of personal growth. That's great. Eric D.
Great Wisdom Sir.
Not Everyone can get into deep meditation and Metaphysics 😀
Base on my Healthcare Background,
I feel we all have to get below our Skin Color
Look at common points.
Blood is only Red 🛑 Colour in All of us
We all are 2/3 rds made up of 💦
We all have common destination in Mother 🌎 after Life
Every body are Suffering except kids below 5 or
Who ultimately got to know Truth as Soren Kierkegaard says
I personally feel we donot have to know Science of ☀️ to know Value of Sunlight.
Your Input is Greatly appreciated Sir.
Very insightful, as always! :)
I had a question, which also concerns your previous video "Gratitude vs. Entitlement":
How should we react(or respond, rather) to other people's sense of entitlement?
Being "idiotically compassionate" as you put it cannot be a clever thing to do when we face different kinds of opinionated a**holes in our day-to-day lives. But on the other hand, calling them out on their callousness might seem unnecessarily confrontational and may even reflect on our own overinflated sense of moral superiority.
I have been wondering about this for quite some time and would like to hear your take on this.
Also, I wanted to know why you end your videos with "take care of your soul".
Well, I say, "Take care of your soul" mostly because I sense that that's a relatively rare thing in this world. We tend to take care of pretty much everything else in the world, but then neglect the center of ourselves. So, I say "Take care of your soul" as a way of drawing our attention toward what we tend to neglect in our lives. Plus, I think it's a way of recognizing our deep humanity, which once again is a relatively rare thing in this world. Anyhow, with regard to the question of how to deal with entitled people and opinionated assholes... well, I think that the best way is to understand them in terms of their suffering, while at the same time defending ourselves against their onslaughts. So, there's a tricky kind of balance in that domain, which is probably why you're asking the question... because it's not such an easy or obvious thing. But the more specific answer probably varies a lot from case to case. That's because what helps one entitled asshole won't necessary help the next. So, it's a matter of sensing what one person needs to take the next step forward, and then being able to respond accordingly. But of course, to do that we need to be able to be sensitively aware of what that might be in the first place. And, like mention in these videos fairly often, in my view the best path toward that involves cultivating meditative consciousness. So, perhaps one general answer might be: To respond to entitled assholes with meditative consciousness. But that's *my* answer, which may or may not be *your* best answer. As in all things, your own results may vary. Anyhow, thanks for the very thoughtful and articulate question. Gratitude. Eric D.
@@ericdodson2644 Thank you for your sharing your thoughts on this!
I guess you're right about it varying from situation to situation how to deal with other people's entitlement. My concern was more about being compassionate without coming across as condescending to the other person, because that way we might end up alienating them.
Meditative consciousness is definetely needed very much, as you said, especially in such uncertain times as we find ourselves currently.
Gratitude. Bhanu K.
[This question is not relevant to this video.] What was the attitude for existentialists like Camus and Sartre towards Carl Jung?
Hi Eric, this comment has nothing to do with this video, but it does with another video of yours (or videos). I was watching a video about Camus on the channel "Eternalised Philosophy", and in the part of The Myth of Sisyphus he uses the exact same words that you used in your "Camus in Ten minutes" video. I wonder if he's affiliated with you or he's copying you?
Well, I don't know "Eternalised Philosophy." Maybe he's copying me. And who can blame him? Edit: Okay, yeah, he did lift more than a few phrases and examples from my video, especially near the middle of his. But people sometimes tell me that their professors have lifted entire lectures from my UA-cam content, word for word. That doesn't bother me. In fact, I take it as a compliment.