Sunday, January 15, 2012

Compassion to courage

Sunday, January 15, 012

Hello everyone,

Do you ever have it happen that some little sign or support comes your way?

I have a copy of The Tao of Pooh. It belonged to a friend who passed away over twenty years ago.

I'd never noticed that there were several corner turned pages in the book. Here is what my friend must have wanted to remember at one of them:

" ...one of the most important terms of Taoism: Tz'u, which can be translated as 'caring' or 'compassion' and which is based upon the character for heart. In the sixty-seventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse named it as his 'first treasure,' and then wrote, 'From caring comes courage.' We might add that from it also comes wisdom. It's rather significant, we think, that those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care. Wisdom does. We also consider it significant that cor, the Latin word for 'heart,' is the basis for the word courage."

Is it easier to be courageous - take a risk - if coming from a place of compassion? Feeling compassion instead of anger towards other people must surely be easier on us. I think I'll work on this during the coming week.

Best regards to all of you,

Why's Woman


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