“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.”         Nelson Mandela

I was once riding with a friend driving on a busy freeway. We were having a wonderful conversation about spirituality and how compassion fit with being spiritual. About that time a car rushed around us and cut us off. A string of expletives issued forth from her mouth. I don’t think the obvious contradictions of our previous conversation and her anger at the individual that cut us off occurred to her.

Compassion is “love in action.” We have a choice, when things happen, to react in different ways. Will we react with compassion. In the situation above we could choose to feel compassion for the driver that cut us off. What drove them to risk their life, and the lives of others, by acting the way they did? Maybe they are dealing with a lot of internal turmoil? Maybe a crisis just happened in their life and they feel a need to rush somewhere? Maybe they are lacking in love for their fellow human being? If we react with anger are we showing a lack of compassion?

There are many situations in modern life where we are not compassionate through anger, competitiveness, being overly busy, being unaware of possibilities other than our first reaction, and through lack of patience. I guess I see the situation with the driver above as us being unaware. We have to be aware to be compassionate.

Compassion can be spread. If compassion is “love in action.” We can practice compassion more easily with our immediate family and close friends because that love is more obvious. Outside that circle are those that we love more remotely, and then outside that circle are the ones that we don’t really know. The key to practicing compassion is being able to spread our love, and compassion, as widely as possible. Even if a person did not know the driver that cut us off, they can practice compassion and not react with anger or impatience.

A spiritual practice needs to go beyond a conversation, or beliefs, to the level of compassion for the world and everyone and everything in the world. It is through our compassion that we spread love.