Compassion and pity are very different. Where as compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to ensure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love, pity is the involuntary reflux of fear.

Jack Cornfield

If we can begin to see people as one in the same we can learn how to live with compassion and without pity.  I think sometimes we automatically categorize people in our lives as being inferior or superior to us which then causes us to either have compassion or pity.  If we can live on the path of compassion we can show our true selves and the love will be never-ending.  We will all heal with compassion because love is at its forefront. 

 

compassion and pity are very different

Even

 

After

All this time

The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe

Me.”

Look

What happens

With a love like that,

It lights the

Whole

Sky.

– Hafiz

 

a poem by Hafiz