By: Michael Berg
Question:
What spiritual lesson do we need to cling to in order to do something about the ever-increasing chaos?
Answer:
One of the most important of all spiritual lessons is the need to truly feel the pain of others as our own. This might sound simple and familiar but it is neither.
We all have, innately, a natural feeling of compassion when we hear of other people's problems. But there is a great distance between that feeling of compassion and truly feeling the pain of another person as our own. Our lack of ability to feel the pain of another person is astounding. Even when it comes to small ailments such as a flu, cold or stomach ache all of which we have experienced, we cannot awaken our feelings for another person's pain and discomfort as we do for ourselves.
If this is the case with minor things, so much more so is it true that we do not feel another's pain as our own with greater problems, which we might have never experienced. It is important for us to realize how distant we are from this important spiritual level, so that we know how far we need to develop ourselves.
It is also important that we understand why we need to develop an ever-stronger feeling for the pain of others. One reason is as an ever-growing impetus for our spiritual growth and desire to help the world. If our desire for spiritual growth is limited to our own need for fulfillment, then at times when we feel content or in a relatively good spiritual place then our drive for spiritual work and assisting others will wane.
But if we develop and continue to grow spiritually, so that we can feel another's pain as our own, then we have an endless source of motivation for always increasing our spiritual work. For even if we are content right now, there are millions of people who still lack and are in pain, and our work can and will assist them.
It is important that we also keep in mind that there is an important selfish reason for developing our feeling of another's pain. Developing this nature connects us to the Light of the Creator. Feeling the pain of others is the nature of the Creator. And, it is a spiritual law that as we attune ourselves to the Creator's nature we connect ourselves to the Light, thereby increasing our own personal joy, fulfillment and peace.
