Compassion

I was just reading an article on beliefnet.com about a study done in 2000 regarding the effects of meditation on emotional health, and came across a telling observation made by the Dalai Lama in the course of that study. He'd noticed that in the Tibetan language, the word for compassion means compassion for yourself as well as other people, but in English it only means compassion for other people. He said "You're missing a very important word."

That's quite an insight. Here in the United States, we don't have the exposure to other languages that people do in many other parts of the world, so we seldom see that type of observation. It's fascinating that there are words or phrases in almost every language for which there is no direct translation in another, and those linguistic holes often tell you something about one of the cultures or the other, if not both. What does this particular omission tell us about our culture?

How often do you show compassion for yourself? I've spent a lot of time in my life mentally beating myself up over one mistake or another, sometimes years after the original mistake. It's one thing to learn from your mistakes, and another thing entirely to repeatedly and unnecessarily punish yourself for those mistakes. Any pain beyond that necessary for the lesson is pointless additional suffering. Learning to forgive yourself is a good start to learning to forgive others, so this is a concept well worth incorporating into your life.