Connecting with compassion

A man I met at a party today likes to walk in peace demonstrations. He was musing over the fact that the peaceful peace demonstrations got no attention. But violent peace demonstrations got a lot of attention. He was not unaware of the irony of demonstrating violently for peace. He said it could be his imagination, but it seemed to him that the police were acting more quickly in violence to the demonstrations he attended. Their peace group had discussed this and some of them decided to attend classes on peaceful demonstrations. ( Creeeeek! Did you just hear our old world evolve a little? )

I have been listening to an interview of Thich Nhat Hanh today and joyfully listened to him describe walking meditation --- his phrase on looking at the miracle of "the blue sky" reverberates in my mind. He says that we cannot possibly effect change unless we change ourselves. We all know this. But somehow his gentle voice, and at 80 plus years of age he has been at this at least since before Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, penetrates my busy busy mind.

Thich Nhat Hanh describes mindful meditation as a way to increase compassion for ourselves and others. He says that when we are attentive to our own suffering, we will know that of others. That knowledge can break cycles of suffering and violence in the world around us. If we are mindful, we can transform the suffering within us and around us.

This experience for me included the marker of my daughter's image of an open heart that she described in her blog. I have been noticing myself noticing my responses to stimuli with a gesture towards my heart. I move my hands to my heart, as she said, and then open them and notice the change in perspective. A simple thing, but somehow as soothing as the voice of the monk.

Thich Nhat Hanh presented his ideas at a retreat for police officers. One woman police officer was the one who brought the retreat into reality, after having the practice create remarkable interactions with people she had to arrest. When she had doubts about sharing the idea of compassion with fellow police officers, who have to carry a gun, she was told by Nhat Hanh's assistant: who else would we want to carry a gun except one who will do it mindfully?

What had happened in her own case was that with Nhat Hanh's practice, her heart began to soften --she had become very mechanical about her job. She had had no idea that she had shut down that way. And she realized that as her energy changed, the energy of the people around her began to change, even the people she had to arrest. She realized she was witnessing crime that involved misplaced anger because people are in incredible pain. And giving that pain a voice transformed it.

I am loving the heart symbolism as our popular national holiday comes up next week--Valentine's Day. Shall we transform it to Hug A Cop Day? More realistically and practically, training on compassionate listening for police officers would be money much better spent than money spent on bombers for war, which break the hearts of millions. Demonstrators training in compassion and police officers training in compassion. Maybe they will meet them there.

The Anatomist

“They're transparent...” I said to myself, looking down on my spread fingers. I could suddenly vividly visualize the tendons and muscles, the connective tissue.

“This is a fabulous new view for me of the human body” I thought. I just finished reading The Anatomist by Bill Hayes. In telling the story of Gray’s Anatomy, Hayes writes in detail about med school dissections he audits to make his book more poignant. Phrases like “Leaving one side of our cadaver intact, we carefully dissect the other, exposing the intermediate and then the deep back muscles….” changed from abhorrent to fascinating. My ghoulish viewpoint became an observant one. Mr. Hayes described in words the amazing techniques of dissection, making them interesting and easy to imagine. I could not believe how clear his descriptions were.

The author says that after the gross anatomy experience, “You see life with a kind of picture-in-picture feature..” And I agreed.

I read half the book, then put it down for a few days. Picking it up later, I was surprised to see how low my retention was. What was so fascinating had become a little hazy. But then on page 172, an anatomy instructor, concerned about fewer anatomy classes as part of the MD curriculum, tells Hayes,

“…..there wasn’t really much new to discover in the body. It had all been found………but the real deal is, you can’t do medicine without it. ….Of course, you can make it a lot more streamlined. Teach it in a much more focused way. Doctors don’t remember any of this stuff. Ninety percent of what we throw at them doesn’t stick.”

Comforted, I read on to the book’s fascinating conclusion, boldly identifying with the student doctors' forgetfulness! And then I was entranced to see how all that anatomy on cadavers only helped a little to understand death. That death was still a mystery. I have seen two loved ones die and I have witnessed the shifting of consciousness that occurs at death. Like a light going out. Or happiness leaving the material world…Or….and oh yes! How the experience of the loss of a loved one is what you most anxiously want to share with……oh! but the one you want to share it with is gone!

I admire Haye’s attitude of respect for the cadavers and the people they used to be. I know a little more about anatomy now, and The Anatomist brought me a new view of the work of doctors, physical therapists and other medical technicians.

Education as Inspiration

Education As Inspiration


The Rev. Father Stephen Sundborg underscored my view of education on a personal level today. In a Seattle Times editorial, he said this:

Never underestimate the power of education. A university education yields the best "return on investment" of any investment a person can make. Graduating with a $20,000 debt pales next to a working-lifetime earning power of $1 million or more compared to that of a high-school graduate. This doesn't account for the inestimable return on investment in the reflective and intellectually engaged quality of one's life. Even more important is the multiplier effect our graduates have in bettering society. One of the most satisfying parts of my job is knowing the significant things our alumni are doing and realizing that the university contributed to the human beings they are. This is the greatest return on an investment.

Having begun a community education class at Cascadia Community College, above, after a couple of years of not attending classes, I am again happily reflective and intellectually engaged! Also his ideas on mission:

Say who you are, then live by it. There is nothing more important for a healthy university than a president's clear articulation of its educational mission. The catchphrase is, "No money, no mission." But equally true for a complex, values-oriented university is, "No mission, no movement." The most important thing I've done in 10 years is articulate and embed in all we do our mission of empowering leaders for a just and humane world.

Again on a mini-local level, I influence my small world, and education helps me stay on track with my own developing mission.