Compassion, Healing, and The Practitioner
-- and Detouring "Burn-out"

     Have you heard the one about healing being a "spiritual trap?" It comes from reliable sources, by the way. Could this have something to do with "burnout?" And how about the relationship of compassion to responsibility; of sympathy to "protection," and of love to sacred energy? What is "a healing" and who does it? What would bring "permanent healing" versus a symptomatic alteration of pain or desease? I'm a practical person. What are the key elements of change and growth in a person, and what brings them about? I look for practical definitions for such concepts and situations, and for answers to such questions as regards my work. The following are some of the best I've found so far. Discerning feelings and qualities is not easy, so making this sound less than dogmatic, not to mention idealistic, was the major challenge in my early writings as I tried to find words and make statements that covered many kinds of situations. But comon sense can extract the wisdom even from dogma, and ideals can make fine guideposts, and so I hope some good may come from this.

     Compassion is the (Higher-) Will empowered desire for the alignment in the flow of unconditional love. It is desire for love raised to the level of the Heart. It is the desire for the integration of, and therefore the Heart's understanding of, Divine Love. Compassion in healing does not weigh probable results of the healing alignment, but trusts that what results is according to the 'Highest Will'. Healing Compassion, therefore, does not involve the prescribing of what would be or what would constitute a healing of someone, except as previously stated. Simply put, Healing Compassion desires the realization of Divine Loving Will manifested in form. And only the receiver and his Higher Self/God knows (less or more consciously) what form/process that is to take from one point in time to the next. Therefore "a healing" might not necessarily appear as a healing at all.

     Healing Compassion enables integration of/by/through the Heart: with the Mind and with the Body. It is said that when one truly understands through experience, then one does not have to remember through the mind. Integration enables practical living of that which is learned. Healing Compassion integrates the healing though the whole person - all levels or bodies - and is thus retained; it is permanent so long as the person retains the attitude(s) gained as a part of self. Emmet Fox said that the door to the soul opens from the inside, so we're not just talking about (the one playing the role of) the practitioner, of course.

     One implication of the above is that an improvement in physical health (alone) is not necessarily "a healing". I am not referring only to basic symptomatic healing that occurs with drugs or other temporary treatments. Even total physiological health might conceivably be returned to a diseased person, yet if the healing is not a healing of Compassion, then the emotional and/or mental bodies have not been healed as well. As a result, the physical body will eventually reflect that contradiction by re-creating conditions related, if not similar, to the original challenge. This is because the attitudes were not integrated throughout the person.More on the "The 'Emotional-Body' & Motivation on the Path and in Healing."

     I would like to make some distinctions to clarify the energy of compassion (from that of sympathy) due to some common misconceptions as to what it is and isn't. Many people say "sympathy" when they are actually talking about heart-level empathy and/or compassion. Compassion acknowledges the Highest in others and in self. It does not maternalize or paternalize, or in any way "take over" for another's learning process. However innocently intended on the conscious level, these serve only to temporarily addict the patient to the energy and/or to the "healer." Compassion honors each person's path, process, inner strengths, and connection to divine assistance and guidance. Of interest here may be the essay, "A Gestalt Perspective" and "Seven Phases of Personal Growth."

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     Compassion acknowledges each person's responsibility for his/her decisions and follow-through toward personal change, including healing. On the other hand, "sympathetic resonance" (sympathy or "feeling sorry for") harmonizes one with another's energies - regardless of another's level of health or disease. Sympathy tends to *take* responsibility for another's learning, change, and growth -- where it needs instead, to be given along with honor and trust). It would set unnecessary limits, and protect the patient from the inevitables of life and, in that way, can be a subtle form of condescension. Related keywords for sympathy as so defined: Co-dependence, controlling, fixing, care-taking, martyrdom, addiction, games.

     Here is also where the "burnout" process begins: when one takes responsibility (credit or blame or sympathy) for another's process or results therefrom, one "picks up" the patient's energy. This is more evident when a care-taker is (consciously or unconsciously) identifying more with the "feeling level" of the situation at hand than with the "management level". True responsibility and care-giving for self and others is necessarily simultaneous or it isn't happening much at all. I believe that a true sense of responsibility -- understanding to what degree one is responsible for who and/or what -- is where a practitioner's "protection" actually comes from (read: proper attitudes, boundaries, and corresponding communication). Invocative questions for alignment in this regard can be found in "Questions for Boundaries."

     From there I'll just comment that it can be challenging to learn that "the universe hands us no more that we can handle". Compassion is also a gift of experience, of pain if you will. And this is not to imply judgement of one who chooses on some level to share into a patient's karma via the healing process as a vehicle. EG: Shamans have been known to "take on" their patient's issues/desease and then process it, while resonating the healing process with the patient. In this way the shaman *consciously* works with the same energies at the same time, and in effect guides the patient (on an energetic level, and maybe also in practical and tangible settings) through the process. That kind of empathic exchange is actually more common than one might think, although it is done to a much lesser degree, usually unconsciously, and usually not with without a lot of pain for all concerned. It is not advised for the average healing practitioner to attempt, and it may be argued that just as effective (and less painful) means of healing facilitation are now used for most any condition. A related writing: "WHY PAIN? Notes on Pain, Awareness & Denial" (Physical and other levels) -- Aspects in Developing a Practical Approach with Compassion

     Responsible compassion, then, raises the levels of both practitioner and patient by acknowledging the highest capacities and potentials - our worthiness to be all that we are. The pain of learning compassion comes from holding on to old ideas, habits, boundaries, and associations; from old ways of being and doing. It comes from the resistance to the changes that one knows deep within are best. One "new thought" philosophy likes to say, "Let go and let God," another "simple but not easy" opportunity. On the other hand, how can one defend the experience pain (against those who would make it "wrong") without increasing the experience of it? I believe that someone in pain needs one to be there and listen, not to either judge their condition or to agree with it. One thing needed then is a 'presence' that honors the path through which the person is learning to fully accept and unconditionally love all of self. I here refer you to the prose, "Communications and Healing: Trusting the Connections," and "Bringing My Family Together."

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     Have you ever wondered why great teachers have contracted great diseases or created intensely painful experiences? Dennis Adams teaches that masters do this intentionally in order to lessen the magnetism of the planetary entity (thought-created consciousness) of that condition. Through unconditionally loving the condition as part of their chosen path, the teacher not only radiates great compassion into the world in general, but also magnetizes the energy of that condition with Love, and when the condition leaves his/her body it rejoins the planetary entity of that condition. But instead of feeding that entity with more helplessness, denial, fear, and shame, the returned Love-Wisdom energy permeates the thoughtform with Compassion-empowered Loving Understanding of it all as part of the planetary process of it becoming whole. This is the greatest means of transmutation and yet we can gradually learn to do this for the conditions we encounter in ourselves and others, including anger, depression, fear, helplessness, etc., not to mention physical situations. Related to integration of Spirit and Body-Mind is the writing, "Class Questions and Topics for 'Body-Mind Integration and the Chalice' "

     Whence comes compassion and understanding? From the pristine heights of the pure and perfect? That's not exactly the way things happen on Earth, according to the ancients: Sacred energy is the basic energy of all Life in manefested form. It is also called "Kundalini" or "Life Force," depending on the context and/or activity one is referring to. One could say that the Sacred energy gets divided into two paths. Yet these two paths are continuously dividing and crossing -- respectively setting and ceasing bio-electric charges along the way -- again and again. This brings about (certainly at least to the senses) a world of duality. Duality and the attraction of opposites is the basis of the manifested universe and even still, it is the platform/vehicle through which we realize unity.   -   To Artwork with philosophical interpretation related to the Unity/Duality Paradox   (you will need to use your browser's "Back" key to return here).     Sacred energy in the lower centers might be felt/expressed as desire for sexual gratification (and perhaps only as that initially). It desires/attracts the level of love that corresponds to that level of relating. Sacred energy, when raised to higher levels, is felt/expressed as desire for higher levels of relating. The term "Sexual" originally meant "sacred", and not "profane," by the way. Therefore, it is as unlimited as we allow/will/facilitate that energy to be transformed - and to be expressed. More on related topics at "... Synthesis of Body & Soul... Psycho-Emotional Organization and the Body-Mind... Attitudes, and Chakras"

     Sexual energy raised to the level of the Heart (energy center) expresses as desire for love at that level - "unconditional love." Sacred Energy brings up to the heart-level the gifts of the lower centers, including the drive of the center at the base of the spine, the creative passion of the sacral center, the discernment and discrimination of the solar plexus, and then combines the wisdom of the crown center, the insight of the "3rd Eye" center, and God's Will/Communications/EnergyManagement of the throat center, for transmutation and transformation at that interconnecting/integrating heart center. Whence comes compassion, a desire for Love's permiation - the love that asks for nothing in return, but desires the realization/greater awareness of Divine Love.

     What has all this got to do with healing being a "spiritual trap?" In Bill Cosby's "Noah and the Arc" story, he joked that when a neighbor asked Noah why he was building the ark with all the dry land around, Noah answered, "I'll give you a hint: How long can you tread water (?) haa, haa, haa" So I might answer that first question with, "How long can you tread karma?" Here I am referring to intention, clarity, compassion, and responsibility in regard to what we consider our role to be in relation to other people's growth process.

     I believe that this writing on healing would not be complete without mentioning the quality of Gratitude. One affirmation-prayer I would like to share here toward the healing of other and/or self: "I give thanks for your realization of your (inherent) worthiness to be perfectly healed in accord with the Highest Loving Will for your Divine Plan fulfilled." I have found Gratitude to be a sacred tool for realizing at once (a degree of) both Divine Power and Divine Humility -- another pair of qualities that I believe are either simultaneously realized or not at all. Giving thanks serves as a catalyst: it opens channels and magnetizes Joy and enthusiasm to bind the intender to the intention in Feeling (in the emotional body), and then to the intended (the actualization), transmuting time in the process, and it can bring ready opportunity for praising All manefestion Present as Divinely Ordained.

     The following poem was written from a state of consciousness that, I must say, I have not been able to maintain through many of my more difficult challenges. I include it here to complement the subject matter of this writing, and to state an IDEAL for attainment.

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THE PRICE OF COMPASSION

Compassion is Allowing even of unallowingness,
of apathy, and of disinterest in
another's compassionate (l)oneliness.

Compassion is merciful to its bearer's own suffering
and patient with his confusion
and recognizes the Love-Wisdom that follows.

Compassion seeks Love in the strangest of places-
it being the fuel for the adventuring soul,
the heart of Courage, the Clarity of determination,
the path of Purpose, the reward of hardship.

Compassion is the doorway to realizing adversity
as the doorway to realizing Gratitude
as the Seed of Meaning, and makes a Garden
for the flowers of Grace, and acknowledges both
Victory and defeat as the conception of new Life and growth.

Compassion heals by knowing each and everything
as an essential part of All --
Compassion is Complete, yet is always Open.

Compassion gives up everything-including Freedom,
but allows all into its Heart
that has the abandon of Faith to Enter --
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDHI HUM
My Guru Heart Lightning Manifesting Unbearable Compassion

Compassion values all that is without
anything that is said to be valuable,
yet its price is only that which would bind it-
including expectations of Understanding
or even of Acceptance of its very own Love.