A
wise dance teacher of mine told his class recently to "be like water:
soft yet strong; yielding yet forceful." His advice was apt, not just
for dance but for life. We all need to be soft yet strong, yielding yet
forceful. This is the essence of ruthless compassion. It's holding the
two opposites simultaneously & experiencing the grace &
empowerment that comes from being able to contain the paradox of
loving-kindness & empowerment. Ruthless compassion is being
unrelenting in our search for truth & clarity, yet it's accompanied
by a tender regard toward self & others. It refuses to participate
in enabling of bad behavior but it never stoops to contempt or derision.
Ruthless compassion neither avoids nor denies but is gentle toward the
person who's seeing a painful truth for the first, or even 100th time.
To practice ruthless compassion is never to protect someone from the
consequences of their bad choices but to lovingly allow them to learn,
even if it's learning the hard way; it's never being a care-taker or
rescuer, unless the person truly needs care or rescue. Living with
ruthless compassion enables us to cut through all the muck &
confusion & do the right thing for ourselves & others without
being a people-pleaser or approval-seeker. It offers us the
possibilities of freedom from false beliefs & fears, dysfunctional
relationships & all sorts of suffering. Ruthless compassion is,
indeed, soft yet strong, yielding yet forceful.
My fascination with water started at a very young age. Daily visits to a public pool and plenty of encouragement I learned to swim across the pool by the time I was 4 years old. A tiny little diver barely bowing the board, each new life guard would ask me to swim across the pool to prove I could be going off the diving board. I loved water. I dreamed of being a mermaid. Perhaps my intense fascination comes from being born in a desert. I remember one year of 180 days, no clouds. Ground is hard baked. Concrete acts like frosting on an already baked earthen base. I also remember the power and the fury of the river released from the dam after too much rain. We stood above the water listening to the rolling thunder. When the water receded you could see the boulders the size of VW bugs littering the river bed. I taught swimming to little minnows, tots between 2-5 years old. I knew how deadly water could be. You can't live without it and you can't breathe it. Pictures showing water carving its way through rocks. The persistence of water outlasts the rocks. Dip in it for cooling refreshment. Bath in it to shed the dirt of the day. Drown in it if you underestimate its power. I have seen water in all its facets. Soft yet strong, yielding yet forceful, life giving or life taking. Respect it; respect yourself.
2 comments:
Beautiful analogy.
I love how you describe water with all its different qualities. I had never looked at like this. The beauty and powerfulness of it. xxoo
Thank you TR
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