Compassion

Why is there so little expression of this innate quality in humanity anymore?

On December 11, 1862, one of the bloodiest battles of the US Civil War occurred outside the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Over 200,000 combatants engaged. The battle was so heated no one dared try to recover the fallen.

After three days, the battlefield between the two armies was littered with thousands of the dead and dying, the air filled with voices crying out in pain, moaning and thirsting for water. At which point Sergeant Richard Kirkland, Company G, 2nd South Carolina Infantry gathered as many canteens as he could carry, and stepped into the cold terror of no man’s land sandwiched between the two watching armies.

For several hours, alone, he cradled drooping heads, supplied life-giving water, refilled canteens, straightened broken limbs, giving succor to friend and foe alike ... eventually saving hundreds of lives.

But it was his compassion, touching the hardened minds and hearts of the thousands who watched, frozen in the trenches, that was, perhaps, his greatest gift of all.

A spiritual practice

I bring this subject up because I ran across the following quote from the Dalai Lama the other day:

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

Reading this. it suddenly hit me how crazy it is that one of the most fundamental qualities of human beings—one of the most deeply innate characteristics stamped in our hearts, souls, and bodies—is now a spiritual exercise we have to learn and practice.

It's like what?

How did this happen? Why is compassion so hard to find in our hearts nowadays? So impossible to see in all these actors prancing about on the world stage? Why is it such a difficult prize to attain?

It’s a complex situation. But for starters, we need to take a look at …

The original lie

My family wasn't hugely religious. But my mother, wanting to do her Christian duty, dragged me to the local Episcopal church at least once a month on Sundays. There I learned I am an imperfect sinner, the inherently corrupt progeny of Adam and Eve—untrustworthy simply because I have been born into a human body.

I struggled against this teaching. The whole idea, delivered in the solemn, hushed atmosphere of church, filled me with disquiet. The sight of all the bowed adult heads around me, calmly accepting the vision of being lowly disgusting worms in the sight of God filled me with dismay. I didn't feel like a lowly worm! I felt alive and vibrant and beautiful inside. Why was I being told such a story?

Why indeed?

Despite my resistance, the constantly repeated image slowly sank inwards, imprinting me, psyche and soul. As a result, I spent the next 40 years trying to be anything but me. A human being. On planet Earth. Here. Now.

It never occurred to me that the foundational teaching that humanity is sinful and rotten to the core was an intentional lie. I mean, I learned this lesson in the most holy, trustworthy environment on the planet—in church.

Why would I ever question the teaching?

Even if you’ve been raised atheist and have never heard the concept of original sin, it's hard to escape the negative programming about human nature on this planet. The relentless, fundamental message of society, religion, and spirituality is basically all the same:

You are not good enough as you are.

I have to be thinner, richer, prettier, smarter, tougher, more successful, more competitive, less competitive, more spiritual, more pure, more enlightened, kinder, more loving etc. There is an endless list of things I have to do and become in order to be acceptable in this world.

Never once have I received the message, "You're okay kid." All I see and hear is "You're not okay" —an impression solidified by almost every media program, TV show and movie I see, portraying characters trapped in endless dysfunction, addiction, mindless sex, selfishness, violence, corruption, and greed.

No wonder I—and most everybody else—have come to the conclusion that human beings are the scourge of the Earth. The only fly in the ointment of Creation.

The fact that we’ve been deliberately programmed to think this goes unnoticed.

The blame game

Because of this negative assessment of self and other, for over a thousand generations humanity has borne and epigenetically passed down deeply destructive emotions of guilt, shame and self-hatred. It has been our inescapable inheritance.

And psychiatrists wonder why modern youngsters have self-esteem issues?

Steeped in negativity, it's only natural that we rebel ... I mean who wants to sit around feeling crappy about themselves all the time? Right? So, what's the quickest, most efficient way to dispel the guilt? (Aside from drinking oneself to death.)

Play victim and lay the blame for our misery on someone or something else.

If I feel like a pile of poo, I can always blame my parents. Or my religion. Or my lack of religion. But then, maybe the . Or the Russians. Or the Israelis. Or Hollywood. Or the educational system, the liberal agenda, inflation, the Globalists (okay, I agree with that one!), men, the gays, women, Blacks, White supremacy, the economy.

The reason things are so screwed up is ----X----. The solution? As Zena, Warrior Princess, was so fond of saying: “Kill ‘em all!”

Over and over, humanity has been programmed to hate and blame, judge and attack, fight and kill. Even kids are taught to go to war. And I'm not talking about Palestine or the Sudan.

The typical American child spends 900 hours each year in school and 1500 hours watching television. By the time s/he is 18 eighteen years of age, s/he will have seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders and uncounted thousands of rapes.[1]

The vast majority of psychological studies on gaming show that video games increase aggressive behavior and increase negative thoughts and emotions in children, potentially leading to mental illness.[2] They also create a sense of distance from real life and an increasing numbness and lessened concern for others. (IE. lessened compassion) And yet 97 percent of children ages 12 to 17 play some type of video game, two-thirds of which are action and adventure games with violent content.[3]

And then we grow up and go compete in the world of business and in society—locked in grey cubicles and ticky-tacky houses that all look the same—struggling and stressing to “be somebody” and get ahead, slaves to the almighty dollar.

Is it any wonder most people in Western nations now find themselves on the psychological equivalent of a winter battlefield, shell-shocked, listening to the moans and weeping of their friends and enemies, terrified, frozen, unable to move?

Traumatized.

Incapable of feeling. Unable to care.

Wakeup call

I've spoken many times of the deep shadow and soul retrieval work I've been doing these past couple of years. (With huge amounts assistance, thank you!) And I have to say the degree of self-ignorance I've uncovered in the process is even more shocking than the discovery of negative interdimensional beings on this planet and the bizarre totalitarian agendas being played out by their global elite puppets.

For somebody with 41 years of spiritual work and deep introspection under their belt to only now be recognizing the profound abuse I was subject to as a child and the effects of that abuse upon my psyche and personality is, quite frankly, mind boggling.

I still don't recall most of it, but I've got the gist and reality of it. I've uncovered the emotions ... the mindless terror, the despair, the raging rage, the confusion. And I’ve uncovered the decades of whitewashing and spiritual bypassing that kept it all from view.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry now, knowing that I used to serenely tell people how I had no anger in me. None. “I’ve obviously dealt with all my anger issues in a previous lifetime,” I would blithely say.

What utter and complete blathering nonsense.

The ability of the human mind to protect the psyche and soul is amazing. The ability of the personality to split over events and the amnesia that results is profound.

And this is on top of the normal fudging we engage around what's happened to us that takes place over the years—the stories and explanations we create in our heads and add onto the original impressions of what the infant, or the three-year-old, or the five-year old experienced-—the excuses we make for the people involved.

For decades I would say things like, "Oh, they did the best they could.” Or “Really, it wasn't that bad," because I thought I only was emotionally abused rather than physically abused.

"Only" emotionally abused? Like, there's some sort of abuse scale where this kind of trauma or just a little bit of that kind of trauma is okay, and past X point is too much? I don't think so.

And then, of course, there is age and time and the belief that we've "done the work."

Well, maybe some people have done the work deeply and successfully. But all I can say is that all the primal screaming, breath work and rebirthing I did at New Age Meccas like Esalen Institute hardly scratched the surface. Neither did all the spiritual retreats I attended.

All the focus on blissfully leaving my body and this Earth behind just helped keep the amnesia going.

And then there's the embarrassment that comes with still dealing with childhood "issues" in your fifties, sixties and seventies. "OMG. Aren't you over it yet? What's wrong with you?"

Diving into this arena, I have come awake—not only to my own abuse—but to the gruesome awareness that the depth of unacknowledged, unhealed suffering and abuse (including satanic ritual abuse) on this planet is light years worse than I ever imagined even in my wildest, most pessimistic moments.

And we think a few newspaper reports about child trafficking rings and church scandals, fired priests and Hollywood exposés are going to get us “over it?” Endemic abuse that’s been going on for millennia?

Individually and collectively we have yet to even see the issue let alone address the reality of it.

Ramifications

Which brings me back to why compassion is, overall, such a difficult emotion to muster and master.

Unacknowledged, unhealed wounds create numerous knock-on effects, many of which I've recognized in myself, including drivenness, perfectionism, arrogance, impatience with criticism, impatience with other peoples' emotions and sensitivities, issues and foibles, and, of course, huge levels of judgment. Sublimated rage has leaked out as alcoholic tendencies, overwork, high blood pressure, migraines, back pain, general irritability, "accidents," you name it.

Prior to this deep work, I thought all the above was "just me."

I wasn't happy with any of those characteristics and symptoms. And I did my best to mitigate and hide them. For the life of me, after all the spiritual work I'd done, I couldn't figure out why I hadn't gotten past them and evolved into the person I knew, deep down, was the real me.

Today, I’m happy to report that I’m stunned at the changes in me since I've begun to deal with what really lies inside.

I’m calm. My life has slowed. I’m no longer driven like a mad thing.

I now seem to have, comparatively speaking, almost endless patience with myself and other people. I watch somebody's crap come up. And instead of reacting. Instead of blowing them off. Instead of getting judgmental and pissed, I see their pain. I see the wounds. I see why they’re saying and doing the stupid awful things they're saying and doing.

And I find no blame in me for them. Just endless compassion.

How can I possibly blame an unreasonable, argumentative 60-year-old—whether s/he is my neighbor or the president of my school board or the president of a nation or the choleric red-faced driver spewing epithets from behind his car wheel—who is only being unreasonable and argumentative because s/he is still desperately wounded and defensive after having been screamed at and name called for years as a tiny child?

I’m not dealing with a 60-year old-person.

I’m dealing with a toddler.

This is not to excuse bad behavior in others by blaming it on their upbringing, their parents, their priest, or their sodomizing track coach. It’s about recognizing what’s driving the uncompassionate behavior in ourselves and then doing what it takes to heal it.

Only then do we have the eyes to clearly see one another. Only then are we finally adult and accountable enough to come to the table and deal with one another fairly.

Only then do we have the eyes to clearly see the world, understand what lies behind its insanity, and come together to heal it.

Is this an easy door to open and a simple path to take? Hell no. But it is a straightforward and effective one.

Finally getting honest about the depth of our own—and the world’s—wounding will give us the capacity to go the distance. Not toe to toe, duking it out. But rather heart to heart with genuine patience, love, and understanding.

Understanding …

When we have that, compassion is inevitable. And with compassion, we change reality.

Much love and aloha ~

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[1] https://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

[2] https://www.center4research.org/violent-video-games-can-increase-aggression/

[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2008/0/16/teens-video-games-and-civics/

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Not exactly a Ho-Ho-Ho read … but it’s a doorway to understanding!

Cracking the Matrix explores the astounding history and nature of what humanity has erroneously labeled "evil" on this planet, helping people finally see the very real, negative, interdimensional influence that exists behind historic and current global events and our social decline.

The book outlines how to break free of this Force's ancient controlling agenda and how people can stand up in the power of their true spiritual nature, ready to create the New Heaven and the New Earth that have so long been prophesied.

About Cate Montana

I’m a professional journalist specializing in alternative medicine and health, and the author of several books, including Unearthing Venus: My Search for the Woman Within [Watkins 2013], The E Word, Ego Enlightenment & Other Essentials [Atria 2017], and a spiritual novel titled Apollo & Me. After Cracking the Matrix: 14 Keys to Individual & Global Freedom, my latest book is Gender, Patriarchy & Sexual Mind Control: Breaking Free. I have a master’s degree in psychology, am gently owned by two fast-growing cats named Leo and Scout, and am extremely blessed to have been called to Maui to live. I’m grateful every day I awaken here!

For more information you can reach me at www.catemontana.com and info@catemontana.com