Reflections on Living Compassion
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About this ebook
My deep inquiry in life has led me to develop practical pathways of living in the fullness and flow of life as a daily spiritual practice—what I call Living Compassion
Reflections on Living Compassion is a book to savor and be with. It is a source of inspiration and contemplation on the dynamics of deep inner
connection and fulfillment. Created over years of sharing and teaching workshops, individual sessions, and retreats the words in this small book
convey an unsuspected depth and beauty and can guide the reader into dimensions of healing and wholeness. It is an invitation to approach our
experience of ourselves and life in a radically different way, entering into and through difficult and painful experience to reveal the fullness and
beauty in all experience.
I offer the following with the intention that it be received as a meditation, an inquiry practice, or prayer. The words point to the inner terrain of our being and are an invitation to explore our own internal experience. I invite you to go beyond a simple intellectual grasp of the words and to actually experience a deeper knowing of your own internal world. As my exploration of Nonviolent Communication and spirituality deepened over the years, what has emerged in me is a clarity about ways to cultivate a daily practice of living compassion—day to day, moment by moment—with ourselves and in relationships with others. It is a practice of compassionately embracing all of life.
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Reflections on Living Compassion - Robert Gonzales
REFLECTIONS ON LIVING COMPASSION
Awakening our Passion and Living in Compassion
Robert Gonzales
Distributed by Smashwords
Copyright 2015 Robert Gonzales
Revision 1
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
A Two-Fold Life Practice
The Five Core Principles of Living Compassion
DIVINE LIFE ENERGY IN NEEDS
There is luminosity to needs, a radiant energy
Needs are the doorway to spirit
Intention
Life calling for life
Transformation from thinking to being
Joy
COMPASSION AND SELF-COMPASSION
Embrace reactivity
Internal constriction unfolds
Causes of suffering
Self-awareness
Acceptance
Tenderness
Unconditional acceptance
Compassionate spaciousness liberates suffering
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY
Present in the moment
Slowing down to be present
The body to feel each other’s presence
Compassion
QUALITIES OF COMPASSION
Clarity
Compassion
Empowerment
The heart of self-compassion
The love of the heart
Sacred work
Emotional pain
Embrace emotional pain
Beauty of aliveness
SELF-CARE
Outer care
Inner care
We have a choice
Gentleness and acceptance
Slowing down
Honesty and love
Be present
Authenticity
Allowing
Bodily energy
Compassionate awareness
Receive empathy
Presence
Empathy
Self-compassion through acceptance
SUFFERING AND NATURAL PAIN
Suffering and mourning
Suffering is a story
Mourning is natural pain
Mourning as a spiritual practice
Mourning is authentic
Celebration in mourning
Recognizing aliveness
Slowing down
Energy of needs
PROTECTIVE STRUCTURES
Heart of wounding
Goal of survival
Experiences of deficiency
The thinking mind
Seeking life
Separation
Armoring
Frozen fear
Compassion for fear
Vulnerable fear
Core of fear
SHADOW EXPERIENCE
Shedding light on the shadow
Taking ownership
Anger
Anxiety and fear
Healing is natural unfolding
LIFE-ALIENATING EXPERIENCE
Assigning meaning
Core beliefs
Access the heart
Inner awareness
Resistance
Constriction
Resistance and suffering
The experience of pain
Pain as feedback
Protecting the aliveness
Protecting vulnerability
Enjoying the life-alienated thinking
Transforming thinking
The heart of every emotion
MUTUALITY
Divine energy
Intention not outcome
Test for mutuality
Needs mattering and needs met
Intention to connect
Life is awareness
Staying connected
Bring what we want
Relationship
The need for others
Community
Words transmit living information
The corridor of vulnerability
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Our relationship to life force
What are you meditating?
Presence
Presence is simple awareness
Compassionate presence is healing
Beauty reveals itself
Living life fully
I am my authenticity
Yearning for what is already present
Yearn for essential self
Real strength of authentic vulnerability
Inquiry opens to flow
Differentiation is liberating
Holding needs passionately but lightly
Spiritual practice: ascending and descending
A whispering of the infinite
Restoring the flow
Presence is coming to the body
Pausing as spiritual practice
Practice silence
Surrender to allow
Self-responsibility
My well-being is mine
Identification with thinking
Rest in the yearning of the heart
Offer spaciousness to suffering
Divine
is beyond words
Already present
Self-compassion allows unfolding
Transformation requires trust in life
Intelligence in the heart
Transformation from thinking to being
Living in the timeless present
Heart as witness to the sacred in the other
Surrender in mystery
Creating inner space
About the Author
Acknowledgments
I am deeply grateful for the inspiration and deep learning that I received from Marshall Rosenberg, the creator and founder of Nonviolent Communication. Marshall has had an immeasurable impact on the quality of my life and in what I offer through my work. The spirit and spirituality that I integrated from Marshall and Nonviolent Communication runs through this book at every point.
Thank you to Phyllis Brzozowska, who spent many hours in helping me to create the original set of daily reflections for a 9-month course I offered through NVC Academy. I remember our collaboration with warmth and I am ever grateful for her steady and consistent partnership in sharing of the work of Living Compassion.
I am thankful to Simone Anliker, Greg Brooks-English, Filipa Hope, and Amy Diener, for providing invaluable feedback, suggestions, and editing for the book. They also offered the invisible, but deeply felt presence of their love and trust for me and in the work I offer and share in the world.
I am