Theme 58: Compassion

Our thoughts create our reality.

The joy we get from material things is very temporary, but the joy we get from giving is permanent.

We can look at how frequencies can really uplift us. How frequencies and songs and music and sounds can make us feel nostalgic or emotional or sad. But then I started looking at the music which was just designed to make us feel connected to our essence; how to use sound to connect back to who we are.

That frequency we attune ourselves to changes the quality of our health, it changes the quality of our emotional state, it changes the quality of our mental state.

Compassion isn't something that we do in isolation, it's something that is all about connectedness.

"Art is the truth."

I just want to give myself the freedom to create, be scared, and do it anyway — gently.

It's a compassion interaction between my deep self and my fear-based self.

Si pensamos desde la compasión y cómo podemos construir puentes, cómo podemos crear una mejor sociedad, y enfocamos eso hacia los contenidos en el sector creativo, quizá estamos mucho más cerca de la ciudad que todos merecemos.

A través de la compasión podemos tejer puentes para entender otros puntos de vista de personas que quizá nunca nos habíamos dado la oportunidad de entender.

La compasión es un antídoto para la polarización.

La compasión tiene que ser una forma de protesta, una forma de resistencia y una forma de rebeldía absoluta.

You have to have trust in yourself, God, the universe, whatever you want to trust in, that whatever you're doing is right for you. Otherwise, you'll be going into it halfheartedly.

Creating and sharing what you love attracts similar people and situations.

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." - C.S. Lewis

Whatever situation you're going into, your mindset defines the outcome in the end.

One of the ways that we can experience transcendence is through cultivating a state of awe.

Humans are a social species. We are wired to connect with one another.

Compassion is our true nature.

Compassion is always a choice, it is always amongst a set of options that we have in any situation.

My compassion doesn't have to be perfect, my compassion has to be intentional, it has to be genuine.

There's this powerful, magical thing that happens when we engage in the spiritual activity of trying to share another's suffering.

What it means to be compassionate is to be bold, and be brave and to actually step into—and shoulder—the burden with another person.

And guess what? Most of your ancestors were farmers.

I was quite certain I that was going to be a millionaire by September 2008. We launched in August. I'm still not a millionaire, so my math was off.

The way we engage with others is just as important as the outcome.

Showing compassion is usually messy, complicated and hard.

Compassion means to share in the sufferings of another with the aim to do something about it.

Maybe we can’t single-handedly change the world, but we can make a difference just by moment-to-moment choices.

The driving force behind all our actions should always be compassion.

We are all on the journey of becoming the best versions of ourselves.

The choices we make can either set us on our path or set us up for pain and regret. Instead of worrying about the things we can’t control or affect, why not deal with the things that are in the moment right now?

Sometimes we just happen to experience terrible things, but it’s OK. It’s all a part of the journey.

It’s the choices and decisions you make that define you.

Be kind to strangers. Make eye contact with people. Say hello to people. Engage with them.

Our actions tend to have a ripple effect. Even a small act of kindness might mean more to someone than you can possibly even imagine.

We’re put on this earth to be connected to each other.

We have a need to know that we’re connected to each other and that people see us, and that we’re being heard. That’s particularly important for people who are marginalized, who often spend their days being ignored.

We all encounter struggles—it’s part of the human condition. The thing about those struggles is they don’t necessarily show on the outside.

There is a very strong feeling of compassion between my grandparents. Whatever problem one of them has, the other feels it also. Naturally, they are getting older and my grandpa started to lose his hearing. But you know what the funny thing is? The only person that he still understands what is saying, is my grandpa. I find that beautiful.

I’m thinking that maybe a lot of the time compassion is directly influenced by your experience. You can feel compassion for a stranger, but who is experiencing a problem that is familiar to you, and maybe you can’t feel compassion for a closer person, who is experiencing a suffering total unfamiliar to you.

Compassion is just another emotion, exactly like love. There can be people for whom you can feel it, and people for whom you can’t.

It’s good to feel compassion, but in an ideal world you wouldn’t have to.

We can't undo the things that our ancestors have done to each other—the lands taken, the promises broken, and some of the dreams forgotten—but I think as designers, as artists, as whatever you are doing here; it's your responsibility to imagine this type of New Zealand that hasn't yet happened.

My job is compassion.

I have to first of all notice that I'm not doing it, that I'm continuing to apply pressure, then I have to decide what I want to do. Do I want to keep putting the pressure on or do I want to move in and see their point of view—and lead. Because when you do that, you become a leader.

It's about changing ME. That's where the power is. Because when I change, everything changes. The dance changes.

We give people an opportunity to reflect on their thinking. And if this isn't about compassion, I don't know what is. Not only for them, but for yourself.

The more we fight, the more energy gets added to the conflict...we think we only have 2 choices. Think of Aikido as the third choice: step in.

First principle is don't be there, get out of the way. Second principle is embrace the energy.

Falling is not losing in Aikido. Falling is an option that we take, because if you resist, it's going to hurt. We learn to fall...and we learn through that process that it's about getting up.

Conflict is a lifelong practice.

The human species needs the entire spectrum of personalities because they all have different skill sets, different ways of solving problems.

These days identity has become a substitute for what used to be personality.

If you'd like to get along with people who are fundamentally different to you, I think you need to find things to motivate them in particular.

I started by admitting that I am not a very compassionate person but that's not exactly an impediment. I just need different reasons for doing the right thing.

Fear of the other is natural, inevitable, almost forgivable, and that's why you need courage in order to come together.

[This project worked] by directing [the focus] away from the other as the object of fear and placing it upon our values.

[These posters] provoked a creative tsunami of people reacting to it, making it their own, redesigning it, and it's something I couldn't anticipate.

I wanted to try something after this which was singular and clear and still had some sort of an ironic twist so it would cut both ways.

Nuances that are good artistically get squeezed out of political messaging.

This sort of sarcasm is a little bit cheap and easy in some ways because it affirms nothing, it really risks nothing. And so I wanted to attempt a little bit more.

Maybe the people who disagree with you strongly are not stupid, ignorant or evil...Maybe they have a fundamentally different temperament.

Compassion can do some really great things but it can't cure fear.

You can't cure fear with compassion

What these [images] suggest is that it's easy to be compassionate when you are powerful and not under threat. And that's when you really need to be compassionate the most.

Compassion for somebody else is really another form of compassion for yourself.

How else could I go on living?

When were you presented with a choice to enter in to the suffering of another and do something about it? What did you choose?

Cada que la gente se convoca alrededor de un libro, algo bueno pasa

Desconectar para reconectar con la gente

I want to make what I want to make and I don't want to be in my own way all the time.

Simpatía significa 'sufrir juntos', viene del griego. En latín simpatía es 'compasión'. Las palabras nos llevan a caminos narrativos diferentes,...

What I mean by creatives, I just mean people taking a risk. People going through some endeavor, trying to build or create or make something. I don't mean only artists or painters.

So if you know anything about the architecture press, there's a disproportionate amount of ink spilled on designer's intentions with comparatively little, if any, on the experience of clients and users. I find that odd and short-sighted. You see, I've come to understand that buildings are about people and people are about stories.

"El amor y la compasión no son lujos, son necesidades, y sin ellos la humanidad no puede sobrevivir" –Dalai Lama

La compasión implica el deseo de ayudar

I recognized what is important for me in life, it is not necessarily the doing as much as the being; the doing emerges out of the being.

What do you care about so much that it cracks your heart open?

The right relationship between creativity, the mind, and compassion of the heart is for the creativity to serve the passion.

Creativity is the capacity that all of us have, that can be harnessed to any particular end. We can focus our creativity on creating great community or we can focus our creativity on building bombs. You can be a creative sniper or you can be a creative nurse.

In this moment when everything was gone; I could still choose love, I could choose to be an instrument of love, I could send loving intentions to another human being. The other thing I realized is that ultimately that is all that matters.

What drove me was excellence, I wanted to be as good as I possibly could.

The question isn't how smart are you. The question is how are you smart.

Part of compassion is being able to see things through other people’s eyes.

The 'why' doesn't matter, when we give and give willingly.

We all have time, we all MAKE time to help each other.

We can do better by being better.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Do something.

Behaviour is at the core of compassion. Ideas can take us far, but ideas are worthless when they are not executed.

Artists... in these dark times we can be the light, seek truth, imagine, and go make art that will open the heart of this country, and you will be saving us from ourselves.

Point your camera towards the stories that need to be told. Pick up your pen and write the stories that the communities that are most vulnerable and do it with love and dignity and respect.

Artists... we need you. Because with you our world is possible.

The resistance is made up of radicals and moderates; of Hilary supporters and Bernie bros; it is made up of first-time marchers and lifetime protestors.

Make no mistake—this moment in history will dictate the future of this country for decades to come.

We, artists, inspire people to love when the easy thing to do is to hate.

We, artists, we create worlds out of our imaginations and present them to people when they think it is impossible.

We, artists, serve as the creative, compassionate contrast to what is currently playing out everyday in this country.

We, artists, have the ability to tap into the human heart and reflect, honestly, the people of this nation.

With tens of thousands of artists creating, the Women's March culture—our vision, our desires—came into the mainstream American heart. We became the culture of the United States and, ultimately, the world. Artists did that! That is the power that we have.

We had tens of thousands of—hundreds of thousands—artists creating everyday: memes, graphics, posters, videos about equal pay for equal work, immigration reform, black lives matter, you name it, it was being created. Pink pussy hats came from artists.

When the movement is strong, the music is strong.

My contribution was to be in the service of the Women's March.

If we are to revitalize the heart of this country, then artists must lead the way.

As artists, we create culture. We have the ability to give this country hope.

Art is not simply to be used for entertainment when society is at its most convenient and happy moments. Art is light that illuminates society when we are at our darkest. Art is the light and our beacon of hope.

I realized that the artistic community, we, as artists, were more valuable, were more important than ever.

What was the role of art under the Donald Trump administration? Did art even matter?

I did the only thing I could do—I got to work.

What makes a person's heart open? And what makes a person's heart close? Today, this country is suffering from a mass contraction of the heart. And I firmly believe that it is artists, it is the creative community, that can reopen the heart of America.

My questions while I study the heart is what makes a heart beat with joy? What makes a heart break with sadness? Since the election I've been asking myself the question, what is the heart of this nation?

I am an artist, and I study the human heart, so I always had hope.

I knew nothing about self-compassion. My way to be a good person was I really beat myself up, I pushed myself relentlessly, and I thought what could even be close to self-compassion behavior was self-indulgent.