One example that comes to mind is when the Dalai Lama was at a speaking engagement, and he came out of the building to find some hubbub going on between his entourage and a man who had come to see him. The man was dirty and in ragged clothing, and was clearly angry; the Dalai Lama was on a tight schedule and his driver was attempting to hustle him to the car through the people who had amassed there to get a glimpse of him. But when the Dalai Lama emerged from the building, he felt the tension in the air and immediately sized up the situation. He walked straight to the angry man and put out his hand and gave him a blessing, and immediately the man’s anger was alleviated. He had come a very long way just to see the Dalai Lama, and the men who were there to protect him, seeing the condition of the man, had tried to push him to the back of the crowd, causing the anger and tensions to rise in all concerned. Had the Dalai Lama not kept himself separate from these emotions, he would have been caught up in the tension and anger and not been able to see through to the right course of action.

If we become too closely entangled with the person in need of compassion and lose ourselves, then we too are in danger of needing the same kind of assistance and uplifting by someone else that the first person needed. It is a fine line we walk.

I have not studied Zen Buddhism, nor have I delved deeply into Tibetan Buddhism in this life, but I do believe I was a Buddhist in another life, as I resonate strongly with so very much of it. I think for many Druids, Buddhism is a close kin. I was wrestling to get a deeper understanding of compassion myself, when I was drawn to what I think is probably the best book on compassion I have ever read. It is “The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology” by Lorne Ladner, Ph.D. Dr. Ladner is a Western psychologist and practicing Tibetan Buddhist. I would recommend this book to any Westerner who is struggling to understand the Buddhist concept of compassion — a much deeper connotation than Western society ascribes to the term.