Compassion is emptiness

Violence is complex. It requires systems of thought, rationalizations. Violence requires the redirection of suffering, and the obfuscation of this redirection. Compassion is simple. It thrives on attention. It is always already here. Compassion arises in the empty mind, the present moment. It requires no theories or systems. It grows like weeds left alone. Hence the endless theories on the systems causing violence: patriarchy, racism, colonialism, dualism, capitalism, etc. etc. etc. There is no analogue for systems of compassion. (And the one that comes closest seems to be defined by emptiness: anarchism.) This doesn't mean that compassion is easy and violence is hard. Right now, the opposite seems to be true – thanks to the systems of violence in place and the affordances they provide. But this does provide us with a direction, an insight. Compassion requires unlearning rather than learning. It is not theory but practice. It is not clinging but letting go, letting go, letting go.…