Do you agree that, Understanding others through our own character defects, is how we gain compassion?
Thoughts?
The statement means, that if one must just it should be through themselves -- that is you should use yourself as the filter of your judgments. It's the ol' speak and beam in ones eye.
Compassion is born in a person when they first gain it within themselves. Then one can be compassionate towards others, since they know their struggles as they have had them.
Yo D, the feeling of compassion for another, whether you have experienced what they have or not, is first had from within yourself. Genuine compassion is a function, where one reaches out to another, due to what exist within themselves. We, in this world, are all integral parts of one another -- you are within me, I within you. I can surely know your pain, if I connect to this part within myself. Where they are, you have been. Where you are, they may be. We suffer from the same problems, while each has different developments, we have the same "natures" in structure -- in the same way that we have the same organs. If a person feels pain in a certain part of their body and they tell you, you may even feel it in yours, because that organ that they have exist in you as well.
Character defects is a certain type of suffering. The point is perceiving others struggle through our owns. That is, without become stuck on semantics, the essence of what it means.
Thank you Yo D, for moving me to elucidate that saying even further.
Happy there are 2 types of egotism. The egotism which swallows up the whole of your being and the one which develops your being. Everything in life is a catalyst for your growth, it all has a relation within you -- what is without is within as well. The first egotism, however, is the improper identification which destroys all possibilities of growth.
This has shades of Solipsism. There are things out there, but we do not see things as they truly are -- not objectively. Every judgment a person has is by themselves, just not in the right way. People judge according to their experience. But never do they put themselves on the level of those around them, to judge others not as though they are above them. You have screwed up so have I. Think of it this way, if someone did a wrong, would you really be in the position to judge them, when you do similar, or have done wrong yourself that you attempt to make less or justify as being right/ If one is honest with themselves, gaining compassion on those parts of themselves which cause him/her to err, they can work at it. And perhaps, they won't be so quick to judge a person so negatively -- but judge them by their own struggles. This is a level of being where one "understands another"