Connect with the world around you!
Fellow-feeling, compassion and loving kindness are all related to the same type of virtue. Fellow-feeling is a virtue that compels us to become aware of the world around us and more specifically of fellow human beings. Seneca, the stoic philosopher said the first thing philosophy teaches is fellow-feeling. We find the idea of compassion featuring strongly in Buddhist ontology.
When we cultivate a sense of fellow-feeling, it challenges us to see the need and the suffering of the world. But more than just being aware of it we are invited to share in the feelings of those who suffer. Fellow-feeling is of little use unless it flows over into action where we do something to relieve the suffering of others. If you are in pain then you will act to soothe that pain, and fellow-feeling is to feel as if your fellow man is part of you. This opens the doorway to our conscience. In every action we need to ask what the impact is on our fellow human beings. Compassion uplifts our spirit to vibrate at a higher level of conscience that is more in tune with divine benevolence.
I have read many web pages that contained stories of compassionate people, who crafted their lives around being compassionate. In my own Afrikaner history, I looked back at Emily Hobhouse who was a remarkable woman due to her stand against political forces to bring the plight of Afrikaner-Boer woman in concentration camps to the attention of the British people. There is no shortage of examples to follow or admire across the pages of history.
In its continuum of existence there is on the one side total selfishness that does everything only for the self and on the other extreme there is total selflessness that sacrifices self for the good of others. The first is by itself insular and brings us to the realisation of being alone and not part of the human family … we rob ourselves of the feeling of being loved or of loving. At the other extreme we are at the risk of depleting our inner resources in an attempt to assist others and we forget to nurture ourselves and our own well-being. If a rich man feels for the poor and gives away all his possessions to the poor, the state of poverty will just return for the solution is not sustainable. However, if he uses the money to create businesses that employ more people in a productive way he brings a positive and more sustainable solution to the world. Compassion is therefore not about just throwing ourselves at the needs of other people, but rather it requires us to find sustainable and lasting means to raise the quality of living in society as a whole.
Unlike other virtues, fellow-feeling can be overwhelming if we think we have to make changes in the world by ourselves. Fellow-feeling is about collaborating and working with others to uplift the world around us. Fellow-feeling for the Mystic, however, starts within, when we begin to visualise healing for the world and upliftment. If the seed is not planted within our own mind we can never truly live fellow-feeling. Our human nature is social and we are the most happiest in a community that is happy. Humanity’s need becomes an opportunity for the Mystic to put all his/her abilities to work in the service of humanity and the ecological sustainability of the world.
In a more practical way, the awareness associated with fellow-feeling is an awareness of how our immediate family, friends and/or work colleagues feel. Fellow-feeling is not about complaining along with co-workers about the company culture or politics but rather it is about seeing it and looking for ways of uplifting and encouraging fellow workers to become their best. Fellow-feeling is about not being pulled down into depression by the pathetic state of others but instead it calls for strength in finding ways to uplift all those that pass our way to new levels of confidence. Standing still with a beggar in the street to really hear his/her story is more an expression of fellow-feeling than just pushing a coin or a note into an empty hand and walking off. The latter is indispensably part of fellow-feeling but the need here is not just for money, it is for respect and acknowledgment of the humanness of others. Fellow-feeling asks from us to be open-minded to the insights of others. On a practical level if we refuse to listen to co-workers, or we belittle their contributions, then we are carving away at the foundation of a positive society and indirectly destroying an environment conducive to a happy life.
When we indulge in fellow-feeling, we become aware of our own uniqueness, the resources to serve that are at our disposal. Yes, we can blindly and greedily seek to profit from our talents and abilities but fellow-feeling asks from us to look for a fair exchange. The focus is never on the single transaction but on the total upliftment of the system as a whole to a new level. Fellow-feeling can be applied within a very narrow band-width but its focus is always the global overarching perspective. Humanity as a whole is on a path of evolution and the Mystic is primarily concerned with that process which ultimately leads to greater human excellence. Fellow-feeling might ask from us to suspend our own agenda and plans to align them with a bigger purpose and therefore increase our value contribution to society. By uplifting humanity, the Mystic transforms the base metal of his own soul into golden heights that express excellence through his human nature.
© All rights reserved. Jurgens Pieterse
Rosicrucian philosophy - Hope for humanity 