were on this series on compassion. I heard a talk from Gil Fronsdal recently where he discussed shifting from being a victim of suffering to being a witness of suffering. I thought it was a really kind of interesting pointer. And when we are a victim of suffering or we have that victim mentality, in a way, it's just that we take it personally. There's a reactivity to it. Maybe when the suffering comes up, there's a sense of, why me?

This isn't fair. It shouldn't be like this. There's some kind of distressed feeling to it. And I also reflect that when we are a victim of our suffering, there's a tendency to look for someone or something to blame, to find the cause of the suffering and to blame it. In our society, it's kind of like a hilarious childish blame game. It's like, why are you suffering? Well, it's because of the immigrants, the poor people, the Iranians, the rich people, the politicians, the healthcare system, the people who think differently than you.

You know, actually it's God's fault. It's the universe's fault. It's the atheist's fault. You know, whatever it is, there's someone who they are the problem. They are the reason you're suffering. So what we're going to do, we're going to try to get rid of them. And then all your suffering will be gone. Obviously, it doesn't work like that. It's not even that you maybe go a step softer.

It's not, okay, not that we get rid of them, but we fix them. Once we fix them, then our suffering will go away. And people find this very attractive, whether it's on this grandiose societal level or just even on the own mundane level of our day-to-day life. I'm suffering because this other person was mean. I'm suffering because my boss is putting an unfair load on me. I'm suffering because of this unfair financial obstacle that fell into my lap.

And when we're caught in looking at the thing to blame for our pain, there's almost like a sedative effect to it, where instead of really actually just feeling the pain, we rest our energies in this mission of the blame game.

And so the alternate mode to being a victim, as Gil talked about it, was being a witness. And it reminded me of when I was at the Upaya Zen Center and we learned about the Zen Peacekeepers Organization, which was an activist group. So they were actually out in society doing real things. It's not like this was just some elevated philosophy, but really working in communities, in societies to alleviate suffering, to help people.

And they had these three principles at the core of their organization. And they were not knowing, bearing witness, and compassionate action. And so not knowing, when we are faced with suffering, with pain, it starts with a real humility to be like, I don't actually know who's to blame or why this happened. I don't actually know if it's fair or if it's unfair. I'm going to put aside my whole tendency to figure it out and get to the bottom of it is to say, actually, the most important thing is to start not from figuring out energy, but to start from a place of here it is, to put down the left brain that wants to analyze, interpret, and to go into that right brain mode of, oh, here we are.

I don't know. I know it's here. That's what I've got. They're coming into a place of a true openness. And from that background of putting down our inner expert who knows the solution and knows the reasons and blah blah blah and just really enter into that humility. We can bear witness in a full way to see plainly this is suffering and it hurts. No one wants suffering and yet it comes upon us.

It comes upon me and it hurts. It's not good or bad or fair or unfair or just or unjust. It's just here to witness that, to witness that beings are in suffering and they wouldn't have made that choice for themselves if they had total authority and autonomy.

You know, for me, this bearing witness, it's a much more somatic, heart-centered mode. Even when I tune in right now, I don't have any big suffering today. I can just feel into my own fragility, like the body with its little aches and pains.

There is this very slight tenderness in my chest. I live in a world also where a lot of people are hurting. Just sit with that recognition.

Not get swept into it and overwhelmed, but just contact it to witness it from some place of balance. Like, yeah, here it is. There's this like little empathetic resonance. When I can see this from caring awareness, loving awareness, like, oh yeah, suffering is here.

It's not that I deserve it or don't deserve it. It's here. And when we can stay with that, and all of our impulses within us and all the signals of society are telling us to get out of that. Don't witness it. Fix it. Blame someone. And so the Zen peacekeepers, they talk often about, it's a very Zen term, but take a backward step. When you notice you've gone into that other terrain of reactivity, blaming, figuring out, and so on, take the backward step.

not knowing, bearing witness. Oh, here we are. I'm here with you, dear one. You can say that to yourself. I'm here with you, dear one. And of course, if this was all it was, it would be incomplete. But this third step, compassionate action. And so amidst this suffering, we meet it with care. We meet it with this heartfelt wish for beings to be free from pain and suffering.

And one essential part about this step is it means we're not condoning harm. We're not saying, oh yeah, I'm just witnessing. It's okay that you're abusing me. Yeah, that's totally fine. I'm just witnessing. No, there's strength and power in compassionate action. If there's harm that needs to be addressed, compassionate action can speak the truth. Say, hey, this isn't right. Maybe there's some consequences that need to occur, some boundaries that need to be set, some dialogue that needs to happen.

So compassionate action addresses what's going on, but from a ground of care, as opposed from a ground of enemy making. And so when we look at our lives and we think about compassionate action, we look at the world, you know, sometimes this evokes bigger commitments, bigger undertakings. You know, in your own life, maybe amidst reoccurring suffering, you say, hey, I need to take up a meditation practice for real.

Not like halfway, like when I feel like it, but I really need to give myself to this. Or maybe a therapeutic relationship. Or, you know, I really need to clean up my relationship to alcohol. I really need to clean up my relationship to sugar. You know, we can have some more enduring commitment we make to ourselves. Or socially, societally, say, hey, on this bigger picture level, let me really look at my choices around my work, be volunteering, maybe my lifestyle?

Are there things I really want to make a commitment to, to engage in compassionate action in a more ongoing way, a more structural way in my life? And of course, compassionate action is not just this big picture, but just the little things, you know, doing kind things for self and other. Maybe if you live with someone having a hard day, you do their dishes for them. You give them a hug.

If you're the one having a hard day. Maybe you give yourself a nap. You allow yourself to ask for help. Or on another level, compassionate action. Maybe it's just relating with care. Giving kind attention to the one who is suffering. To say, I see you, dear one. I see your pain and I'm here with you. I hold you with care. To just lend your attention and care.

I had a friend recently wrote me a text message, kind of out of the blue, just a lot of challenges they have in their life. And I noticed some of these different inklings come up in the mind of, oh, here's something they could do to help alleviate their problems. It's like, well, that's not what they're looking for. So I was like, wow, I'm so sorry to hear that.

I can relate in some ways, but obviously not to the fullness of it. And that just sounds really hard. Like I'm here for you. And that opens the conversation just to lend our caring attention and presence. And of course, we can give this to ourselves too. And this is some of how compassion spills out in meditation. It could be doing a technique or a method or phrases or something like that, but it could just be to sit in meditation this morning and just to say to ourselves, hey, dear one, I see you.

I see what you're going through and I'm here with you. And I'm going to stay here with you for this whole meditation. What an act of compassionate action that is to give that gift to self and other. So this morning in meditation, you know that word victim can be a little bit loaded, but basically it's just shifting from a mode where we get caught up in our suffering, take it personally, look for someone to blame, or go in that analytical figure it out mode, and we shift.

We take a backward step to a mode of just a deep humility, not knowing, like, I don't know what's going on really, just this one person. But I'm here and I see it just to bear witness with our whole heart and our whole being. Bear witness with this depth of balanced awareness that just this is what it is. It's here. Okay, I can meet this. I can breathe.

I can meet this. And from that place, compassionate action tends to spill out in whatever form it takes. So, I invite you into this current of not knowing, bearing witness, and compassionate action. We'll see you in a bit.