Lincoln and the helpless little creature - by CJ
“I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground.”
– Abraham Lincoln
In reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.
Compassion is how a mother’s tender heart quivers at the pain and suffering of her child when the child is sick. A mother is willing to do anything to alleviate her child’s suffering. As with boundless love, we also develop compassion to all beings who suffer pain and despair. A compassionate person cannot possibly be cruel to any being.
Love is the greatest kindness of all is a mother’s boundless, unconditional and protective love for her child. If we can shower a mother’s love on all living beings, our love would be boundless, unconditional and non-discriminatory. It’s boundless because we are reaching out to all beings. It is unconditional because we do not love with conditions attached or expectations of rewards or reciprocation. It is non-discriminatory, and this means it is given to all and not through selective choice or to one more than the other.
If we realize that all beings are subject to same vulnerability and mortality where all of us suffer from pain and eventual death, and all of us also appreciate being loved and cared for, then it makes sense to extend our love to all beings boundlessly, unconditionally and without discrimination. Just as we love our family and friends, let us widen our circle of love and kindness, and extend these feelings of goodwill and caring to encompass all living beings.
by Chan Kay Yein, Ph.D.
