a guide for Compassion in Political Power

BALBOA PRESS

Contents

Foreword.......................................xiPreface........................................xviiAcknowledgements...............................xxiCOMPASSION.....................................1Power and Control..............................1Compassion.....................................4Consciousness..................................10Spiritual Dimension............................12PUTTING IT TOGETHER............................17What We Bring to the Table.....................24Additional Strategies..........................34SUMMARY........................................49Bibliography...................................55

Chapter One

POWER AND CONTROL:

I have met the rare person who does not want to have a sense of power and control over their lives. The majority of us do and the important factor is the type of power and the type of control we exercise. For the purpose of this guide power will be viewed as the ability or capacity to perform, to get something done. According to Elizabeth Barrett, RN, PhD, a professor at Hunter College School of Nursing, power is the capacity to participate knowingly in change (2). She also speaks of the four inseparable dimensions of power:

Awareness – of what you're doing and what

Choices – are available with

Freedom – to act intentionally with the will to have

Involvement - in creating change.

This requires the qualities and the means to carry it out. Control will be viewed as having the authority, ability, dominance to manage and direct personal and/or social activities.

Power struggles and power over others are destructive forces, a game that no one wins. If the purpose is to protect one's turf, then the action is out of fear. Fear takes away our power. When we use power through our connections, then we're dependent on others. Power through connections can be taken away. The same is true in the insider (part of the "good ole boy/girl" network) vs. outsider dynamic. The actions in this type of dynamic also encourages us to act out of fear that we may lose something. They encourage an adversarial competition and excludes the input and gifts from others and the "outsiders" which diminishes the positive impact. The dynamics that foster fear, exclusion, adversarial positions, etc. encourage us to struggle with the same issues year after year, decade after decade, the "fighting the same battle" syndrome. Personal power and control, if other and not self directed, is limited and can weaken us or a situation since the only true power and control we have is over our own actions, how we choose to respond, and how we allow life's circumstance to impact us. Is the power and control we seek for us, for others to share? Power and control over encourages us to look over our shoulder and feel owned. Is there a score card, "Look what I did for you, you owe me," or, "I'll do this for you only if you support what I want"? This position sets up the pound of flesh syndrome, and has an adversarial component. All involved want to make sure the score is kept even from their perspective. Another misuse of power is how we intimidate others to prevent them from speaking out against injustices, wrong practices, etc., to prevent "Whistle Blowing." We attempt to silence whistle blowers through threats, retribution, lies about them, overstating their behavior, publicly diminishing them, etc. If we are to use power and control for the common good, the good of the many, then we need to not act out of ego and the power of the physical form. It needs to be "us", not "me".

People involved in the political arena deal with power and control to be able to influence outcomes. When this is not balanced with an attitude of togetherness for the good of the many, with compassion, again, we are dealing with power and control over and the benefit for the few. This has been our primary mode of action and look where it has brought us – homelessness, people starving, rampant disease, bankruptcy, a dying environment, annihilation, etc. Are we proud of this world we created and leaving for our children and grandchildren? When we join together without judgment, without personal (for me only) goals, with compassion, we are much more than the number of people present. This compassionate attitude allows us to access a greater power that is unlimited, a universal power, rather than personal power, which is limited.

When an action creates a feeling of inner fulfillment and joy it has its own power. This power not only comes from within us, it is also connected to All.

COMPASSION:

According to the dictionary, compassion is sympathy, pity, sorrow with the urge to help (42). For me this is a limited definition. Dr. Krieger, at a workshop, stated that compassion can be passive, we see and feel bad, and/or active, we do something about it. . Compassion is more than sympathy, pity and empathy. Lakoff states that empathy is an intuiting experience of the emotional states of another (17). He also states that research shows us that we are born with the capacity for empathy, a neural mechanism that tells you that you will feel better if you help. He also uses a phrase that for over 35 years I have called the platinum rule – do unto others as THEY would have you do unto them. To me, compassion is more global, more encompassing. It includes the physical, mental/emotional and spiritual planes. Both empathy and compassion are morally powerful and encourages a connection with all of life and our physical world. They're an invitation to others to feel better. Sympathy and pity can encourage enabling. Enabling allows others to not be accountable for their behavior, facilitates dependency and increases behaviors that keep them in the same situation, behavior that may not in their highest good. An example of enabling is how the economic bailout of 2008 and 2009 was created and utilized. In many instances the bailout encouraged the continuation of behavior that created the situation. Compassion encourages hope, change that encourages greater harmony. Compassion is centered in the heart and includes the word "passion". We feel it throughout us with great intensity. It transcends our own personal interest and therefore our egos are not involved. It is the heart connected to our place of all knowing (about 2-3 inches around and behind the navel) that helps to give us the ability to create. Compassion requires responsibility and strength, a willingness to be vulnerable and have no hidden agendas. This does not mean we will not experience our humanness and human emotions, such as fear, anger, pain, etc. How these emotions impact our life, how we deal with them changes. We do not allow them to determine who we are and dictate our life and actions. Compassion tends to dispel our fear when it is not related to a truly life threatening situation. It helps us to peel away the layers of who we are that are no longer useful, no longer fit, to show compassion for ourselves and to nurture.

Even though our personal interests are considered, compassion encourages us to transcend them when needed. When we lose touch with the compassionate, natural part of us, we tend to become abusive to others and the environment. Compassion encourages self confidence, self assuredness, and a willingness to educate rather than the adversarial convincing. Compassion lacks a judgmental attitude. It is the passion, the fire that feeds inspiration. It facilitates a...