Causality is a concept both western and eastern philosophers have referred to for thousands of years. Simply put, causality is the relationship between an event and the results of that event.
Behavior and the consequences of that behavior have been on my mind a lot lately and it occurred to me this morning that there is a causality chain between our silence and the singularity from which we came and to which we will all eventually return.
I subscribe to the concept that God is Love. And, I strongly believe that one must have compassion to experience true Universal Love. The link or bridge to that critical compassion is empathy. Compassion is impossible without empathy.
Empathy shouldn’t be confused with sympathy or pity. Empathy is a vicarious experience which wires one’s heart and mind to another. Empathy cannot occur without deep listening. True listening as opposed to just hearing.
Finally, we simply cannot listen while we are talking. We must be silent. Silence is the only space within which deep listening can occur.
Of course, all of this takes practice. Practice sitting in silence. It’s not easy, especially in modern society. But, sitting in silence prepares you to listen to others on a level that creates a bridge of empathy over which compassion is transmitted to cultivate and experience and share the Love of God.
Kinnaird 