The Second Commandment: Love Everything – Part 6

The Love Everything Table of Errors

	Positive Errors	Negative Errors	Ignorance Errors
Self	Narcissism	Self Harm	Unconscious Self Shadow
Others	Idiot Compassion	Unfair Punishment	Unconscious Societal Shadow

The Error of Idiot Compassion

This term was originally coined by Trungpa Rinpoche, later expanded upon by Ken Wilber. 

http://enlightenmentward.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/manifestations-of-idiot-compassion/

Part of idiot compassion arises from post-modernist thinking where you hold that everything is absolutely equal, and then you operate from that perspective.  Sometimes you try to be “nice” without regard to consequences. 

This can lead to rescuing, enabling, and co-dependence.  For example, you don’t give an alcoholic another drink to be kind to them.  You don’t lend money to a compulsive gambler.  You don’t stay with someone who is abusive.  Tough love is often what is needed. 

Idiot compassion arises from a lack of appreciation for hierarchy, confusing levels, depth, and span. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

http://analytikainc.com/blog/2011/03/22/holons-depth-and-span/

http://www.imprint.co.uk/Wilber.htm

We are always already Source, but to see clearly we must operate within dropping the small narcissistic “self.”  We can worship every part of Source.  Everyone and everything is sacred. 

However, there is a hierarchy, things are not all on the same level.  Not that anything is “better” than anything else.  Things that are more complex, are higher on the evolutionary scale.  These more complex “holons,” such as a carrot compared to a rock, have greater depth, because they have more levels. 

A rock has atoms and molecules.  A carrot has atoms, molecules, and cells.   An animal, additionally, has organs, and therefore, has another level of depth of complexity.   Humans and a few other animals have awareness of self-existence, which is a further layer of complexity, showing increased depth. 

Simpler holons have a greater span, in that they are more numerous, this goes along with less depth.  Rocks have a greater span than carrots or cows, there are more rocks than plants or animals. 

For those of you in the Green Meme…

http://rationalspirituality.com/articles/Ken_Wilber_Spiral_Dynamics.htm

Who do not believe in hierarchies…

Please read Kurt Vonnegut’s short story Harrison Bergeron…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

A rock has a primitive consciousness.  A carrot has a more complex, but still a fairly primitive, consciousness.  A cow has a clearly more complex consciousness. 

Respect for this hierarchy of complexity allows us to break the rock to build our house, and allows us to eat the carrot.  But, we can honor the rock for giving itself for our needs.  We can honor the carrot for giving its life so that we can live. 

If we eat higher forms of life, such as the cow, we can honor this life that they gave so we can live.  But also realize that different culture hold different values, if you lived in India you would never think of eating the sacred cow. 

Additionally, we can honor the person who prepared the rock, grew the carrot, raised the cow.  We can honor all the people connected to serving the flow of matter and energy.  You can honor yourself for earning the money to buy and contribute to this flow of Source. 

We can appreciate and honor both depth and span.  That is wise compassion.  We want to honor the greatest depth for the greatest span. 

But, all of us draw some line on a level of complexity, on the evolutionary scale, where we will no longer kill and use a creature for clothing or food.  Some cultures eat horses and dogs.  That would be highly uncommon in the US. 

Almost everyone, except perhaps the insane, would draw the line at eating a human.  But, there is a reason that the term “Long Pig” exists. 

Within idiot compassion we fail to draw the lines properly, we fail to appreciate natural hierarchy, depth, and span.  We also fail to respect that others may draw different lines than our own. 

There is nothing wrong with wanting others to see our perspective.  The trick is radical acceptance of people who have different beliefs than our own.  There are many unknowns as to actual levels of consciousness for non-human primates, elephants, and whales.  We should consider very carefully our treatment of higher animals. 

Yet, there are natural lines that must be drawn.  In general, we don’t accept those who kill people.  Consider rehabilitation or lifelong imprisonment, before capital punishment.  Killing other humans makes us a more primitive species on the evolutionary scale.  If we go to war, we often pay a steep price when we kill or witness killing. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-we-can-no-longer-go-to-war.html

We should increasingly respect creatures of greater depth.  Perhaps then we would eat lower on the evolutionary scale.  But, that does not mean we will kill a person because they eat animals.  When someone kills an adult person to save a fetus or an animal, they are practicing a form of idiot compassion.  On the other hand, we must work on prevention so that abortions are very rare. 

Wise compassion uses your understanding of what is universally important in the world.  Wise compassion also understands that people can hold differing ideas of what is “right action.”

Sometimes drawing that line is not so easy, or straightforward.  Therefore, we say, “first of all, do no harm!” 

That will lead us to the next topic of unfair punishment.

So, remember to love everything with wise compassion, not idiot compassion.