to feel good about ourselves, a sop to our own conscience. "I am a
person of sensibility and feeling," we say. Without action, this is mere
self-indulgence.
It is a modern illusion to imagine that positive emotions, sympathy,
pity, kindness, and a general but diffused goodwill are the equivalent
of virtues. These "soft" emotions can serve as a form of narcissistic
self-indulgence. Often they are impotent. They make us feel good
about ourselves, like when we give a coin to a beggar. They create the
illusion of health and well-being. But sensitivity should be used as a di
agnostic tool, not as a mirror to our own vanity. Real compassion is
potent as it implies the question, "What can I do to help?" The com
passion Mother Teresa of Calcutta felt for the dying and dispossessed
was always a spur to action, to care, to intelligent intervention.
Positive emotions are not the same as virtue. Virtue is valor, moral
courage, persistence in adversity, and protection of the weak against
the tyranny of the strong-not hand-wringing sympathy. Compassion
is the recognition of sameness, of kinship with others. It is potent and
practical. Alcoholics, drug addicts, and sex addicts were welcome to
use my house as a safe haven until their cravings subsided to a man
ageable level. For fifty odd years, I have given several medical classes
a week for the most intractable cases. I am glad for the benefit that this
has given my patients. I am equally glad for the benefit it has brought
me-the opportunity to meet and greet the godhead within each man,
woman, and child and with openness, energy, and ingenuity to try to
palliate their sorrows. Similarly the virtue of others is not a reproach
to our own inadequacy, but an uplifting example to us. Not only the
great, like Gandhiji, fulfill this role. If you watch a sportsman who has
won a cup speak of his victory with modesty and gratitude and with
generosity toward his adversaries, is not his virtuous behavior a feast
for you also? These healing qualities are jewels that bring grace to our
consciousness and life.
Pranayama-our breath-can also help. We can hring calmness
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