Page 168 - Mystic Pathways through the Bible

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bit of a superiority complex. You are developing a sense that, “I am somehow in a better position, and this person is to be pitied.” Most people practice this type of mercy. However, the ideal form of compassion is devoid of any egoistic vision.
Certainly it is more positive to express pity (even though backed up by egoistic vision) than to manifest cruelty through one’s deeds. However, an aspirant must see the difference between pity and true mercy. A person who expresses pity on the basis of an egoistic sense of superiority intensi es his ignorance, and one who receives such pity humiliates himself in the eyes of his own reason.
Every human being is essentially Divine. Your acts of kindness should not be based upon the illusion that you are all-important to someone, or that they cannot survive without your assistance.
On the other hand, one who gives true compassion and one who receives it are both elevated. It is a mutual reciprocation of the spiritual af rmation that God dwells in all.
Compassion also differs from exaggerated sentimental feelings for others. Such feelings disturb the person who has them as well as the one to whom the sentimental feelings are directed. For example, a mother starts crying when she sees her child injure his nger. Although the wound isn’t serious and the child is hardly hurt at all,