Page 169 - Mystic Pathways through the Bible

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he sees the tears running down his mother’s cheeks and is so moved that he too starts to cry. This is not compassion in the Yogic sense; it is sentimentality. However, even sentimentality is better than cruel-heartedness.
To give another illustration, imagine that you are wading in a river when suddenly you hear a scream and see that the current has caught someone and is pulling him under. Feeling compassionate, you plunge into the water without even knowing how to swim. As a result, both you and the person in distress drown. This is not compassion. It would have been far better had you called someone who knew how to swim. Better yet, you should have learned how to swim yourself so that if such a situation had ever arisen in your life, you would have been able to act more effectively.
Respect other people and treat them with kindness. When they are in distress, sympathize with them and express positive feelings towards them. In so doing, however, one must clearly understand the great difference between a sentimental upsurge to help someone and profound compassion.
Compassion also does not imply perpetual tenderness. Rather, compassion is a profound virtue that permits rmness blended with tenderness. For example, when a surgeon is about to perform an operation, his compassion allows his knife to