Empathy, compassion beyond judgement

Many people struggle to understand how or why people do certain things.  Beside the intention of evil residing in some that would do the unthinkable, nobody is beyond making a significant error of judgement.  Nobody is beyond temptation.  Nobody is protected from the folly of human weakness.

Empathy for those who have made a mistake should not be hard.  It’s a kindness that may not make their situation better, but at least cruelty isn’t an added burden.

Empathy is a gift to both the one
receiving it and to the giver. 

Nobody likes to suffer, but there are lessons in it.  There are none more so apt here than what happens in a person who suffers for having made their own mistake.  To be kept in that place of suffering for the shame of having made a significant error of judgement seems cruel when we are there.  But it teaches us something far deeper than we can learn any other way.  It teaches us a vital lesson.  

We learn empathy deeply
through our own need of it.

There is a love of kindness and compassion that should rule all our hearts, but many have not yet learned such an empathy that exemplifies understanding. 

When we experience the deeper compassion of empathy when we feel we ought to be judged, it may be that the person who empathises has suffered and been taught deeply a love that is beyond judgement.

Judgement can be a sign
of a lack of understanding.

We must always ask ourselves when we are judging another person, “Have I never made an error worthy of judgement?”  Or, “Is there any chance I could make an error of judgement in the future?”  “Would I appreciate being judged?”  And, “What would I prefer to experience from others, empathy or judgement?”  

Empathy does not save a person from the consequences of their actions, but it does convey to a person that they are more valuable than what they do.  

The truth is we are all more valuable
than what we do or what we have.

Judgement is an error in itself. 
It reveals a lack of empathy.