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    Reflections on Living Compassion
    Reflections on Living Compassion
    Reflections on Living Compassion
    Ebook159 pages1 hour

    Reflections on Living Compassion

    By Robert Gonzales

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    About this ebook

    My deep inquiry in life has led me to develop practical pathways of living in the fullness and flow of life as a daily spiritual practice—what I call Living Compassion
    Reflections on Living Compassion is a book to savor and be with. It is a source of inspiration and contemplation on the dynamics of deep inner
    connection and fulfillment. Created over years of sharing and teaching workshops, individual sessions, and retreats the words in this small book
    convey an unsuspected depth and beauty and can guide the reader into dimensions of healing and wholeness. It is an invitation to approach our
    experience of ourselves and life in a radically different way, entering into and through difficult and painful experience to reveal the fullness and
    beauty in all experience.
    I offer the following with the intention that it be received as a meditation, an inquiry practice, or prayer. The words point to the inner terrain of our being and are an invitation to explore our own internal experience. I invite you to go beyond a simple intellectual grasp of the words and to actually experience a deeper knowing of your own internal world. As my exploration of Nonviolent Communication and spirituality deepened over the years, what has emerged in me is a clarity about ways to cultivate a daily practice of living compassion—day to day, moment by moment—with ourselves and in relationships with others. It is a practice of compassionately embracing all of life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Gonzales
    Release dateOct 15, 2015
    ISBN9781310198304
    Reflections on Living Compassion

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      Book preview

      Reflections on Living Compassion - Robert Gonzales

      REFLECTIONS ON LIVING COMPASSION

      Awakening our Passion and Living in Compassion

      Robert Gonzales

      Distributed by Smashwords

      Copyright 2015 Robert Gonzales

      Revision 1

      License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgments

      INTRODUCTION

      OVERVIEW

      A Two-Fold Life Practice

      The Five Core Principles of Living Compassion

      DIVINE LIFE ENERGY IN NEEDS

      There is luminosity to needs, a radiant energy

      Needs are the doorway to spirit

      Intention

      Life calling for life

      Transformation from thinking to being

      Joy

      COMPASSION AND SELF-COMPASSION

      Embrace reactivity

      Internal constriction unfolds

      Causes of suffering

      Self-awareness

      Acceptance

      Tenderness

      Unconditional acceptance

      Compassionate spaciousness liberates suffering

      THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY

      Present in the moment

      Slowing down to be present

      The body to feel each other’s presence

      Compassion

      QUALITIES OF COMPASSION

      Clarity

      Compassion

      Empowerment

      The heart of self-compassion

      The love of the heart

      Sacred work

      Emotional pain

      Embrace emotional pain

      Beauty of aliveness

      SELF-CARE

      Outer care

      Inner care

      We have a choice

      Gentleness and acceptance

      Slowing down

      Honesty and love

      Be present

      Authenticity

      Allowing

      Bodily energy

      Compassionate awareness

      Receive empathy

      Presence

      Empathy

      Self-compassion through acceptance

      SUFFERING AND NATURAL PAIN

      Suffering and mourning

      Suffering is a story

      Mourning is natural pain

      Mourning as a spiritual practice

      Mourning is authentic

      Celebration in mourning

      Recognizing aliveness

      Slowing down

      Energy of needs

      PROTECTIVE STRUCTURES

      Heart of wounding

      Goal of survival

      Experiences of deficiency

      The thinking mind

      Seeking life

      Separation

      Armoring

      Frozen fear

      Compassion for fear

      Vulnerable fear

      Core of fear

      SHADOW EXPERIENCE

      Shedding light on the shadow

      Taking ownership

      Anger

      Anxiety and fear

      Healing is natural unfolding

      LIFE-ALIENATING EXPERIENCE

      Assigning meaning

      Core beliefs

      Access the heart

      Inner awareness

      Resistance

      Constriction

      Resistance and suffering

      The experience of pain

      Pain as feedback

      Protecting the aliveness

      Protecting vulnerability

      Enjoying the life-alienated thinking

      Transforming thinking

      The heart of every emotion

      MUTUALITY

      Divine energy

      Intention not outcome

      Test for mutuality

      Needs mattering and needs met

      Intention to connect

      Life is awareness

      Staying connected

      Bring what we want

      Relationship

      The need for others

      Community

      Words transmit living information

      The corridor of vulnerability

      SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

      Our relationship to life force

      What are you meditating?

      Presence

      Presence is simple awareness

      Compassionate presence is healing

      Beauty reveals itself

      Living life fully

      I am my authenticity

      Yearning for what is already present

      Yearn for essential self

      Real strength of authentic vulnerability

      Inquiry opens to flow

      Differentiation is liberating

      Holding needs passionately but lightly

      Spiritual practice: ascending and descending

      A whispering of the infinite

      Restoring the flow

      Presence is coming to the body

      Pausing as spiritual practice

      Practice silence

      Surrender to allow

      Self-responsibility

      My well-being is mine

      Identification with thinking

      Rest in the yearning of the heart

      Offer spaciousness to suffering

      Divine is beyond words

      Already present

      Self-compassion allows unfolding

      Transformation requires trust in life

      Intelligence in the heart

      Transformation from thinking to being

      Living in the timeless present

      Heart as witness to the sacred in the other

      Surrender in mystery

      Creating inner space

      About the Author

      Acknowledgments

      I am deeply grateful for the inspiration and deep learning that I received from Marshall Rosenberg, the creator and founder of Nonviolent Communication. Marshall has had an immeasurable impact on the quality of my life and in what I offer through my work. The spirit and spirituality that I integrated from Marshall and Nonviolent Communication runs through this book at every point.

      Thank you to Phyllis Brzozowska, who spent many hours in helping me to create the original set of daily reflections for a 9-month course I offered through NVC Academy. I remember our collaboration with warmth and I am ever grateful for her steady and consistent partnership in sharing of the work of Living Compassion.

      I am thankful to Simone Anliker, Greg Brooks-English, Filipa Hope, and Amy Diener, for providing invaluable feedback, suggestions, and editing for the book. They also offered the invisible, but deeply felt presence of their love and trust for me and in the work I offer and share in the world.

      I am

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