Mercy, Compassion, Forgiveness

"mercy is not receiving punishment that we deserve"

and how would we know what punishment we deserve? (compassion) and whose judgment is the correct one? Isn't it better to learn from the experience (forgiveness) and not interrupt the flow? and what stops the merciful from feeling like they got away with something?

(Here's an interesting blog post about Mercy vs Forgiveness from a Christian point of view)

All of these are ultimately about how you use your energy. Would you rather have your energy get stuck in holding onto petty bullshit (as I remember Bruce Wagner talking about) or using it to change your world? I remind myself that my battle is not here with everyone - but out there. This is merely the playground, the practice field. And that puts everything into a different perspective.

Comments

[Jaxon]

Hey Heather!

You said,
"And how would we know what punishment we deserve? (compassion) and whose judgment is the correct one?

Are you (or somebody somewhere) saying that compassion is the ability to know what punishment we deserve?

I always thought of compassion as an understanding of the emotional state of another or oneself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion

[heathervescent]

Jaxon - you're right - compassion doesn't necessarily tell us what punishment "we" deserve. But compassion helps us understand the other person's experience. If we juxtapose that against the punishment we may want to unleash on them and then turn it around; you can get an understanding of the "punishment" that others may want to put on you for your transgressions.