Peace Games' Rena Deitz - "...the recipe for compassion is simple ... to get it right takes practice"

Our friends at Peace Games have been sharing the work on this site with their staff and volunteers. Rena Deitz, a Development and Communications Intern at Peace Games, had this to say about James Suskin's "Recipe for Compassion":

"James Suskin has it right. The recipe for compassion is simple, and has only a few ingredients. However, much like the recipe for a soufflé, to get it right takes practice and expertise. That is where Peace Games comes in. As an intern in Development and Communications at Peace Games I thought I would be dealing only with logistics and fundraising. Instead, everyday I work with compassionate individuals who teach children how to combine the ingredients: people, time and infinite space. By sharing their compassion, they give children the practice and expertise to be compassionate peace builders in their community."

I was inspired by reading this, because it reminded me that compassion exists in all of us as a possibility; each one of us has the capacity to be compassionate at any given moment. If a moment arises where we forget to be compassionate, we need not regret; we must simply be compassionate, and take compassionate action in this very moment. And as Peace Games' work reminds children to be compassionate––or, perhaps, gives them the tools and opportunity to recognize their own, intrinsic, compassionate selves––so can the arts remind all of us to be compassionate in our daily lives.

"Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world." - Thich Nhat Hanh

"Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures. But there are two sides to compassion, two sides to this bond. On the one hand, since you are still here as a physical body, you share the vulnerability and mortality of your physical form with every other human and with every living being. Next time you say 'I have nothing in common with this person,' remember that you have a great deal in common: A few years from now -- two years or seventy years, it doesn't make much difference-- both of you will have become rotting corpses, then piles of dust, then nothing at all. This is a sobering and humbling realization that leaves little room for pride. Is this a negative thought? No, it is a fact. Why close your eyes to it? In that sense, there is total equality between you and every other creature." - Eckhart Tolle

*

Peace Games' Rena Deitz - "...the recipe for compassion is simple ... to get it right takes practice"