21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

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another person’s pain or to celebrate another’s joy is to relieve one’s own pain and to celebrate one’s own joy.’

Matthew Fox — Original Blessing.

A similar idea is expressed by Thomas Merton:

‘The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and are all involved with one another.’

Thomas Merton — Marxism and Monastic Perspectives.

Returning us to our widest perspective, a simple quote from Ken Wilber reminds of the link between compassion and oneness:

‘…the Many returning to and embracing the One is Good and is known as wisdom; the One returning to and embracing the Many is goodness, and is known as compassion.’

Ken Wilber — Sex, Ecology. Spirituality.

Finally, and leading us into the next chapter, a passage from Danah Zohar:

‘In my own being, which draws its very existence from the creation of relational wholes, I am by nature a creature which is stuff of the same substance with love, truth and beauty. Not because I create them, but because the nature of my own consciousness is synonymous with the nature of their meaning. Through my own being, I have the capacity to act as midwife to their expression in this world, and they in turn mould and make the self that I

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