First feeling irritated and impatient. Now reading this post feeling grateful to ED shooting questioning provoking in each of us different reactions, making the wheel of the dharma move. No posting was better or worse. Each posting spontaneuous thoughts coming and going. Nothing gained, nothing lost. [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: RE: [Zen] Re: FW: Quote from St. Thomas Aquinas To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, 2 November, 2010, 2:19 Ed, Ed, Ed… I posted a quote attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas: "I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it." You then asked: [Ed] Wherein do you perceive any intelligence or wisdom in St. Augustine's preference? [Bill!] I don't perceive any intelligence in St. Aquinas' statement above. I do however perceive a lot of wisdom. I perceive the wisdom in his stated preference for experience over knowledge. [Ed] What does St. Augustine mean by 'compassion'? [Bill!] I don't know and I don't care. The meaning of compassion is not important in the quote, in fact the quote itself says that. You can substitute any word you want for 'compassion' in his quote and the wisdom will still be there. [Ed] What do you understand 'compassion' to be? [Bill!] I understand 'compassion' to mean 'to be aware of the feelings of others'. Merriam-Webster Online defines it as "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it". That definition satisfies me. An example would be: I feel compassion towards you for reading that quote and then asking those three questions. ...Bill! __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5583 (20101101) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com
