Compassion and Sacrifice

If I were adrift upon the ocean
with demons and dragons all around,
I would think of sweet Kuan-Yin
and the hungry wateres would subside..

If I were trapped within a furnace
as hot as hell's own blazes,
I owuld think of Kuan-Yin's power,
and the flames would turn to water.

If enemies pursued me, if I were thrown
from a high mountain peak, if knives
were raised against me, if I were imprisoned
or beset by beasts, I would call on her.

Her pity shields me from the lightning.
Her compassion is like a cloud around me,
which rains down sweetness and
puts out the fires of my sorrow.

--Chinese prayer to Kuan-Yin

Born a human girl named Miao Shan, she earned enlightenment but refused it out of compassion for those who remained unenlightened here on earth. She will not, it is said, move into true Buddhahood so long as there is even one living being who has not seen the light of truth.

We all make sacrifices - for one thing or another for all manned of reasons. Some of us too are genuinely compassionate and go out of our way to help others without any expectation of gratification for ourselves, the only reason we do it is to alleviate another's needs - that is recompense enough. It is an ideal to be aspired to...

Still others do so because it is a step toward 'godliness', holiness - the right thing to do, or to be closer to what our faith tells us we should do to please our God, (or at least to abide by his rules). The motivation is perhaps not as pure or self effacing, there is a certain expectation of reward there, even if reaching for it is not a consious thing. I will freely admit, that while I aim for the first group, I tend to fall more often within the second.

I've recent come into contact with someone of a third group, sad to say, who demonstrates compassion, one would think, perhaps for the second reason, to be a good 'Christian/Muslim' and on the surface it seens that way, but... I have come to suspect - rather uncomfortably - that this person tries to 'help' or look after people in order to become involved in their 'drama' to have their nose in many people's business and empower themselves this way. It calls to question in quite a serious way, the issue of trust, especially as this person has also become very proprietorial. I will regularly hear from this person, 'be careful what you get involved with there,' should I go to speak with someone outside of the circle of this person and I.

That sounds as if this person is being way more vindictive that they truly are because I honesly don't think this person set out to be this way, just that they have fallen into the habit of it and through their own insecurities, now needs the 'power over' others that this involvement gives to them. I realise also, in saying this that I'm being terribly judgemental, but I do so not in a nasty way, but in a sad one - because I would like to remain this person's friend... but at present no longer feel that I can trust them, in part for this reason... and without trust, where can there be true friendship?