Shades of Broken

Do you or someone you know need to talk about the road back to yourself spiritually/mentally and getting to know this very different world we are living in. Don't struggle...reach out. I am accepting new clients at this time but space is limited so book ahead or give someone the gift of help for Christmas with a gift certificate. Contact me in a private message for further details.

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Want a copy of my new book Shades of Broken The Shane Flannigan Story ? The cost is $25. This book details my journey with PTSD which has changed my life forev...er from law enforcement professional to the work of helping others heal & get through their obstacles in life. To purchase my book send me a PM here on Face Book. Many Thanks & Love to all ! See more

All human beings have a natural potential for boundless compassion, but it is often hidden behind a wall of thoughts and feelings directed at protecting our delicate "self", or ego. To be truly compassionate our first task is to open our own hearts and, with kindness (metta) for ourselves, confront our own discomfort, fear and suffering. True compassion is like the sun, always present in the sky, but sometimes hidden behind thick layers of dark clouds. For some people clouds ...of ego-protecting thought never reveal the sun of compassion; for most of us the sun appears for varying intervals. The best way to let our natural compassion flow is to increase our level of mindfulness, in formal meditation and in everyday life. When we carefully notice the thoughts and feelings appearing from moment to moment in the mind, we begin to see them as natural phenomena that arise, exist for a while, then cease of their own accord. We do not need to judge them as good or bad, right or wrong. We need to neither repress them nor indulge in them. When we have angry, fearful, judgemental or blaming thoughts we need no longer act immediately in unskillful ways; instead we can wait for them to pass and then act out of wisdom. By paying close attention to the clouds of thoughts, we can see the gaps between them and sense the presence of the sun of compassion behind them. We also begin to see that suffering is universal in all sentient beings. We will all face suffering during our lives. It seems that the essential reason why we find it difficult to relate to other people's suffering is our sense of being a totally separate person. Imagine a deep, wide, river flowing along. Suddenly it falls over a high precipice. The river becomes a waterfall, breaking up into myriads of droplets. Each droplet seems separate, buffeted about by external forces, fighting for its very existence. But at the bottom of the waterfall all the drops merge back into a river, all separateness gone. We humans are rather like the drops of water, forgetting that we are always part of the great river of life. The sense of separateness is really an illusion. Everything on the planet, everything in the universe is interconnected. From this perspective, another person's suffering is our suffering. True compassion arises naturally when our ego-protecting thoughts begin to die down. We can aid that process by being mindful, opening our hearts to our own discomfort and pain, and being compassionate towards ourselves. When the painful barrier of separateness begins to crumble, compassion flows outwards from the heart, unconditionally to all beings.