A VIEW OF OTHERS

There is something to be aware of when, in a mall, for example, you are walking along shopping, and otherwise people-watching, as we are all apt to do.  You note to yourself or to a companion how that person over there is certainly pretty or handsome or fat or loud or poorly dressed, while the one down there is just the opposite, and so forth, all the while concluding that these folks have nothing to do with you.  You don't know them from Adam or Eve.

But the fact is, when you cross paths with other human beings, you are in fact crossing paths with yourself. All human beings, indeed all living creatures, have an Atman, which is the subjective aspect of the Brahman.

There is, however, only one Atman, just as there is only one Brahman. Since you share the same Atman with everyone else, you are, in the end, everyone else and they are you.  Indeed, there is a vedantist teacher known for beginning his every talk with "Ladies and gentlemen of myself."

When you identify with others in this way, what results is compassion.  You feel for the others' circumstances because they are your circumstances, the human condition, and for their suffering because you know exactly what suffering feels like yourself.  You must remind yourself that at the end of the day it is all one thing, all one life, all Brahman.