They walk further. The air is filled with death. In front of them lies a pond, which is mostly mud now with a small amount of water in the center.
Just a month ago, a beautiful pond existed, filled with life and water. Now, the sun shimmers on the cesspool and glows on the floating bodies of dead fish. The whole pond eerily glistens with their silvery carcasses.
Logan shudders at the sight. Then, he hears splashing in front of him. A large fish, whose eyes seem to look directly at Logan, is encased in mud madly struggles, gasping for air. It desperately attempts to breathe in the stagnant remnants of its watery abode. Suffocating, it slowly is dying. As Logan surveys the pool, he realizes that the struggle for survival is not only with this one fish but is common to the entire pond. Every living fish struggles for oxygen in the still, muddy pool. How will they survive? Their companions have lost the contest and their corpses float as reminders of how close death is to life.
Now, Logan feels a sense of overpowering empathy in his heart. In an instant, he connects to the struggle of the fish. He can feel its life ebbing away just as his own life had lost its vitality. Sensing its pain and loneliness, which are no different than his own, he gently touches the fish that is now still. In his mind, he can hear its heartbeat slowing, slowing and then stopping until the silence of the now becomes deafening. The fish gave up its struggle and in time it accepts the inevitable, death; then the struggle ends as its consciousness, vitality is finished. The circle of its life is completed. He had accompanied the creature in its final journey. He felt at one with the creature as his awareness expanded, as tenderness filled his heart. He is now filled with sorrow and resolutely asks himself: How can I rescue the remaining creatures from dying in this agony?
He feels a warm hand on his shoulder, which makes him shudder and then relax.
“Logan, you showed compassion for it. You accompanied it. There is beauty in comforting the dying,” Chandra consoles,…
Arvind,
This passage is of paramount importance in the novel since the experience of deep sorrow that Logan feels for the great suffering that the dying fish experiences reflects that Logan has gone beyond his ‘ego’ at that point in time and with his expanded awareness is feeling ‘total empathy’ for the fish. This rouses a deep sense of compassion in Logan…so deep that he desires to take some kind of action to remedy the situation of the dying fish, which has its source in environmental imbalance.
We can also conclude from this passage that ‘egocentric’ living results in the creation of imbalances within oneself and the environment and inevitably lead to great suffering of one type or another, at an intrinsic and/or extrinsic level.
Therefore one can see the impact of living from the ego instead of the heart. Empathy and compassion arise with heart-centerred living, and thereby can resolve/prevent suffering.
All things are connected, and it is with empathy and compassion that we are able to have clarity and thereby know what is ‘right action’ in a given situation.
[…] In Nexus, we wanted to show through the journey of each character the importance of empathy, which is aroused through intimately understanding another person. Each of us has experienced moments of joy, ecstasy, sadness, despair and even loneliness. These experiences of highs and lows give us the capacity to relate to and know the contents of another person’s heart in all its myriad emotions. Our empathy creates the connection between us and another being and this precisely the nexus, the connection that the book presents as having the potential to change our psyche. Of course,In our book, Logan Andrews poignantly experiences this bond with a dying fish. His own suffering doesn’t isolate him but instead it connects him with suffering of others through compassion. […]
[…] Logan poignantly experiences the pain of a dying fish, expressing the idea that all life is interconnected at a spiritual level. No pain or suffering is isolated, so long as compassion enters the heart. So the circle of empathy can extend outward from that between two people, to an intimate group that attempts to form a community, and ultimately to the connection between all life. In the process, of each unique relationship our heart also grows in its capacity to love and to be present with others in our shared journey through life and possibly even after. The book also hints at the dimension of our connection beyond this life. Moments of being present, especially at the end of a person’s life journey are important and we also experience them in Nexus. […]