Pity

It's a great thing to feel love for those we pity.  Pity invokes universal love from the good and the merciful.  Feeling sorry for another person's plight has the effect of putting us in their shoes, fertilizing our imagination with their suffering.  That we should not have to suffer the same burdens simultaneously makes us feel grateful and compassionate toward the person affected.  It lets us pretend, just for a moment, that we are that suffering person; that their trials and tribulations are happening to us, just as they are to them.  It allows us to become them at the expense of our ego, by relinquishing our grip on the self.  This is why a self-centered person cannot feel pity to the same degree as a selfless one.  Only those who are able to love through pity are Christlike, offering their feelings to a greater power, one that likens them to being nailed to the cross with him, punishing themselves for the sins of mankind.  Pity is the road by which saints travel to perish, giving up their lives in a quest for miracles. 

There is another kind that isn't so saintly.  Feeling scorn for those we pity is the antithesis of the selfless kind.  Scornful pity makes us disgusted in another person's plight, causing an aversion to their being.  While it's true that the nature of their plight can make us feel one kind or the other, generally one should strive to feel the loving kind, for it is far more beneficial to everyone involved.  Likewise, our perception of the person can persuade us to feel one kind over the other, usually as an attempt to reconcile our confirmation bias.  The plight of someone you view negatively will likely arouse scorn, whereas someone you view positively might receive the loving pity they deserve.  Yet I say that those you view negatively should not be judged when they are in dire straits.  Open your heart to them; forgive them of their faults; let awareness show how your negative feelings are really reflections of yourself.  Then you'll be better able to love unconditionally, with stars in your eyes and pious intent in your heart.