Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals.

For arousing compassion, the nineteenth-century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggested imagining beings in torment - an animal about to be slaughtered, a person awaiting execution. To make it more immediate, he recommended imagining ourselves in their place. Particularly painful is his image of a mother with no arms watching as a raging river sweeps her child away. To contact the suffering of another being fully and directly is as painful as being in the woman's shoes.

Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum and don't interrupt our patterns slightly. When we feel betrayed or disappointed, does it occur to us to practice?

Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we're not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.

You build inner strength through embracing the totality of your experience, both the delightful parts and the difficult parts.

In meditation, you learn how to get out of your own way long enough for there to be room for your wisdom to manifest

If you work with your mind, that will alleviate all the suffering that seems to come from the outside.