We can begin to open our hearts to others when we have no hope of getting anything back. We just do it for its own sake.
Pema ChodronIt's helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing with whatever arises, without picking and choosing.
Pema ChodronWe see how beautiful and wonderful and amazing things are, and we see how caught up we are. It isnโt that one is the bad part and one is the good part, but that itโs a kind of interesting, smelly, rich, fertile mess of stuff. When itโs all mixed up together, itโs us: humanness.
Pema ChodronFor 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.
Pema Chodron