Courageous Compassion

One of the teachings that sparked my interest when I encountered Buddhism was compassion. My teachers, Tibetan lamas who were refugees in Nepal and India after the Chinese communist takeover of Tibet in the 1950s, explained a step-by-step method to generate love and compassion. Until then impartial love, compassion, and forgiveness had been wonderful ideals to me, but I had no idea how to cultivate them and there were few role models to follow. Most well-meaning people mouthed the words of “kindness and compassion,” “harmony and peace,” but it seemed they conducted their lives with their own self-interest foremost. Unfortunately, I was the same.

But here at this meditation retreat were refugee monks who had lost everything except their spiritual practice when they fled Tibet and became refugees. One teacher, Lama Thubten Yeshe, put his palms together and said, “I have to thank Mao Zedong because becoming a refugee taught me the real meaning of Dharma practice. Without this experience of suffering, I would have remained complacent; but due to Mao’s kindness, I have learned compassion.” H.H. the Dalai Lama related a meeting with a monk who had been imprisoned by the Chinese communists and tortured for years. Asked what he feared most during his imprisonment, the monk replied, “Losing compassion for the prison guards.” I was shocked to think that someone could even have compassion in such circumstances. The fact that this was possible woke me up; I wanted to develop such love and compassion.

The members of this distinguished audience come from a variety of Buddhist traditions. We share the same teacher, the Buddha. But due to the lack of transportation and communication methods, sometimes we’ve heard inaccurate information about each other. Through assisting H. H. the Dalai Lama in writing the Library of Wisdom and Compassion, I’ve been fortunate to learn that these misconceptions are false and to discover that the teachings in these traditions often come to the same point and build upon each other. In that light, I will discuss compassion and how it is practiced in various Buddhist traditions, beginning with a discussion of what compassion is and is not, followed by the Pāli and Sanskrit presentations, and concluding with thoughts on how to bring compassion into secular education.

Due to the brevity of this article, I refer you to In Praise of Great Compassion and Courageous Compassion, which are volumes 5 and 6 of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion and of course to original canonical and commentarial sources to know more.

What is compassion?

Compassion is a mental factor that is often paired with love; both concern positive attitudes and emotions toward others and ourselves. Some definitions are helpful for clarity. In Tibetan Buddhism, love (maitri) is defined as the wish for beings to have happiness and its causes, and its compatriot, compassion, is defined as the wish for beings to be free of all duḥkha (Pāli: dukkha) and its causes. The Sanskrit word duḥkha is often translated as suffering, an English term that doesn’t correspond to the Buddhist meaning. A better translation is “unsatisfactory experiences”—experiences and conditions that are problematic, stressful, and confusing.

This brings up larger questions: What is happiness and what are its causes? What is duḥkha and what are its causes? Buddhism, other religions, and the secular world have different answers to these questions, although the answers have overlapping points.

According to the Buddhist commentarial tradition, happiness is of two kinds. Temporal happiness is the happiness we ordinary beings experience in cyclic existence: good health, friends, wealth, job fulfillment, loving relationships, social status, freedom, and so forth. In general, this type of happiness is connected to objects of our five senses. To receive it, we orient our lives toward people and objects that we believe cause happiness. Likewise, we endeavor to get away from or oppose whatever or whomever we believe is interfering with our contact with these external sources of happiness. In contrast, ultimate happiness is the deep fulfillment and joy of abiding in meditative equipoise on the nature of reality, knowing that the innate ignorance and mental afflictions that are the source of our misery have been eradicated and that our innate good qualities have been expanded and developed to their utmost.

From the earliest Buddhist sources, duḥkha is of three types: the duḥkha of pain, the duḥkha of change, and the pervasive duḥkha of conditioning (Bodhi 2000, 38.14.; Gyatso 1994). The duḥkha of pain is the physical and mental suffering that all beings recognize as unpleasant and undesirable such as aging, sickness, death, unfulfilled wishes, loss of dear ones, wealth, status, and so forth. The duḥkha of change has to do with the loss or separation from the sources of our pleasure. The people and objects that are sources of our temporal happiness lack the power to bring lasting happiness. If they brought true happiness, the more we were in contact with them or the more we did certain activities, the happier we would become. But this is not the case. Eating good food is a source of pleasure, but if we continue to eat, the pleasure ceases and the pain of a stomachache arises. Social status and financial success bring their own suffering: they are taxing to maintain yet we are anxious about losing them. The pervasive duḥkha of conditioning refers to our being born with a body and mind under the influence of ignorance and mental afflictions (confusion, anger, attachment, and so forth) and actions (karma) motivated by them. Without choice, we are born with a body that ages, falls ill, and dies.

Many of the superficial causes of duḥkha are external—the loss of cherished relationships or possessions, or people or animals that threaten or destroy our physical or emotional well-being. Some have to do with our body—injury, the imbalance of elements, illness. Innate sources of duḥkha cause us to be reborn repeatedly in cyclic existence—ignorance misconceiving reality, innate mental afflictions, and the actions we engage in under their influence. These actions leave “seeds” on our mindstream that ripen into unpleasant or stressful circumstances and experiences in the future.

All beings—be they religious or secular—agree that temporal happiness is desirable and the duḥkha of pain is unwanted. Religious practitioners of Buddhism and some other religions agree that the duḥkha of change is miserable. Buddhism asserts that rebirth in any realm of cyclic existence under the influence of ignorance, afflictions, and harm is undesirable. Likewise, the assertions of the causes of these three types of duḥkha vary according to people’s philosophy and religious beliefs.

What compassion isn’t

Before discussing how to develop compassion, Buddhist traditions consider it important to dispel erroneous views about what it is. Some of these are outlined below.

1. Compassion means being personally distressed. Being overwhelmed by feelings of despair or helplessness when cultivating compassion misses the mark. Distress about others’ suffering, anger at societal forces that cause suffering, or frustration with others for making poor decisions may be natural emotions for ordinary beings, but they are far from the Buddhist meaning of empathy (understanding a person’s perspective) or compassion (the wish for sentient beings to be free from duḥkha and its causes).
2. Compassion is pity. True compassion does not put ourselves above others. We help people simply because suffering is undesirable—it doesn’t matter whose it is, it should be eliminated. There is no room for condescending pity. Compassion does not seek anything in return, not even a thank you, because the act of helping itself fills the mind with delight. We feel fulfilled when we are able to contribute to someone’s well-being.
3. Compassion makes us people-pleasers. Compassion does not entail becoming a people-pleaser—someone who is seemingly concerned about others’ welfare but helps them so that others will praise or love them. They serve others because they seek acceptance and appreciation. The mind is entangled with self-centeredness whereas compassion is focused on others.
4. To show compassion, we must fix others’ problems. Compassion does not involve becoming Mr. or Ms. Fix-It who meddles in others’ business or wants to rescue them from their self-created difficulties. Some people simply want someone to listen with empathy, compassion, and respect.
5. Compassion makes us weak. People fear that showing compassion opens them to being taken advantage of or having to acquiesce to others’ demands out of fear. In fact, compassionate action requires extraordinary inner strength. We must be able to endure difficulties or even risk our reputation and relationships to do what is best for the other person in the long term.
6. Compassion is ineffective in opposing injustice. Some people believe that compassion is ineffective in resolving conflicts and assert “righteous anger” as the motivation that conquers injustice and abuse. However, anger—righteous or not—is based on exaggerating the negativity of the other party. Anger views that person(s) as an enemy, and sees the situation as “us vs. them.” No good comes from this.

Compassion in the Pāli tradition

Of the four immeasurables (Brahmaviharas)—love, compassion, joy, and equanimity—the cultivation of compassion, like the cultivation of love, begins with contemplating the disadvantages of lacking compassion and the benefits of having it. The first person you cultivate compassion for should be someone in great suffering. You may or may not know him personally, although compassion will arise more strongly by directly seeing the person. If you do not encounter an appropriate person, you can cultivate compassion for someone creating horrendous destructive karma, even if he appears happy at the moment. Do this by comparing him to someone given delicious food just before being executed.

After generating compassion for a suffering person, do so for a dear person, followed by a neutral person, and finally an enemy. Should you feel anger toward an enemy, counteract it through the methods described above. If any of these people are not experiencing gross suffering at the moment, cultivate compassion by recalling that they are still under the control of afflictions and karma and therefore are not free from the suffering of pervasive conditioning.

The next step is to break down the barriers between the four kinds of people by seeing the four individuals— ourselves, dear ones, neutral people, and enemies—as equal and generate compassion for them equally. When the barriers between the four people have been broken down and you are able to extend compassion equally to all four, simultaneously the counterpart sign appears and access concentration is attained. By repeatedly meditating on the countersign, the first three jhānas are attained. Such concentration makes the mind pliant and versatile thereby enabling you to meditate on compassion for all sentient beings in all directions.

Compassion in East Asian Buddhism

Chan (Zen) Buddhism holds that all sentient beings possess buddha nature, which is by nature pure, meaning it transcends the duality of purity and impurity. When the buddha nature is fully manifested, that is buddha. However, being obscured by afflictions and defilements, the buddha nature is not presently manifest in sentient beings. Similarly, all sentient beings possess compassion, but our compassion is weak because it is obscured by grasping at self. Overcoming grudges and forgiving others is very difficult for ordinary people. Someone mired in resentment, spite, and anger has no wish to help an enemy who destroys their happiness. Love and compassion are the antidotes we must cultivate to dispel this hindrance.

Several methods are used to cultivate love and compassion. Of these meditation on the four immeasurables as decribed in the Pāli tradition, and the seven-round compassion meditation, which has its source in Vasubandhu’s autocommentary on the Treasury of Knowledge (Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyam) are foremost. The seven-round compassion meditation is so-called because it consists of seven rounds and each round has seven steps. The seven steps involve contemplating our relationships with seven groups of people: our elders, peers, juniors, enemies of our elders in this and previous lives, our enemies, the enemies of juniors, and neutral persons. We reflect on the kindness of our elders, peers, and juniors, and cultivate compassion and forgiveness for the enemies of these three groups. The meditation is in the forward and backward orders seven times. At the conclusion, one cultivates samādhi on love and compassion. Following this, they meditate on emptiness.

Mahāyāna traditions throughout East Asia recite the Four Great Vows daily, making them the centerpiece of their Dharma practice. Containing the condensed meaning of all the bodhisattva precepts, the Four Great Vows are found in sūtras and commentaries such as Sūtra on the Practice of Prajñāpāramitā, the Lotus Sūtra, and the Sixth Patriarch Platform Sūtra. The Four Great Vows are:

Countless are sentient beings; I vow to liberate them.
Endless are defilements; I vow to eradicate them.
Measureless are Dharma doors; I vow to cultivate them.
Supreme is the Buddha’s Way; I vow to attain it.

The last vow is the generation of bodhicitta; “the Buddha’s Way” refers to bodhi, the awakening of the Buddha, and bodhicitta is the vow to complete the path to full awakening. To actualize this aspiration, the support of the first three great vows is needed. Based on great compassion that feels the suffering of sentient beings as our own, the first great vow is to liberate each and every one of countless sentient beings.

This compassion leads to the second great vow, to eradicate the numberless defilements of ourselves and all others. This shows that great compassion is neither sentimental pity nor a romantic idea of spirituality; it spurs the generation of wisdom that eliminates the defilements completely.

This leads to the third great vow, to cultivate the countless approaches to remove these defilements and gain the measureless realizations and master measureless skillful means. Someone could protest that the four vows are too vast and impossible to actualize, however such concerns do not plague genuine bodhisattvas. Instead, their minds are focused on the awakening of all sentient beings, and they are willing to do everything possible to bring it about, such as eradicate the endless defilements that pollute their own and others’ mindstreams, cultivate all the diverse remedies to overcome defilements, actualize all awakened qualities, and attain the supreme awakening of a buddha.

Compassion in the Sanskrit tradition

According to the Sanskrit tradition as practiced in Tibetan cultural areas, to generate compassion we must first admire this quality and want to cultivate it. Śāntideva in Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (1999) speaks of the benefits of bodhicitta, the compassionate altruistic intention to reach our full potential in order to benefit all sentient beings most effectively. The benefits he describes also apply to compassion (Śāntideva 1999, 1.9, 1.22-23, 1.30-31abc).

Those who wish to destroy the many sorrows of their conditioned existence,
Those who wish all beings to experience a multitude of joys,
And those who wish to experience much happiness
Should never forsake the altruistic intention.

If even the thought to relieve living creatures of merely a headache
Is a beneficial intention endowed with infinite goodness,
What need is there to mention
The wish to dispel their inconceivable misery,
Wishing every single one of them
To realize boundless good qualities?

Compassion frees us from the prison of self-centeredness and its negative self-talk, guilt, shame, and rage, and other disturbing emotions and the actions they motivate. Compassion clears away distraction and gives meaning and focus to our lives. With compassion, we reframe from harming others and create virtuous.

Tibetan Buddhism contains two renowned methods to generate compassion as well as bodhicitta, the altruistic intention to attain buddhahood to benefit all sentient beings: the Seven Cause-and-Effect Instructions and Equalizing and Exchanging Self and Others. The Seven Cause-and-Effect Instructions have a source in the eighth century Indian sage Kamalaśīla’s Stages of Meditation II (Dalai Lama & Kamalashila 2019). The six causes are recognizing that all beings have been our mother, remembering our mothers’ kindness, wishing to repay it, heartwarming love, compassion, and the great resolve. Practicing these in sequence leads to the one result, the altruistic intention of bodhicitta.

Equalizing and Exchanging Self and Others contains the steps of equalizing self and others, the disadvantages of self-centeredness, the benefits of cherishing others, exchanging self and others, and taking and giving. This method is rooted in Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland and is elaborated in Śāntideva (1999). These two traditional methods are explained in many contemporary commentaries (Tegchok 2005; Dalai Lama & Chodron 2020).

Three types of compassion

The buddhas teach the Dharma to sentient beings of all three vehicles, and by practicing these teachings, sentient beings are freed from duḥkha and attain their spiritual aims. Seeing great compassion as the root of this goodness and excellence, in his homage at the beginning of Supplement to Nāgārjuna’s “Treatise on the Middle Way” (1-4), Candrakīrti praises great compassion as being the main cause of bodhisattvas emphasizes its importance at the beginning, middle, and end of the path to buddhahood.

Compassion alone is seen as the seed
of a conqueror’s rich harvest, as water that nourishes it,
and as the ripened fruit that is the source of long enjoyment.
Therefore, at the start I praise compassion.

An abundant harvest begins with a seed, is nourished by water, fertilizer, and sun in the middle, and results in a ripened crop at the end. At the beginning of the bodhisattva path, compassion is like a seed that will grow into all the magnificent qualities of a buddha. Upon viewing the duḥkha of ourselves and others with compassion, the strong aspiration to protect all sentient beings from the misery of saṃsāra and lead them to full awakening will arise. This gives rise to bodhicitta, which in turn motivates us to amass the two collections of merit and wisdom.

In the middle, while practicing the path, great compassion is like water that nourishes the seed of bodhicitta and prevents it from degenerating. Repeatedly generating great compassion nourishes our heart, giving us courage and strength to engage in the bodhisattva deeds and to meditate on emptiness.

At the conclusion of the path, after bodhisattvas have overcome the last vestiges of defilement, great compassion resembles ripe fruit. It spurs buddhas to continually benefit sentient beings through their awakening activities for as long as saṃsāra exists.

Compassion observing sentient beings

In the next two verses, Candrakīrti pays homage to three kinds of great compassion (MMA 3-4abc):

Like a bucket in a well, migrators have no autonomy;
First, with the thought “I,” they cling to a self;
Then, with the thought “mine,” they become attached to things;
I bow to this compassion that cares for migrators.

[Homage to that compassion for] migrators
Seen as evanescent and empty of inherent existence
Like a moon in rippling water.

These two verses praise the three types of compassion: compassion observing (suffering) sentient beings, compassion observing phenomena, and compassion observing the unapprehendable. All three types of compassion observe sentient beings and have the subjective aspect of wanting to protect them from saṃsāric duḥkha.

Compassion observing sentient beings observes sentient beings who migrate from one life to another in saṃsāra. How does saṃsāra come about? With the thought “I,” we cling to the self as an inherently existent person. Whereas the mere I or person exists by being merely designated in dependence on the aggregates, the view of a personal identity (satkāyadṛṣṭi, sakkāya-diṭṭhi) grasps it to exist inherently, from its own side, independent of all other factors. Viewing the aggregates as under the control of an inherently existent person who regards things as “mine,” the view of a personal identity then grasps mine as inherently existent. From this, attachment, anger, and the other afflictions arise. These create karma, which brings continuous rebirths in saṃsāra.

Six analogies comparing the experience of migrators in saṃsāra to a bucket in a well explain how sentient beings suffer in saṃsāra and help us generate great compassion.

1. Just as a bucket in a well is tied by a strong rope, sentient beings are tightly bound to saṃsāra by afflictions and karma.
2. Just as the operator of a pulley moves the bucket in the well, the afflictive mind propels sentient beings into various rebirths where again and again we find ourselves in situations of conflict and pain.
3. Just as the bucket continuously goes up and down in the deep well, sentient beings wander without end in saṃsāra from the highest formless realm to the lowest hell realm.
4. The bucket descends easily, but great exertion is needed to pull it up again. Similarly, sentient beings easily fall to unfortunate rebirths, but must exert great energy to create the causes and conditions for a fortunate rebirth.
5. Just as the bucket goes round and round without a discernable beginning or end, sentient beings cycle through the three sets of afflictive links where the end of one and the beginning of another are difficult to distinguish. In twelve links of dependent origination, the three sets of afflictive links are (a) the paths of afflictions—ignorance, craving, and grasping; (b) the paths of karma—formative actions and renewed existence; and (c) the paths of duḥkha—consciousness, name and form, six sources, contact, feeling, birth, and aging and death.
6. The bucket is constantly battered as it slams into the side of the well. Likewise, sentient beings are battered by the duḥkha of pain, the duḥkha of change, and the pervasive duḥkha of conditioning.

The arising of great compassion depends on contemplating that all sentient beings are tormented in saṃsāra just as we are, and that they have been and will continue to be kind to us in our various rebirths. Repeatedly meditating on the seven cause-and-effect instructions and equalizing self and others as outlined above, we generate the three aspects of compassion found in the extended meditation on the four immeasurables:

How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were free from duḥkha and its causes.
May they be free from duḥkha and its causes.
I shall cause them to be free from duḥkha and its causes.

The third line expresses the great compassion that Candrakīrti pays homage to.

Compassion observing phenomena

[Homage to that compassion for] migrators
Seen as evanescent and empty of inherent existence
Like a moon in rippling water.

This verse speaks of the second and third forms of compassion: compassion observing phenomena and compassion observing the unapprehendable. Reading those lines as “I pay homage to the compassion that views beings as subject to momentary disintegration, as fluctuating as the reflection of the moon in water being stirred by wind” is paying homage to the compassion observing phenomena. Reading the lines as “Homage to the compassion that views beings who, although appearing to exist inherently, are like the reflection of the moon in water, devoid of inherent existence” is paying homage to compassion of the unapprehendable.

Compassion observing phenomena focuses on sentient beings qualified by momentary impermanence, as lacking a permanent, unitary, independent self, or as lacking a self-sufficient substantially existent I. Before this compassion can arise in the mind, we must first ascertain that sentient beings are momentarily impermanent, “evanescent…like the moon in rippling water.” Rippling water indicates both the gross impermanence of death that fells all of us and the subtle impermanence of disintegrating in each moment. The water’s nature is to change. Similarly, sentient beings’ bodies, minds, environments, companions, and enjoyments—arise and cease in each moment. Sentient beings have had the quality of subtle impermanence since beginningless time, and a wisdom that has previously apprehended their momentary impermanence accompanies this great compassion.

Blind to this transitory nature, we cling to the notion that we and everything around us is reliable, predictable, and unchanging. When a loved one is injured or things don’t turn out as we wish, we sentient beings suffer. Holding what is impermanent to be permanent, we refuse to accept the reality of a situation that doesn’t agree with our expectations. Observing that sentient beings suffer by holding what is impermanent as permanent, bodhisattvas experience compassion for them.

Realizing that sentient beings are momentarily impermanent, we implicitly know that they are not a permanent, unitary, and independent self or soul, as asserted by non-Buddhists. Since the self isn’t independent, it must be dependent, in this case dependent on the body and mind. Sine the self is not separate from the physical and mental aggregates, it is not self-sufficient substantially existent.

The fact that sentient beings change moment by moment wakes us up to a reality that there is no lasting security in saṃsāra. Observing that sentient beings grasp impermanent things as permanent and knowing that they suffer intensely because of this stimulate compassion in our hearts. Nevertheless, their impermanence means they can change and develop their good qualities. Seeing sentient beings’ potential for freedom increases our compassion for them.

Compassion observing the unapprehendable

“Compassion observing the unapprehendable” refers to compassion that observes sentient beings qualified by the lack of true existence. Truly existent sentient beings cannot be apprehended because true existence doesn’t exist. This compassion arises after practitioners meditate on emptiness, when the mind understanding the emptiness of sentient beings informs the compassion wishing to protect them from all saṃsāric suffering. This compassion views sentient beings qualified by the emptiness of true existence and like the reflection of the moon in water. This analogy emphasizes the illusory nature of sentient beings: just as the moon reflected in water falsely appears to be a real moon, sentient beings falsely appear to be truly existent—they seem to be self-instituting although they are actually reflections of their previously created karma. We are continually baffled and upset when illusion-like people and things do not fulfill our expectations or correspond to our beliefs.

In this analogy, the water corresponds to the ocean of the view of a personal identity that grasps I and mine as truly existent. This ocean is fed by the powerful river of ignorance grasping the five aggregates to truly exist. While sentient beings struggle to stay afloat, the powerful winds of distorted conceptions agitate the water where sentient beings appear as reflections of their virtuous and nonvirtuous karma. They lack true existence, yet unaware of this fact they continue to grasp themselves and all other phenomena as truly existent and generate afflictions that bind them in saṃsāra. Seeing sentient beings as qualified by being empty of true existence, and knowing that they suffer due to grasping themselves and everything around them as truly existent entities, bodhisattvas generate strong compassion wanting sentient beings to be free from ignorance, afflictions, polluted karma, and the duḥkha that these cause.

Although there is no moon in the water of a still pond, the reflection is a dependent arising, the product of the water, moon, and light coming together in a certain arrangement. Just as there is no truly existent person in either the body or mind, in the collection of the two, or separate from them, a person still exists. The I is a dependently arising product that exists by being merely conceived and designated in dependence on the collection of the aggregates. These two qualities—being empty and arising dependently—are compatible and mutually reinforce each other.

Grasping true existence—the root of saṃsāric duḥkha—is not in the nature or the mind. It is not predetermined or unavoidable; it exists only because its root cause—self-grasping ignorance—exists. Thus sentient beings’ suffering is unnecessary. Viewing sentient beings like this arouses intense compassion that seeks to liberate them from their unnecessary misery and its causes. This strengthens bodhisattvas’ resolve to generate bodhicitta and attain buddhahood to be fully capable of guiding sentient beings to awakening.

Compassion and emptiness are cultivated separately because they require different types of meditation. The former involves transforming the mind into the entity of compassion, the later entails realizing emptiness, an object not previously known. Compassion does not automatically arise in our minds from realizing there is no inherently existent self to be attached to. We must contemplate sentient beings’ duḥkha as well as their kindness and see them as endearing by following one of the methods to generate bodhicitta. Nevertheless, an understanding of emptiness deepens our compassion and vice versa.

Applying these ideas in a secular context

Some secular training programs in compassion may be based on Buddhist teachings but they do not try to convert people to the Buddhist religion and teachers of secular compassion are not necessarily teachers of Buddhism. These distinctions are important for several reasons. Most countries are multicultural and multireligious, and compassion is a universal human value esteemed by all religions and cultures. Tying the cultivation of compassion to one religion would impede many people from attending courses to train in compassion. Similarly, people who are interested in Buddhist teachings could become confused thinking the secular explanation of compassion is the same as the extraordinary compassion of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. This has been addressed in a variety of sources (Jinpa 2006; Kolts & Chodron 2015).

When teaching a secular course on compassion, explain that the course is meant for anyone who wants to increase their compassion and altruism. These qualities are stressed by all faiths as well as by secular ethics. The source of these ideas and practices lies in the Buddha’s teachings.

The best way to teach compassion is through modeling it. To instruct others in how to cultivate compassion, increase your own self-awareness and practice the methods to cultivate compassion. The kind of human being you are and how you treat others teaches students in a way that words cannot. Have compassion for the students and be interested in their lives.

In secular settings, all mention of rebirth and karma can be omitted, and the gist of each topic can be explained in the context of this life.

At the beginning of teaching and meditation sessions, ask people to observe their breath for a few minutes to calm their minds. Follow this by leading people in cultivating a good motivation for doing the session: for example, begin by saying we want to learn methods to cultivate compassion so that we can become kinder and more compassionate human beings and to make a positive contribution to the well-being of everyone we meet and to society and the world in general.

For each point you explain, give real-life examples. Tell a story from your own life or one you have heard from others that illustrates compassion. In meditation sessions, instruct people to contemplate the meaning of the teachings and to make examples from their own lives. Since cultivating compassion is not an intellectual pursuit, they should apply the teachings to their own relationships and dealings with others. Encourage them to allow their hearts to open with compassion for others. As you instruct others, challenges will arise. When they do, ask questions and seek advice from those who taught you and share experiences with others who teach compassion and skillful means. You will learn more than you teach.

May [all beings] be adorned with love, compassion,
Joy, [the ability to] remain equanimous in the face of hardship,
Generosity, ethical conduct, fortitude,
Joyous effort, meditative stability, and wisdom.

For as long as space endures,
And for as long as sentient beings remain,
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world.

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