RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Compassion
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Whatever you intend,
whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will
become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop
meditation on compassion, for when you develop meditation on
compassion, any cruelty will be abandoned. (MN 62)
The near enemy of compassion is ordinary sorrow. (Vm 9.99)
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Just as
physical pleasure and pain are natural and inevitable aspects of human
experience, the same is true of mental pleasure and pain. Sorrow can be
seen as a form of mental pain, and it is natural to feel such pain, for
example, with the death of a loved one. Compassion is also accompanied
by sorrow, but it is not ordinary sorrow; it is a higher sorrow, raised
beyond the personal to the level of a universal emotion.
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Allow yourself
to open to the suffering of another person; there is plenty of
opportunity for this these days. See if you can discern a difference
between feeling sorry for them and feeling sorrow on account of their
pain. See if you can feel the difference between a personal sorrow and a
universal sorrow. Practice opening to the suffering of others on this
broader, more universal level of experience and meaning.
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Tomorrow: Refraining from Malicious Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
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