Let Compassion In
In cultivating compassion, we need to start with ourselves and those closest to us. We practice opening, in meditation and in our lives, to difficulties that are present, right now, right here. It may be our own physical or emotional pain; or it may be the suffering of an agitated person sitting next us on his meditation cushion, or on the subway, or in her car stuck in traffic on the freeway. The practice of meditation is learning to let things in, being with them as they are, without drowning in the difficulties or becoming identified with them. The great lesson here is that it is not what is happening that is important, but rather how we are relating to it.
–Joseph Goldstein, from One Dharma (Shambhala Publications)
