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This is a guided meditation on...

Building Compassion; The Path Forward

No matter how much science we rely on, how much evidence we are certain of, or how much action we engage in, without compassion there is no path forward.

Albert Einstein said it best; “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Today, more than any other time, we need compassion.

In this guided meditation I will lead you through a series of experiences that will help you build a deeper and more profound compassion.

Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is not feeling sorry for someone else.Compassion is the heartfelt wish, indeed…the aspiration that suffering ceases.And each of us have an immense capacity for compassion.

The opposite of compassion is self-centeredness, the claustrophobic and torturous focus on “my problems” “my pain”, “my suffering”, “my loss” and the myopic inability to see that “my suffering” pales in comparison to the greater suffering of so many others.

So, we need a medicine, we need an antidote to this self-inflicted hell of self-centeredness.

Compassion is that perfect medicine. Compassion releases us, in the short term from relentlessly focusing on ourselves and our problems.

And compassion liberates us to experience the world, not only in all of its spectacular beauty, but also in a REAL way releases us from a myopic, claustrophobic view of the world around us and our life with it.

Compassion is beneficial in the long term because even one or two moments of true, unobstructed, heartfelt compassion has the power to alter the life course of someone suffering as well as your own life’s path.

This meditation was inspired by the ancient teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and more specifically the teachings of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and Shantideva.

In the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, revered as the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteśvara, or in Tibetan known as Chenrezig.

"From my own limited experience I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion."

"The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes."

"True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Therefore, a truly compassionate attitude towards others does not change even if they behave negatively."

"I believe that at every level of society - familial, tribal, national and international - the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities."

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