Compassion Quote by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
““Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness. As with compassion, when cultivating loving-kindness it is important to start by taking a specific individual as a focus of our meditation, and we then extend the scope of our concern further and further, to eventually encompass and embrace all sentient beings. Again, we begin by taking a neutral person, a person who inspires no strong feelings in us, as our object of meditation. We then extend this meditation to individual friends and family members and, ultimately, our particular enemies. We must use a real individual as the focus of our meditation, and then enhance our compassion and loving-kindness toward that person so that we can really experience compassion and loving-kindness toward others. We work on one person at a time.””
About This Quote
Source Teaching: Compassion Meditation Guide, 2015
Loving‑kindness meditation expands from a neutral person outward, eventually embracing all beings, fostering universal compassion.
In simple terms: Start with one person, then widen compassion.
Key Takeaway
Cultivate universal compassion gradually.
Themes
compassion
mindfulness
spirituality
Mood
calm
gentle
Type
spiritual
educational
When to use this quote
- meditation practice
- conflict resolution
- mental health
- education
Key Concepts
Loving‑kindness
empathy
interconnectedness
Questions to Reflect On
- Who can you practice loving‑kindness toward?
- How does expanding compassion affect relationships?
A Different Perspective
May be challenging with strong negative emotions.
![“compassion” derives from the Latin patiri and the Greek pathein, meaning “to suffer, undergo, or experience.” So “compassion” means “to endure [something] with another person,” to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes,” quote by Karen Armstrong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1e9/karen-armstrong-1053_compassion_compassion-derives-from-the-latin-patiri_2926296.jpg)
