Understanding is compassion

Sometimes, often in meditation, I become aware of a quality within myself that I have long despised in others. I may even understand how that quality came about from my own fears or insecurity and gain empathy for myself having that quality. At the same time, I will recognize same or similar causes may apply to those other holding the qualities I despise and so I gain empathy towards them too. And that’s how with understanding, empathy grows and enemies are no longer enemies but troubled perhaps even more than ourselves. It’s one of those realizations that I come to again and again and somehow doesn’t lose profundity.

Wishing you well,

Naser