habituated mind in a specific way does not come easy. As with everything, be it learning how to
read and write, ride a bicycle or play a musical instrument, we need to begin with the foundations
first and train in those basic skills. Only then can we attempt the more difficult and complex
endeavors. This is no less true for training the mind and developing its positive skills.
There are many varieties of meditation practices. For the purpose of meditating on compassion,
here are a few core practices:
1. Experiencing Compassion in Oneself
Begin by recalling the three kinds of suffering and the Four Immeasurables (see
in this
volume) . What are they? After spending some time recollecting the meaning of loving-kindness,
compassion, joy and impartiality, focus your attention on the breath and stabilize the mind. See if
you can follow 21 cycles of breathing without distraction. Once the mind is more stable and clear,
imagine that one of your dearest friends or family members is in front of you. See him or her in a
happy mindset. Now imagine how something troubles him or her: it could be an injury, a deadly
sickness or being viciously tortured. Notice how your heart goes out to him or her and how you
wish for that person to be free from suffering. Don’t move on in your mind, and don’t avoid that
feeling – just hold that sense of how you want that person to be free of suffering. Become deeply
aware how unbearable it is for you to see that person in distress, and how your intention to help
increases. Feel how this situation is uncomfortable for yourself. This response is natural. It shows
your innate compassion and that you have the potential to develop it.
Now move on to somebody that is not so familiar, but nevertheless an acquaintance, and repeat
the same process. Visualize how he or she is in distress, is suffering badly. The suffering you see
in the other is something intolerable and you want to remedy it. Cultivate this sense of “wanting to
relieve that being from suffering and the causes of suffering”.
Repeat this exercise time and again; it will cultivate your mental determination, response, strength
and stability. Once you feel stable in this practice, you can then proceed to neutral individuals, the
people that you don’t know personally, and eventually, more difficult, even to enemies. Don’t try
this at the beginning since it will not work – but rest assured that by training in the first part, using
friends and neutral people, you will also be able to do so for those you perceive as your enemies.
2. Exchanging Oneself for Others
This exercise is a bit more challenging and is in two parts.
A)
The first practice is called giving away your own happiness using the instrument of loving-
kindness: Go through the same process of visualizing people in front of you. Again, begin with
friends and loved ones. When you see them suffering think from the depths of your heart: “I will
give to this dear friend, without hesitation, whatever virtues, or goodness, I have accumulated, so
that it will benefit him or her”.
This exercise can be alternated with the practice called taking the suffering of others within
yourself using the instrument of compassion: After going through the process of visualizing your
friends, or dear ones, and seeing them suffering, you think from the depths of your heart: “I will
give to this dear friend, without hesitation, whatever virtues I have accumulated, and may his or her
suffering, together with its causes, ripen within me”.
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