selfishness focuses only on your own needs, but if you are wisely selfish, you will treat everyone
just as well as you treat those close to you. This strategy will produce more satisfaction for you,
and more happiness.
According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the practice of compassion and of training the mind can
be summed up in two sentences: “If you are able, you should help others. If you are not able, you
should at least not harm others”. First, you must gain control over the tendency to do harm,
voluntarily restraining your hurtful physical and verbal actions. The next level begins when you can
bring these destructive factors somewhat under your control, giving yourself a better chance to
help others. “This is my religion: no need for temples… or complicated philosophy,… [just] simple
kindness”.
Shantideva, in his treatise “Engaging in the Conduct of a Bodhisattva”, expressed the quintessence
of why, and how, to train compassion in one verse:
“All the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.”
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