The steps are distinct, yet integrated, and each builds upon the previous stages. The eight topics
of CBCT have been taught in as few as six weeks and as many as twelve weeks (when it is taught
in elementary schools, for example). In an eight-week course, one would typically spend one week
per topic. If one has more time, one might teach it in ten weeks, for example by spending two
weeks on a difficult topic like self-compassion and two weeks on another difficult topic such as
equanimity.
Ideally one would have more than one session per week, such as twice a week. This allows the
instructor to spend the first session introducing the material for that topic, with a little practice time,
and then spend the second session for discussion and more intensive meditation practice. For
adults, if there is more than one session per week, each session is typically one hour or ninety
minutes; with only one session per week, the session is typically two hours to allow time for
presenting the material, discussing it and engaging in a 15-20 minute meditation practice at the
end of the session.
Over that time period, the participant will be led through a series of integrated, cumulative
meditations necessary for the systematic development of compassion. When practiced sincerely,
this training can be a powerful tool for identifying and observing the components of subjective
experience; for understanding how subjective experience colors perception of the outer world; and
for working with these observations to gain insight into, and perspective on, interpersonal
relationships. When successful, this training enhances positive feelings of connectedness to
others, while minimizing feelings of isolation and alienation.
Assembling the Conditions that Give Rise to Compassion
As mentioned, when all the conditions for a rich harvest are present, the harvest itself will naturally
come as a result. The same holds true for compassion. In CBCT, one cultivates compassion by
cultivating the conditions that give rise to it. This is because results only arise from concordant
conditions, and not otherwise. As mentioned, just wishing for compassion won’t give rise to
compassion any more than wishing for more money would by itself yield more money. We may
yearn for inner transformation, but if we lack a method for effecting it, our yearning by itself could
end in mere frustration. But if one develops the concordant conditions for compassion, then
compassion will naturally, even inevitably, arise.
Although the topics of CBCT are taught from beginning to end, it is also useful to look at the
conditions in reverse order, examining what are the immediately preceding conditions for
compassion, without which compassion would not arise. Those immediately preceding conditions
have their own causes and conditions, and that chain continues until we reach the first stage of the
practice. So in the next sections of this chapter, we will look at the arc of cultivating compassion
from this perspective. That way, we will clearly see all of the conditions that are needed to give rise
to compassion, and why.
Two Crucial Conditions for Compassion: Endearment and Impartiality
Compassion is the heartfelt wish to relieve others from suffering. Its immediate precondition is a felt
inability to bear witnessing the suffering of others (see
in this volume). That is to say,
when one sees suffering, one finds it disturbing, rather than pleasing or of no consequence. If one
did not feel the suffering of others to be unbearable, one would not be moved to see them relieved
of suffering, so it is clear that without this unbearability of others’ suffering, compassion for them is
not possible. This, in turn, depends on an ability to feel the suffering of others, a sensitivity to their
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