Selected Questions and Answers

Q: What should a non-compassionate person (someone who is not compassionate, but who recognizes that he is not compassionate) do with himself? Fake compassion or gain it in stages?

M: I would recommend the second. [Laughter] If we don’t have it, then at least we start with learning. I wouldn’t say fake compassion, but learn compassion. Just like a student who has not been able to speak English, but he may repeat it from the teacher. Even though he doesn’t know the whole vocabulary in English literature, at least he learns a few phrases and memorizes a few pages each day until he completes his course. Each one has to learn. There’s no one who is a fake; it’s just that he hasn’t learned. No one has taught him, and he has not practiced the art of compassion. Try to do it in a small way and gradually increase until you’re completely being compassionate without knowing, without self-consciously being compassionate.