True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings. —Pema Chödrön More about this quote Tags: kinship compassion help Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The space between our mouth and the people’s ears, or eyes, who receive what we make, that is holy ground. —Fred Rogers More about this quote Tags: space compassion reverence Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of a mountain. We leave our attachments and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top. At the peak we have transcended all pain. The only problem with this metaphor is that we leave all the others behind. . . . In the process of discovering our true nature, the journey goes down, not up. . . . Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. . . . We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we will let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of compassion. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die. —Pema Chödrön More about this quote Tags: truth spirituality love reality compassion pain death suffering doubt aggression transcendence healing attachments worldliness turbulence insecurity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. —Albert Schweitzer More about this quote Tags: living ethics compassion depth mankind Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. —14th Dalai Lama More about this quote Tags: others happiness compassion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The only reason that we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes. —Pema Chödrön More about this quote Tags: others clear-seeing perspective hearts compassion eyes confidence fearlessness sanity confusion minds Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
What value has compassion that does not take its object in its arms? —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry More about this quote Tags: love compassion value Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. —Pema Chödrön More about this quote Tags: humanity presence relationship compassion equality darkness healer wounded similarity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself. I don't say this as a condemnation–I need regular reminders to stop feeling sorry for myself too. I'm going to address you bluntly, but it's a directness that rises from my compassion for you, not my judgement of you. Nobody's going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you're rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice. And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard. No matter what unjust, sad, sucky things have befallen you. Self-pity is a dead-end road. You make the choice to drive down it. It's up to you to decide to stay parked there or to turn around and drive out. —Cheryl Strayed in Tiny Beautiful Things More about this quote Tags: life judgement money compassion self-pity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
In 1941 Sergeant James Allen Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross for climbing out onto the wing of his Wellington bomber at thirteen thousand feet to extinguish a fire in the starboard engine. Secured only by a rope around his waist, he smothered the fire and returned along the wing to the aircraft's cabin. Winston Churchill, an admirer of swashbuckling exploits, summoned the shy New Zealander to 10 Downing Street. Struck dumb with awe in Churchill's presence, Ward was unable to answer the prime minister's questions. Churchill surveyed the unhappy hero with some compassion. "You must feel very humble and awkward in my presence," he said. "Yes, sir," managed Ward. "Then you can imagine how humble and awkward I feel in yours," said Churchill. —The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes More about this quote Tags: war heroism humility compassion fire awe awkwardness Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Compassion is the basis of all morality. —Arthur Schopenhauer More about this quote Tags: kindness morality compassion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people, because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy. —Chögyam Trungpa in Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism More about this quote Tags: others compassion energy Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
It all comes down to this: when you recognise your loneliness in another person, when you see desperation so familiar to yours written across someone else, you can't just let them leave. —Chloe Rattray in Sacré Noir More about this quote Tags: love loneliness compassion familiarity Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
To expect too much compassion from yourself might be a little destructive of your own existence. Even so, at least make a try, and this goes not only for individuals but also for life itself. It's so easy. It's a fashionable idiocy of youth to say the world has not come up to your expectations. "What? I was coming, and this is all they could prepare for me?" Throw it out. Have compassion for the world and those in it. —Joseph Campbell More about this quote Tags: existence compassion Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email