Developing Selfless Compassion

‘So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh By Leo Babauta While the idea of being more compassionate is appealing to many people, what stands in the way is that we get irritated by other people, often actually strongly disliking them. How can you be compassionate with others when they irritate you, rub you the wrong way, make you angry? It’s difficult. I have a hard time with this fairly often, so I’ve been studying it inside myself. What’s really amazing is how much we get in our own way. My “self” is the thing that stands in the way of true compassion, I’ve been learning. And my “self” is almost always putting itself in the center of the universe, demanding things, and becoming angry when it doesn’t get what it feels it deserves. I’m really blown away by how much I think about myself, and how often I believe (without admitting it to myself) that I deserve to be treated a certain way, that others should act the way I want them to act. Watch Your Selfish Thoughts Try monitoring those kinds of thoughts in your own head: When someone irritates you, your “self” is angry because they aren’t acting the way you want them to act. You think you’re entitled to quiet, entitled to being treated fairly or with respect, entitled to have the world behave the ...
Source: Zen Habits - Category: Life Coaches Authors: Tags: Happiness Source Type: blogs