Most people who avoid getting close to suffering think they're protecting themselves from compassion itself, when what they're actually avoiding is the undifferentiated version where someone else's pain becomes indistinguishable from your own. That's a completely different state with a completely different cost structure, and confusing the two keeps a lot of people locked out of something that would actually cost them very little to practice.
The hardest thing ever is to have any compassion for someone who has actually hurt you. That could enable forgiveness and forgiveness is the most difficult lesson for a human being to learn. At the very least, it is worth trying to have compassion for people who have not done any real harm.
Most people who avoid getting close to suffering think they're protecting themselves from compassion itself, when what they're actually avoiding is the undifferentiated version where someone else's pain becomes indistinguishable from your own. That's a completely different state with a completely different cost structure, and confusing the two keeps a lot of people locked out of something that would actually cost them very little to practice.
Yes. Great point...
The hardest thing ever is to have any compassion for someone who has actually hurt you. That could enable forgiveness and forgiveness is the most difficult lesson for a human being to learn. At the very least, it is worth trying to have compassion for people who have not done any real harm.