![\"Heart\/Meditator\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.grzesina.net\/images\/heart%20meditator.png?resize=387%2C300\")
<\/p>\nDear Friends,<\/p>\n
Over the past two weeks, we’ve built up our muscle of mindfulness, and in the process, we have turned to see the way things are. Things change. We are interconnected. We\u00a0are not helpless victims, but we are also not fully in control. And we have these beautiful hearts than can hold all this. So let’s strengthen that kindness muscle as we respond to the difficulties in life with compassion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Christina Feldman describes two-fold approach this in her book\u00a0Boundless Heart: The Buddha’s Path of Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mindfulness inclines toward, turns toward, our present moment experience, reversing the pattern of aversion; the world is illuminated through mindfulness, free of judgment and preference. Metta [kindness] is learning to stand near to all moments, people, and experiences, befriending all that has been illuminated. Metta is a process of sensitizing ourselves to the world we live in with all its joy and sorrow. Compassion is concerned with our response to the sorrow and pain illuminated through mindfulness and befriended with metta.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lion’s Roar recently published an article by Christina on compassion<\/a>, where she reminds us:<\/p>\n Again and again we are asked to learn one of life\u2019s clearest lessons: that to run from suffering\u2014to harden our hearts, to turn away from pain\u2014is to deny life and to live in fear. So, as difficult as it is to open our hearts toward suffering, doing so is the most direct path to transformation and liberation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sharon Salzberg describes compassion as a trembling or quivery of the heart in response to another being’s pain. It’s a movement towards<\/em>, to see if we can be of help, rather than a movement into<\/em>, where we can easily get overwhelmed.<\/p>\n As part of last year’s Real Happiness Meditation Challenge, Sharon shared a post on compassion, which includes a link to a short meditation on compassion. You can access that here: May our steps along the path of compassion lessen the sorrow in this world.<\/p>\n With best wishes, Dear Friends, Over the past two weeks, we’ve built up our muscle of mindfulness, and in the process, we have turned to see the way things are. Things change. We are interconnected. We\u00a0are not helpless victims, but we are also not fully in control. And we have these beautiful hearts than can hold all this. So let’s strengthen\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[102],"tags":[137,58,139,48],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2018","tag-christina-feldman","tag-compassion","tag-real-happiness","tag-sharon-salzberg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttps:\/\/www.sharonsalzberg.com\/topic\/day-27-meditation-compassion\/<\/p>\n
\nAndrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"