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A Compassionate Life

Quotes from Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Marc Ian Barasch–a book which takes a look at empathy, altruism, and compassion from all walks of life.

If one completes the journey to one’s own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else. –Father Thomas Keating

See yourself in others
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?
–The Buddha

We’re all in the gutter,
Only some of us are looking at the stars.
–Oscar Wilde

Whenever catching sight of others
Look on them with an open, loving heart.
–Patrul Rinpoche

I will take the stony heart out…
And give them a heart of flesh.
–Ezekiel

Man will become better when you show him what he is like.  –Anton Chekhov

Whatever joy there is in this world
All comes from desiring others to be happy
And whatever suffering there is in this world
All comes from desiring myself to be happy.
–Shantideva (8th cent. B.C.E.)

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. –William Penn

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath,
My wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not,
My wrath did grow.
–William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience

And the day came when the risk it took to remain closed in a bud became more painful than the risk it took to blossom.  –Anais Nin

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I am away right now, rejuvenating in a cold, bayside clime, without access to my computer, so I shall meet you here again on Friday morning.

May your week be full of compassion…given or received…

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