Love and Compassion

Rinpoche offered this advice concerning the practices of love and compassion.

Rinpoche said that although we have different definitions for love and compassion, and during tong-len practice love and compassion are practiced at different times, actually, in practice they are not separate.

Just as smoke is a sign of fire, and with a fire there is smoke, so too where love is present so too there is compassion. That in practice they are coming together.

When you are wishing to take on the suffering of others sincerely, then you are also wishing for their happiness. And when you are wishing sincerely for others’ happiness, then you are also wishing to remove their suffering.

Although the thought of love and compassion are not arising simultaneously, in practice they are appearing together.

This article is taken from the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT).