Having compassion is extremely important in our society. Compassion is wanting someone to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Having that compassion, we do not want to inflict pain deliberately on others out of anger. We see that anger does no good in bringing about harmony in society or in terms of getting what we want. We can bully people all we want and make them afraid of us, but that does not bring about what we really want, which is close relationships. People often confuse the fear of somebody with respect for that person. They think if somebody fears me that means they respect me. No, they are totally different emotions. Compassion, more than ever, is really needed, in our world. Everybody is worthy of compassion.

Let us face it, the Constitution said everybody is created equal, but they are only equal in one sense. If you are a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, rich male, then you are all equal. Everybody else does not cut it.

Actually, the fact is that everybody is equal in the sense of being a human who is worthy of respect, so we need to show that respect for everybody. We also need to recognise that everybody is not born with the same opportunities.

Much of the situation we are born into is dependent on previous karma. We are not born with equal opportunity. We must have some compassion for people who are born with less opportunity than us and those who are born with more opportunity than we have but misuse it. These people have different problems because when they are born as children of somebody who is rich and famous, they have a whole other different set of problems than somebody who is born from very modest parents.

Having compassion means having a heart that sees that everybody faces challenges in samsara and wishes that everybody be free of their misery and its causes. We really need this now. It is not a nice philosophical idea to sit on our cushion and get blissed out. It is something that we really need to deal with in this world. We can provide that by working on our minds. It is not something we can do by faking it. We have to really cultivate it.

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