I strongly believe that compassion is really only as valuable as what we do with it: the action that we take from that compassionate place.

So, why do we cultivate compassion? We cultivate it—yes—for its own sake. In Buddhism, it is recognized as one of the four heavenly abodes, or a Divine quality that we as humans can both in body and benefit from. But we also cultivate it as a means of transformation and healing for ourselves and others.

There are two modes of compassion.

The first is compassion for ourselves on the individual level and then there is compassion for the collective.  and. When we start to bring these two practices together compassion for ourselves, or what we now call Self compassion as well as compassion for others for the collective the universal.

This is how self-care and justice weave together.

There's a question of: what needs healing on the individual and the collective levels?  So what does cultivating this look like in terms of cultivating compassion on the individual level? It might look like self-compassion, self-healing, or self care.

On the collective level it's going to look a little bit different.On this level, it's about honoring and dignifying our shared humanity and applying compassion to that humanity. This helps to create the conditions for shared, collective well-being.

Links and resources for this episode

• Spirit Rock Meditation Center
• Book: Self-Compassion
• The Patreon Community

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