Action without compassion is like planting a dead tree. It will never grow. But any action that contains compassion is planting a living tree that grows endlessly and never dies. Or even if the tree dies, it always leaves a seed behind, which will grow into another tree. That organic quality of compassion goes on and on and on.

When you commit yourself to the bodhisattva path, the path of helping others, you feel as if you have done it before and you have been doing it all along. It is like living up to your inheritance, or taking over your parents’ business. You feel that there is something quite natural and right about it.

However, maitri is not just being kind and nice. It is the understanding that one has to become one with the situation. That does not particularly mean that one becomes entirely without personality and has to accept whatever the other person suggests. Rather, you have to overcome the barrier that you have formed between yourself and others. If you remove this barrier and open yourself, then automatically real understanding and clarity will develop in your mind.

Compassion is not having any hesitation to reflect your light on things