The kindness to oneself that I was speaking of is rather different from the self-fixation of selfishness. For example, the Buddha said, “I have shown you the path to liberation but know that its achievement depends on you.” In other words, we have to take responsibility for the achievement of liberation through our own efforts. It is the undertaking of responsibility for one’s own liberation that I’m referring to as kindness to oneself. What we normally mean by self-cherishing includes within it the implicit abandonment of the welfare of others and the rejection of any effort to achieve that welfare of others. Therefore, it is very different from what I mean by kindness to oneself.
17th Karmapa
from the book Compassion NOW!
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Further quotes from the book Compassion NOW!:
- Cultivating compassion and love for oneself
- Nurturing the seed of compassion
- Persistent patience
- Cultivating forbearance with the kleshas as a game rather than a practice or training
- Expressing compassion in simple ways