This may be helpful to keep in mind if at times we find ourselves progressing more slowly than we had hoped. Once we realize that our personalities are not fixed and that we can decide to actively change them, we might become inspired and expect to be able to push ourselves to change rapidly. But compassion and other inner qualities are not solid things that we can just decide to acquire, install, and power on. They do not exist as discrete or unrelated entities but rather need to be cultivated gradually, over time, and in concert with other qualities.
17th Karmapa
from the book
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Further quotes from the book Interconnected :
- An important source of closeness and love
- The imagination to see the other as free and happy
- Knowing more is not a substitute for feeling more
- Self-reliance
- Acting against self-serving impulses
- The interdependence between us and the world
- Noticing the collective effects of our individual actions
- Webs of interdependence
- Our closest and most reliable allies
- Interdependence at work
- His Loneliness
- Touching the core of our equality
- Collective actions and attitudes
- The deeper common ground all living being share
- Delight in positive thoughts
- Interdependent individuals
- Our intimate dependence on the natural environment
- A main condition for our selfishness
- Opening up to the view of interconnectedness