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 :
- Naturalness
- Thinking about the consequences of our collective actions
- Being an interdependent individual
- The workings of interdependence
- Becoming stuck in a quagmire of self-obsession
- Inner freedom is key
- The ability to experience genuine closeness
- Our innate ability to connect with others
- Enthusiastically benefiting whomever we come in contact with
- Enjoying the goodness of what you are doing
- Interdependence always works both ways
- Concealing our weaknesses
- A Vast and Complex Web of Causality
- A greater sense of possibility
- The impulse to connect
- Cultivating a spirit of generosity
- Interdependent individual
- Viewing others through the lens of interdependence
- Discovering new potentials
- Bringing about real change in the world