When we look at the world these days, although there are many positive developments, there is also a lot of conflict, trauma, disaster, and suffering. For instance, with conflict, it’s not like in olden times when a soldier had one weapon that could strike only one other soldier at a time. We live in an age with weapons that can harm millions of people at the push of a button, and not just soldiers but so many innocent civilians too. In conflict, the thinking is very much “us” and “them,” with strong attachment to “us” and then some kind of justification that gets set in the brain that it’s OK to harm or have less feeling about “them.” That is why we need, more than ever before, the universal compassion of Avalokiteshvara, which has no discrimination, no boundaries, no judgments or conditions.
Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche
from the book Wake Up to What Matters: A Guide to Tibetan Buddhism for the Next Generation
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