The Venerable Robina Courtin: How to Develop Compassion for Oneself and Others (1)

The development of compassion and the wish to help others is the point of the path to enlightenment. But as His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “Compassion is not enough.  We need wisdom.”

The first stage of Buddhist practice is to use the tool of meditation to become intimately familiar with our own minds: our anxiety, depression, attachment, low self-esteem and the other limiting qualities that are the source of our suffering and cut us off from others. This is effectively the practice of self-compassion: it brings confidence and accountability, and we realize that we’re also in charge of our own happiness.  In the process, the barriers between ourselves and others just naturally break down, and we we can now have compassion for not only the innocent victims of the world but for everyone: we realize we’re all in the same boat.

Australian nun Robina Courtin applies the wisdom of…