By Pema Sherpa & Brendan Barca

Age-old wisdom for modern living. Each week you’ll get 1 quote, 1 reflection and 1 action to help you lead a calmer, clearer, and more conscious life.

12/26/23

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Negative Responses, Showing Forgiveness, & Cultivating Compassion

Quote:

“Even if your kindness is repaid with harm, cultivate compassion in return. The most excellent beings of the world respond to even the negative with goodness.”

– Gampopa

Reflection:

When you do something kind for someone and they return your gesture with anger or indifference, what’s your move? If you’re like the majority of us, you’d probably do one of two things: you’d either lash back out at them with your own anger or never do anything for them ever again. Gampopa, the principle disciple of Buddhist master Milarepa and an accomplished master in his own right, offers a third option for us to consider: to show compassion in return.

While this might feel like the last thing we’d want to do given the circumstances, think about it this way: If someone repays our kind gesture with negativity, their action is merely a reflection of their own internal state. They may be sad or confused or hurt and it has nothing to do with us. In fact, their negative response is a sign that they need our compassion and kindness even more than we had originally thought.

Action:

The next time your kindness is met with resistance, don’t take it as a sign that your kindness should cease. Take it as a sign that your kindness should increase. Don’t shut down. Don’t get angry. Cultivate compassion and show them some love.

They need it and someday soon you will too.

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