This Week's Word to Live By:

Print* these images and use as a coloring meditation at the end of your day.

Heart Chakra

*To print, click on image. When larger image opens, right click (or control+click on Mac), save to your desktop. Then open and print.

Compassion is a state of being in which a person is motivated to be of assistance
to others regardless of circumstance. Compassion arises most often as a response to the suffering of others,
but is a virtue that can be cultivated
​to be a natural state of being.

Contemplate Through Your Week:

" Does your action arise
from the wish to be 
​of service and to help? "

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Opportunities for Practice:
~ Your child falls down and scrapes a knee
~ A co-worker’s car breaks down
~ A neighborhood dog is loose in the street
~ A celebrity’s life is slandered in a tabloid
~ A devastating earthquake in Nepal
~ A destructive hurricane in Mexico.
~ Syrian refugees

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From small incidents to major catastrophes, daily life is full of opportunities to develop compassion. In any instance where suffering is noticed, there is the possibility for the heart to open and for compassion to arise.
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~ Your barista drops your latte all over you
~ Another driver cuts in front of you
~ Your spouse doesn’t reply to a text message
It is in those instances where the suffering isn’t noticed immediately, where anger wants to arise first, that the greater opportunity exists to offer compassion instead.

More Words to Live By:
          Loving-Kindness
       Equanimity