see it all with the eyes of compassion.
Sometimes the suffering and hopelessness in the world seem overwhelming. It’s endless—it’s everywhere. It seems that from the agony of being squeezed into birth to the loneliness of death, we’re beings of immense suffering, interspersed with brief times of enthusiasm, beauty, and joy. The time someone teased us or abandoned us. The disasters, terrors, and losses. The guilt we feel, the rage we don’t even know we feel. There’s so much sorrow sometimes it seems it can’t be borne. All we can do is regard it with the eyes of the angels—with compassion. Compassion doesn’t judge any of it or us. It doesn’t urge us to feel any different than we’re feeling. It simply eyes the situation with sympathy and strength and says, Yes, this part is hard. It doesn’t forgive, because there is nothing to forgive. It steeps us with the gentle kindness of acceptance. Ultimately, compassion teaches us unconditional love for what life is and who we are. When we look at ourselves through the eyes of the angels, we remember how to love not just life but ourselves.