"When I see ill-natured people,Dave The Seeker wrote:I am having a really hard time with one person in particular though.
I have seen this person handle mentally handicapped people in a rough way, more than once.
I have restrained myself from acting on this, which I know was a good thing. As I would have hurt him quite badly.
He has also bragged and shown me animals he's shot, some of them mother racoons, who's babies I've tried to feed when I find where they are.
Overwhelmed by wrong deeds and pain,
May I cherish them as something rare,
As though I had found a previous jewel"
-Geshe Langritangpa
An excellent opportunity to practice!
Nah, Compassion arises because both of you are just labels. Only suffering exists (in the minds of beings). There is no difference between your suffering and his. It's just suffering.Dave The Seeker wrote:Also I have read about the equalizing and exchanging self and other, but in my thinking, if one does not have compassion as is found in the first step of the seven, what will happen when the person that is/was causing you a 'problem' pops back in the picture? Won't one really fall right back to needing to do the first step of the seven?