A fellow meditator recently asked me about feeling compassion and how to conjure it up on demand.  In many Buddhist practices, the goal is to develop and sustain a state of compassion towards all beings (and eventually without a target).  Numerous techniques exist to arouse compassion, such as contemplating a loved one who is suffering.  Without an immediate situation calling it forth naturally, it’s not always easy to generate a genuine episode of compassion.  You might pull up an intellectual component while failing to experience the emotional elements.

Imagery is useful, but it’s only a means to an end.  Here is another approach that has worked well for me in the past.  When you’re struggling to call forth compassion, and the attempt is not succeeding as you’d hoped, ask yourself why you want to call forth compassion so badly.  But don’t formulate your answer in words.  Instead, look inward at what is motivating you to make the attempt.  Explore that motivation.

Often, the force underlying your attempt to arouse compassion is true compassion.  You already have it.  If you are striving and straining to have a good heart, it’s because you have a good heart.  The only thing left to do is let it guide your actions.

“Angel of Compassion,” unknown artist