For arousing compassion, the nineteenth-century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggested imagining beings in torment – an animal about to be slaughtered, a person awaiting execution. To make it more immediate, he recommended imagining ourselves in their place. Particularly painful is his image of a mother with no arms watching as a raging river sweeps her child away. To contact the suffering of another being fully and directly is as painful as being in the woman’s shoes.
