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                                             This is a short story taken from the book -
                                                 ~ Buddhist Acts of Compassion ~

      Ten or fifteen years ago, I was living in a very small space in Paris, and every night I walked
       my dog outside for about an hour. Many times we'd go to a little garden near the Champs
       Elysees and I would meditate there, at the same time watching and playing with my dog.

      The garden was about one hundred feet from the Chamnps Elysees, and even though there
       were a lot of people walking past, they didn't see me, so I felt I could be alone.
       I remember thinking about my teachers. They used to say how important is to feel compassion
       for everybody without judgment or favouritism, so one evening I decided to try.

      The people walking by were close enough to see, but too far away for me to have any thought
       about them. So I began to pray completely freely for these people without judgment.
       Everybody was a stranger, but at the same time I felt very close to them because I could
       really give all my love very freely, without thinking about receiving anything in return.
       Suddenly I was completely surrounded by bliss, I was giving love, but in return I was feeling
       ten times more. I was really receiving the blessing and compassion of my masters.

       Often I would do the same thing in the car. Sometimes we'd get stuck in the car in traffic
       or be waiting for a light, and my eyes would meet someone for maybe a fraction of a second
       in the street. In that moment, very often I would just try looking at the person, smiling and
       sending my love, feeling in my heart, I love you, for example. Looking at the person and
       smiling at him or her without thinking was very easy because it was just a momentary
       glance as the person is passing by. So my love was much more like equanimity -
       all-inclusive, without bias. Sometimes I could really see that the person would be completely
       transformed by this kind of shock - that somebody was smiling at him or her for no reason.
                                                                                                                   - Michael Rousseau

                            " When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched,
                              you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any
                              resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to
                              discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how
                                                                        much space. "
                                                                                                      - Pema Chodron