“Please don’t forget about compassion. Compassion is the goodness in your heart that feels for the pain and suffering of others. By suffering I mean the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the suffering of pervasive conditioning. Every ordinary being feels compassion for others at the level of the suffering of suffering, such as compassion for the suffering of sickness, and disease, and so forth. Compassion based on the suffering of change and the suffering of pervasive conditioning is more subtle. And even more subtle than that is feeling compassion for the suffering of sentient beings who have the two obscurations. Even arhats who have attained nirvana become an object of compassion for bodhisattvas who have attained the path of accumulation. The depth of their compassion is unbelievable. We should aspire to practice as they do.”

Yangsi Rinpoche. Practicing the Path: A Commentary on the Lamrim Chenmo. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003. (Kindle Edition)