In deepest solitude
I found the narrow way:
a secret giving such release
that I was stunned and stammering
rising above all science.
~ from I CAME INTO THE UNKNOWING by St. John of the Cross
This tenderness for life, bodhichitta, awakens when we no longer shield ourselves from the vulnerability of our condition, from the basic fragility of existence. It awakens through kinship with the suffering of others. We train in the bodhichitta practices in order to become so open that we can take the pain of the world in, let it touch our hearts, and turn it into compassion.