A retreat participant in Larry Rosenberg’s “The Challenge of Change” retreat has a comment and question about helping others. The commenter concludes:

One of the first things I read about Buddhism, and that appealed to me greatly, was the prohibition on proselytizing. But I also understand that a natural expression of compassion is to want to ease others’ suffering, when possible. Any advice about how to walk this tight-rope?

Larry responds:

Yes, simple: Learn to be light unto yourself! You can’t give people something that you don’t have. Of course some words of encouragement, verbal dharma, can be of help by putting the current pain in a wider context. Practice! Practice! Practice!

Practice! Practice! Practice! And have a good weekend.

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