The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

So, happy to be here with you and to continue here on Wednesday with the topic of the day,

which is the week, which is compassion, compassion at action,

and trying to offer some different perspectives on what we can do, motivated by compassion.

And so Monday was compassion and action for the sake of others.

Yesterday was compassion and action for the sake of oneself,

not distinct or separate from others, but in addition.

So, compassion and action were both doing it for our own sake and for the sake of others, for the sake of others and for ourselves.

So, there's a mutuality, a fullness of care in all directions.

And the suggestion is that compassion for others, caring for others, is richer, more valuable,

when we know how to do proper care, compassionate care for ourselves.

We have more care. We are more love to give others when there's a kind of love here for ourselves.

So, today I want to do the third form of action, a way of acting, and that is action that's for the sake of both self and others.

And this is a category that the Buddha often uses, that in addition to kind of intentions for the welfare of oneself, of others,

he also talks about the intention for the welfare of both self and others.

And I understand this both self and other as being the we that exists between us.

The nature and quality of the relatedness, the relationship that exists between us.

And that's something that's distinct enough from the other person, from ourselves.

It's kind of the dynamic, the chemistry, the interaction, the quality of the interaction between two people.

And so, when we do compassionate action for others, what relationship does that establish between you?

And this I'm mostly focusing now on compassionate action that you're doing in the presence of another person.

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