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

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So hello everyone and welcome to this fourth talk on the joy of compassion.

And today's aspect of compassion that can bring joy and is aspiration.

So we've had awareness, attunement, appreciation, and today aspiration.

And this is often closely tied to compassion.

And that compassion includes a wish for the welfare and happiness of others, for people to not suffer, to have their suffering be lifted.

And so there is a wish, but to call that wish an aspiration has different connotations.

The wish, it can be a wishful thinking. There can be a wish without anything behind it or any depth.

It could be a wish because we're upset and we want things to be different because we don't want to be upset.

An aspiration comes from a deep place within and it's more holistic part of who we are.

And it comes from some kind of depth within.

I associate aspiration with them for found, holistic, organic sense of goodness that we, something we want that's inspiring for us and maybe for others.

And so in the inspiration of it there's a kind of pleasure, there's a joy, there's a delight because it's something that we really feel good about.

We're delighted and we're happy with it.

So to aspire to meet suffering of the world, aspire to feel and sense it, not to be overwhelmed by it, but to be a witness supporting witness.

Not just a supporting witness, but even more so to be a contributor to the welfare and happiness.

To make a difference in this world of suffering, to make a difference for the person we're with who's suffering.

And that aspiration can take many forms. It's contextual.

The rush to be compassionate, the rush to compassionate action, we often miss what's mostly needed for people.

That sometimes if someone is starving, you might think rush to get them food, but maybe deeper what they're starving for is human contact, human respect, care.

And to stop and to be with a person and offer friendship and understanding and companionship before providing the food or together with providing the food.

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