I often feel bad for not having more compassion for others. I’ve done a lot of meditation, and whilst it’s helped me better relate to others and myself, I still find my default narratives crammed full of less-savoury judgements about other people.
On retreat, this was hard to ignore.
Here are some real things that crossed my mind, without having ever spoken to these people: “she’s too tall, that’s probably why society rejected her and she ended up on the Buddhist path”, “he’s too tender”, “he’s too old for dreadlocks”. Another time, I found myself explaining how a compost toilet works to an in-law, even though I don’t understand the process.