If, like me, you tend to be spiritually nearsighted, it's good to peer up close. The sixteenth-century Tibetan meditation master Wangchuk Dorje recommended a practice called "the Activity of Being in Crowds." Walking through a crowd, he said is a "good opportunity to check your progress and examine the delusions, attachments, and aversions that arise." I find the bustle of a mall an especially good place to check my Good Eye for jaundice.
— Marc Ian Barasch, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life