"I was in India at the time, and there was an old gardener at the little monastery where I was staying. I saw him every day, but I never really gave him any thought at all. He was just somebody I noticed in passing. It was quite startling to realize how many such people there were around me, beings for whom I had completely neutral feelings. That in itself was an illuminating discovery.

"So every day for weeks, I began visualizing this old gardener in my meditation, repeating phrases like 'May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be free from suffering.' After a while I began to feel great warmth and caring for him, and every time we passed my heart just opened."