I was in India, and there was an old gardener at the little monastery where I was staying. I saw him every day, but I had never really given 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.

Joseph Goldstein in A Heart Full of Peace