- Think of someone you know who is suffering greatly. In the beginning it's probably easier if it is someone you are fond of, but it could be someone you heard about in the news whose situation really moved you.
- Begin by creating space. Now imagine as much as possible how it would be if that suffering were yours. How would it feel to be going through that same misery? Consider how you would want people, including friends and family, to treat you. What would you most need from them?
- Make this exercise as vivid and real as possible. Really imagine how it feels. How would you want to be helped and in what particular ways by those around you?
- Then after a time, return to creating space or focusing on the breath.
- Make the aspiration for everyone to be happy, to have the causes of happiness, and to be free from suffering and its causes.
When you consider the equality of all and mentally exchange yourself for others again and again, it becomes easier and easier to consider others as if they were another you.
— Phakchok Rinpoche, Erric Solomon in Radically Happy