In generating compassion, you recognize that you do not want suffering, and you have a right to happiness. This can be verified or validated by your own experience. You then recognize that other people, just like yourself, do not want to suffer, and that they also have the right to happiness. So this becomes the basis of your beginning to generate compassion. Let us meditate on compassion today. Begin by visualising a person who is accutely suffering. Someone who is in pain, or is in a very unfortunate situation. For the first 3 minutes of this meditation, reflect on that person's suffering in a more analytic way. Think about their intense suffering and the unfortunate state of that person's existence. After thinking about that person's suffering for a few minutes, next try to relate that to yourself thinking, "that individual has the same capacity for experiencing pain, joy, happiness and suffering that I do. Then try to allow your natural response to arise; a natural feeling of compassion towards that person. Try to arrive at a conclusion. thinking how strongly you wish for that person to be free fom that suffering, and resolve that you will help that person to be relieved from their suffering. Finally, place your mind single pointedly on that kind of conclusion, or resolution. And for the last few minutes of the meditation, try to simply generate in your mind a compassionate, loving state.