Absolutely. When we try to have compassion for anyone, looking at the mental state is most important. For many years in Thailand, Rosemary and I needed to go to Surat Thani every few months, and right across the street from one of the post offices was, a middle-aged beggar, who was missing one leg and maybe some fingers, probably from leprosy. The first time I saw him, I went up to him to give him some money. He wys me, his face started beaming and he immediately started telling me where the boat for Koh Samui was, all in Thai. He didn't know me, so he had no idea whether I could understand Thai or not, but he excitedly told me, "Oh you want to go to Koh Samui, the boat's down there," blah, blah, blah, blah. He was very happy, very friendly, very outward going. He sat on a sidewalk, day in and day out begging for food, but inwardly he appeared to have a happiness that was way beyond many of the rich people walking down the streets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
When you think of someone who murders, someone who commits suicide, someone who rapes, someone who beats up other people in the middle of the night, whatever, think of the mental state that led them to do these things. How would it feel to have ignorance, anger, revenge, craving, depression that is uncontrollable? Try to have compassion for the mental state. The leper on the street, who I gave money to whenever I saw him, his mental state was great. We have compassion for his disease, and bodily problems so that he has to sit there for his income, but his mental state was great. Somebody who kills their kids and then themselves as I mentioned yesterday, what's the mental state?
If we can't open our heart for such a sickness, then we've got to do it more often, more often, more often, more often, break through that barrier that says, "Ah, I can't have it for them, they're terrible, they're rotten!" Well, wait a minute, why are they terrible? Why are they rotten? That's exactly what we want to look at.
Now, when you do something that's not nice, what's your mental state? You're going to be full of anger at the moment, full of jealousy, whatever it is. Anytime you do something that's not nice, your mental state caused it. We're not robots that get pushed, turned on, and we walk around and scream and yell at people. It's our mental state. This is what the practice is really for. We're supposed to look very closely at our mental states, and we're supposed to start seeing a correlation between what happens when the mind is this way and what happens when the mind is that way. How do you feel?
When we teach being aware of the body, sensations, you see how if you're angry you tighten up, and if you're loving there's just an expansion and you don't tighten up. Have you examined that within your own body? If you haven't, then you want to start doing that so that you can really start seeing that correlation, that it's all coming from your thoughts. The more that we see that our own Dukkha is coming from our thoughts, and our own happiness is coming from our thoughts, then the more we understand that that's what's happening to everyone else. When someone murders, commits suicides, and anything so extreme, they've got sickness in the mind.