Rosemary uses the example of Compassion as being like a multi-facetted diamond. When you hold a diamond it is cut on the front this way, it is cut on the top to a very sharp point and whatever, it has lots of different facets, and the diamond as you may all know, it is supposedly the hardest stone in the world. So it is strong, it is very hard, but a diamond makes women melt, and a lot of men, as well. So it is very soft. That's just a joke.
But within the practice, Compassion does have to be strong at times, but we also want to develop a soft Compassion, we want to open our heart, we want to be more loving, more kind.
Now when you think of raising children, some parents spoil their children. They are not firm enough, they are not strict enough, they let the kids do everything. They give kids candy before dinner and then they don't eat a good meal and all those sorts of things. To be compassionate to a kid, you don't let the kid eat before a meal, you don't spoil them, you don't give them, give them, give them everything they want. Within our practice, it is the same. Often we have to be firm. We have to sit down and meditate, we have to do the practice, we have to do some walking, we have to do this, we have to do a retreat. We have to do this because that is how our practice is going to grow. We have to be strong, because basically we are fighting the ignorance in our mind. We have the wise side in our mind, and we have the ignorant side in our mind. Ignorance and wisdom, we have to fight this battle. So our compassion also says we have to do the work and do the work and do the work.