Question

What is more important? To feel the Dukkha of the individual or to universalize afterwards?

Answer

It looks like there's a little more to this question so let's fill in what we think might be more. Somebody whom we interact with is having Dukkha, so which is more important: to feel the Dukkha with the individual or to universalize it afterwards? Is there really a question here? We want to feel with that person. We want to feel with them. We want to help them as best we can. Universalizing it afterwards is also important; to actually reflect about the Dukkha that we know, and then, like with the D/D method that we did last night, to universalize to understand that all over the world there are people with the same Dukkha, and there are people with worse Dukkha coming from the same starting point. So universalizing it is very good, as well. They're both important, but definitely, in the moment of being with somebody who's experiencing Dukkha, to feel with the Dukkha that person's experiencing would be more important to me than waiting till later and thinking, "Well, yeah, this isn't as important. I'll deal with you for now, but I have something more important to do." I don't think we want to do it that way.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.