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Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations but rather on the rights of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy, as long as that person wishes for peace and happiness and wishes to overcome suffering, then on that basis we develop a genuine concern for his or her problems.  If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

–His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Wisdom of Compassion, p. 1