Sam Harris tells about attending a TED conference. The speaker at the
moment was someone he considered to be an enemy. This person had distorted some
of his writing to make Harris look like a racist, a sexist, or just an idiot. So
Harris was listening with a very judgmental ear. Then about two thirds of the
way into the talk, the speaker mentioned that he had had a hard week because he
had just learned that his four-year-old daughter had stage four liver cancer.
Harris reports that being caught in negativity at that moment, “reveals in an
instant that that's not the kind of mind I want to have. All my enemies…all of
the different people in the world, are going to suffer immensely at some point
in their lives. Everyone is going to lose everything. We can and should and
must have compassion, even for the people who despise us and try to make our
lives miserable."
Note: I don't think this can be found on line. I found it on a daily meditation that he gives. After one day, it disappears and a new one appears.
