The two feelings of love and compassion are intimately linked. Without love, compassion cannot arise, and compassion always involves having love. Without love one would not have compassion for others’ pain; instead you would probably have pity, if not total indifference. It is because of love that the suffering of other beings becomes so unbearable that a bodhisattva would endure any pain to help them.
—Karma Trinlay Rinpoche, “What We’ve Been All Along”