Out of attention comes compassion

I think a contemplative community is one that pays attention to the world that it is living in, to the difficulties, the challenges, the troubles, the divisions that it lives among whether it is political or social, whether it is social injustice or economic injustice, whether it is persecution of minorities, or whatever it may be. We should as contemplatives be aware of this, but we are aware of it in a way that doesn’t make us distracted from the centrality of the Spirit. And this, I think, is the gift that we can hopefully contribute to our contemporaries and to our societies, which is the gift of meditation as a way of being able to pay attention. And out of attention comes compassion.
 ( Attention and Love 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )