We have a confused society, in which everybody struggles to protect himself or herself, and where genuine, basic kindness itself seems so very difficult. But if we sit down and think about it, compassion and kindness aren't something that we have to learn from someone else. Kindness is the intrinsic nature; it is an intrinsic feeling that we all appreciate, and one really doesn't need especially to meditate or practise how to become a good person, how to refrain from harming another person, or to realise that killing, stealing, lying, and so on are negative. All of us [already] understand that.

-- Khandro Rinpoche