Our Zen awareness practice is that of ending suffering -- of looking directly at how we have been rejecting and punishing ourselves and discovering how to let that go. We practice to gain a clearer perspective on how we live our lives and how to find compassion for ourselves and others. Part of our original motivation in creating Living Compassion was to make this awareness practice that has saved our lives available to more people. We wanted to make the relationship between one’s own spiritual practice and service clear. We have discovered that offering the life you want for yourself to others is the best way to have it for yourself. Our projects exist because we saw possibilities and asked how we could participate. Through participating together, we learn how to go beyond our own personal interest to join the interconnectedness that is all of life.