Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.

Life is suffering.

What is the noble truth of suffering? Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering and sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering.

All things, oh priests, are on fire . . . The eye is on fire; forms are on fire; eye-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the eye are on fire.

The term compassion means shared suffering. You develop compassion by knowing what it is like to suffer.

This indeed is a safe refuge, it is the refuge supreme. It is the refuge whereby one is freed from all suffering.