Things I wish I knew before turning 18.

(I)

3.
~Human being.

Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention. The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing..it is almost a miracle, it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness and pity are not enough.
The love to them, him or her, in all its fullness simply means being able to say : 'What are you going through?' It is a recognition that the sufferer exists, not only as a unit in a collection, or a something from the social category called 'unfortunate,' but as a man or a woman, exactly like us..who was one day stamped with a special mark by affliction. For this reason it is enough, but it is indispensable, to know how to look at them in a certain way. This way of looking is first of all attentive. The soul empties itself of all its own contents in order to receive into itself the being it is looking at, just as they are..in all his truth.