Basically, nobody can help the world without individual personal discipline. However, when hundreds of individuals personally commit themselves to developing themselves through the practice of meditation, then, when they’re all put together, it makes an orchestra of group sanity.

As well, when we develop gentleness and softness through the process of sitting practice, it provides a kind attitude toward other individuals, not just toward ourselves. So some form of comradeship develops through sitting practice. Working together with each other, we begin to develop a mutual understanding of our confusion, our neurosis, the ache in our back, or the pain of our stiff neck. When we sit together, we develop mutual appreciation and mutual concern for one another.

From “A Mindful Society,” in Mindfulness in Action: Making Friends with Yourself through Meditation and Everyday Awareness, page 159.

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