The contemplative has expanded my awareness and thus it expanded the empathy that I have. Five years ago, if I had been able to round up all the oppressors on the planet and all the perpetrators of violence on the planet and put them on an island and dropped a nuclear bomb and eradicated all of them, I would have thought that would be a good thing for humanity.
And the contemplative has given me a heart even for the oppressor. I want to be able to transform oppression rather than cut it out like a cancer. I want that even the perpetrators of violence and oppression be transformed because they are a part of the wholeness of all humanity.