The Practice of Indiscriminate Compassion

Rabia practiced a form of meditation and prayer that involved extending her compassionate attention to all beings without distinction—enemies and friends, worthy and unworthy by conventional standards. This wasn't naive; it was a rigorous practice of deconditioning the mind's habitual preferences and training it toward what Buddhists call 'loving-kindness' and what Rabia's tradition understands as divine love made manifest. The practice works like this: first, call to mind someone you love easily—the practice becomes tangible. Feel your heart's natural opening toward them. Then, deliberately extend that same quality of attention to neutral figures—people you know but don't particularly favor. Next, extend it to someone you dislike or who has hurt you. Finally, extend it to all beings equally. This practice reveals where our compassion is conditional and why—it's held hostage by our preferences and judgments. The cost of favoritism includes the contraction of our compassion into narrow channels; we become incapable of genuine care for those outside our circle of preference. By practicing indiscriminate compassion regularly, we dissolve the mental patterns that sustain favoritism. We discover that compassion is not diminished by being shared equally; it expands. This concept offers a concrete daily practice grounded in Rabia's mystical vision, transforming our relationship to favoritism from the inside.