Daily Inspiration Quote by Chogyam Trungpa

Compassion, in Trungpa's framing, is less a halo than a power source. The line quietly rebukes the modern habit of treating other people like open browser tabs: each conversation another hit to battery life, each need an incoming invoice. By naming the prevailing stance first - people as "a drain on your energy" - he catches the reader in a familiar private thought, then flips it. Compassion "automatically invites" relationship not because you're morally upgraded, but because the accounting system collapses. When there's no tally, contact stops feeling expensive.

The intent is practical, almost clinical: compassion isn't primarily a feeling; it's a shift in perception that changes behavior without heroic effort. "Automatically" matters. It's the opposite of self-improvement strain. Trungpa is pointing to a mind-state where relating becomes the default, not a task on a to-do list.

The subtext cuts deeper into ego management. Seeing others as drains often masks a fragile self trying to conserve itself, to control exposure to unpredictability, obligation, and emotional mess. Compassion, here, isn't self-sacrifice; it's the loosening of that defensive posture. You relate because you're no longer guarding a scarce inner resource.

Contextually, Trungpa taught Buddhism in the West at a time when spirituality was being imported into a culture obsessed with efficiency and personal boundaries. The quote reads like a corrective to both: it challenges the productivity mindset without romanticizing martyrdom. It's an argument that genuine openness doesn't deplete you; the fear of depletion does.