Listen compassionately.

If one is suffering and you listen compassionately, you do not make that suffering your suffering, but you lend your strength to another in order to provide protection for another. You exist in a society, not to be isolated from it through a protective shield, but to provide strength which is a kind of protection to others. You provide this strength by listening, by being present, not necessarily by doing or telling or instructing. The compassionate presence is the greatest protection that you can offer.