In these talks on the centrality of caring in human life, Laurence Freeman explores how we can all learn to care better for each other and to realise that we are ultimately cared for.  

Care has two general meanings: the sense of sorrow and the sense of caring for, healing, or paying attention to. They come together in the power of compassion. Caring for oneself, for example, is not merely self-indulgent. It is part of a spiritual path that leads to transcendence of the ego and so to a fuller degree of life.  

Meditation, Laurence Freeman says, is caring for oneself, and becomes a discipline freeing us from the tendency to slip into fantasy. Coping better with the dally cares of life, which cause stress when we don't handle them well, is a fruit of meditation that opens us to the ultimate care which is the divine love. 

These talks were given at a weeklong silent retreat at Monte Oliveto, Italy, in June 2011.