Mahayana [Buddhist] teachings distinguish between “aspiring bodhichitta,” which is like planning a trip, and “engaged bodhichitta,” which is actually getting into your car and starting to drive. Aspiring bodhichitta is the essential preparation for engaged bodhichitta, but it is only a preliminary. Engaged bodhichitta is what gets you to your destination. Compassionate feelings are to great compassion as a block of marble is to Venus de Milo; they are raw material, nothing more, nothing less. Compassion becomes real when it becomes active in the world.
Norm Phelps
from The Great Compassion; Buddhism & Animal Rights