All true things spring from the basis of compassion.
Holding compassion in your heart as the light of your life creates and realizes the guidance of true motion. If you can focus and channel all of your actions through the lens of compassion, then you are living a right life, a right minded life, and a righteous life. Humility, as The Christ says, is the height of compassion. If we can all practice this, we can acheive rightminded living, and can activate the Buddha Consciousness. It takes complete devotion to the yoga of being. In all moments, in all ways, in all things, practice compassion.
All actions that spring from living outside of compassion are hurtful and wrong. Compassion is the Garden of Eden.
NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO
Holding compassion in your heart as the light of your life creates and realizes the guidance of true motion. If you can focus and channel all of your actions through the lens of compassion, then you are living a right life, a right minded life, and a righteous life. Humility, as The Christ says, is the height of compassion. If we can all practice this, we can acheive rightminded living, and can activate the Buddha Consciousness. It takes complete devotion to the yoga of being. In all moments, in all ways, in all things, practice compassion.
All actions that spring from living outside of compassion are hurtful and wrong. Compassion is the Garden of Eden.
NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO
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Austin
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Re: Compassion
Sun, January 21, 2007 - 8:26 PMYour treatise on compassion is interesting. But what is compassion to you? One definition I have heard is compassion is the ability to hold another's pain. You state Christ says "humility. . . is the height of compassion." Would you please explain how you live a compassionate life? I work with people who have been accused of abusing their children. I practice compassion by listening to their stories and hearing their pain without thinking I have all the answers. My thought is I am there to hold there pain.
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Compassion and true motion
Thu, May 3, 2007 - 9:56 PMKLA, I feel you have the right view. As you mention, we must continually practice.
Is 'holding compassion' the same as 'holding the other' ...when we feel the other one's pain and joy? Is it not part of awakening to be knowing the other? To know another as sacred as oneself, is that the path to awakening love and compassion?
First we must be patient and allow ourselves time to be in a calm place of knowing - beyond the clinging of attachment, the angry pushing away, and all the attendant delusions. Then, may compassion unfold her softness. A sacred lotus grows in the mucky stream.
"The guidance of true motion" is a lively and lovely phrase. We cannot be stagnant. Thank you. -
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Re: Compassion and true motion
Fri, May 4, 2007 - 12:38 AMOne time when Master Tsung-shan was washing his bowls, he saw two birds pulling apart a frog that they'd killed. A monk who was also watching asked, "Why does it come to this?"
"It is entirely for your benefit Acharya," the Master replied.
- Korean Son Koan
a crazy lecher
shuttling back and forth between
whorehouse and bar
this past master paints
south north east west
with his cock
- Zen Master Ikkyu
If you don't see the deep compassion in the above, you haven't understood it yet. -
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Re: Compassion and true motion
Tue, May 8, 2007 - 3:40 PMTalk to us about your vision of compassion.
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Re: Compassion
Tue, May 8, 2007 - 10:56 PMOK, maybe I'll take a little heat on this one. Did you ever consider that life is a zero sum game? That for every good compassionate deed you do, somewhere somebody else is committing an act of violence... That no matter how deeply you immerse yourself in a good-intentioned group, somewhere else there's another group plotting to set off a bomb... That for every Garden of Eden there's a Fallujah... You might think about this every time you find yourself focusing on compassion. -
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Re: Compassion
Wed, May 9, 2007 - 5:24 PM"You might think about this every time you find yourself focusing on compassion."
You might; then again, you might simply practice compassion as an act that has nothing to do with whatever else is going on in the universe, practicing it for the benefit of your own karma and for the general benefit of all sentient beings. -
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Re: Compassion
Thu, May 10, 2007 - 3:32 AMHi AllanO:
Those so disposed to practice compassion practice compassion. That's what they do; they're compassion generators, just as those who hurt people might be seen as pain generators. People don't have much to say as to whether they're a compassion generator or a pain generator. Those on the compassion side of the spectrum are more likely to be attracted to a Buddhist related tribe, and maybe that's why I'm here exchanging a post with you, as this is where we both happen to be. But, somewhere else there's someone suiting up for a Klan meeting or strapping a bomb to their chest - or at least considering it, as that's what they've been designed to do.
It is as a zero sum game. It is great for those spiritually predisposed to practice exactly what you are speaking about. The point I'm making is that it is illusion to think that they have any control over what goes on or what they are doing, and to think they do characterizes their particular flavor of delusion.
How our genes have unfolded within the confines of this world ultimately determine our every action, every emotion and every thought. Your thoughts as you read this sentence are an example, to look upon me with compassion is another. To reject what I am saying is yet another, as is to agree. We are but conduits. To have even the slightest belief that we are in control is the fingerhold of delusion, and the root of what we term suffering.
Our karma is just that - our karma. Everything we do affects us along with everything else. And everything else dictates who we are. Each of us is the tiniest spec of energy in this great matrix and we jiggle around like iron filings aligning themselves with a magnetic field.
It is wonderful to practice compassion. It is more wonderful to realize compassion is practicing you. -
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Re: Compassion
Thu, May 10, 2007 - 6:29 AM"The point I'm making is that it is illusion to think that they have any control over what goes on or what they are doing, and to think they do characterizes their particular flavor of delusion."
I really do hear what you are saying, however, I can only react from my own personal view point -- and what I've absorbed from the Buddha's teachings -- being that I accept that I have "no control" over whatever happens in the universe, except for my own actions. And I can generalize that out into all sentient beings. As to how that sums out: be it to zero, to negative, or to positive, the only impact I can have (and I'll use "impact", rather than "control") is the plus / minus karma that results from my own actions.
I think we are on the same page, just saying it differently...? -
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Re: Compassion
Thu, May 10, 2007 - 11:56 PMAllanO, I'm not sure whether we're on the same page; I'm not even sure we're in the same book :)
“I accept that I have control ... over my own actions.” This statement of yours (reconstructed) is where we part, fly off the page so to speak. What I attempted to convey was that we have absolutely no control over our actions, and to believe in the illusion of control is a primary cause of suffering. And, yes, I understand it might appear otherwise, in that we may think we are in control or at the very least – partially responsible for our actions.
The point I am making is that the concept of control is a forethought or an afterthought, having really little to do with our moment-to-moment reincarnation, that which we consider to be our present. Compassion is a judgment occurring after the fact. What I am saying is that I, Charles, and you, AllanO, are pawns, and our assessment of any moment and the actions which follow are not preordained (brought about by control or free will); they are simply a reflection of our interaction with the environment (of which we are a part), and that the process is simply an energy transfer that ‘happens to us rather than because of us.’ How we imagine an experience will be and how we characterize it afterwards are irrelevant. -
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Re: Compassion
Sun, May 13, 2007 - 12:21 PM"AllanO, I'm not sure whether we're on the same page; I'm not even sure we're in the same book :)"
I agree...:O))
And further, that we are in a zero sum discussion. Of which I will bow out.
Namaste,
Allan
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Re: Compassion
Sun, May 13, 2007 - 9:15 AM>Our karma is just that - our karma. Everything we do affects us along with everything else. <
my favorite definition of karma is: what's happening now.
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Re: Compassion
Wed, May 16, 2007 - 8:37 AMThis sounds quite deterministic, which doesn't allow for human freedom and free will. I wasn't planning to respond, but then I encountered a quote from His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, in a book I'm now reading "Destructive Emotions" by Daniel Goleman. This seems to address your post better than I could.
"When you have such a total emphasis on environment, brain, and so forth, it seems that you have to look to somebody else in order to change. They have to do it for you rather than you doing it yourself. Even many religious practitioners feel that any good change in their lives will come from outside, for example, from God, without much effort from one's own side. I think that's the greatest mistake." - The Dalai Lama (p.208, Destructive Emotions) -
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My reply was to Charles' post of Thursday, May 10, 2007 - 11:56 PM
Wed, May 16, 2007 - 8:44 AMIt is hard for me to see who is responding to who in these threads, so I thought I would make it clear in my new subject line.
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Re: Compassion
Wed, May 16, 2007 - 8:29 PMWith all due respect to HH - Change doesn't come from anywhere. It just comes. The mind pinpoints change after the fact, and this too is but a natural progression of the inevitable process. -
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Re: Compassion
Tue, May 22, 2007 - 9:09 PMSo maybe the point is to be compassionate within the flow. Just hold your own or another's suffering without expectation. My practice reminds me not to try to effect change or even be concerned about it. Just allow it to happen, be present and be compassionate. If things get better I need to remember - it isn't my fault. I was just here as a witness. -
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Re: Compassion
Tue, May 22, 2007 - 9:56 PMHi Sam:
"My practice reminds me not to try to affect change or even be concerned about it. Just allow it to happen" and "I was just there as a witness"
These statements are the gems in your post, But they are surrounded by these statements:
"Just hold your own or another's suffering"
"and be compassionate"
How can you hold onto something if you're just allowing it to happen?
Rather than 'be compassionate' allow your presence to create the opportunity for compassion to arise. Then, as you said, it will happen.
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Re: Compassion
Wed, May 23, 2007 - 7:41 AMWhen I speak of holding suffering - I think of seeing the suffering, noticing it and honoring it. Nothing more. To me the observation and the honoring of suffering is compassion. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Compassion
Wed, May 23, 2007 - 8:33 AMSam, seeing and noticing (the same) and honoring suffering are after-the-fact phenomena, and by their very nature suffering is extended, marked and rekindled. In essence, you are becoming the suffering.
From a recent blog entry -
... and it is the characterization of this process along with the compiled memories about these observations that is commonly referred to as ‘self.’ And this pattern of tendencies brought about by these secondhand observations is what generally determines our actions as well as how our senses have been forged to perceive ...
To be compassionate you must free yourself from the interpretation of what it means. -
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Re: Compassion
Wed, May 23, 2007 - 9:57 AMit's interesting the subject of witnessing comes up, cuz i had a recent dialogue with a friendly fellow who was waxing poetic about his meditation practice, and how his witnessing helps him to 'stand back' from all his pesky emotions and maintain a certain dispassionate regard for everything....
and when i heard him say this, i realized that for me, it doesn't work this way. it's only been in truly diving in to my emotional responses and reaction, really allowing myself to face, head-on, the uncontrolled consequences of my own selfishness, that i've come out the other side and seen that self truly at one with the human condition.....and *this* is where compassion arises, not from being removed, but by being immersed. and then it isn't an intellectual or personal choice at all....but part and parcel of phenomena itself.
if that makes sense to anybody....
IOW, i don't have a practice, and i'm not trying to get from here to there. this is enough, and all i ever need. -
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Re: Compassion
Wed, May 23, 2007 - 6:24 PMSulevay wrote:
"it isn't an intellectual or personal choice at all....but part and parcel of phenomena itself"
A truly great line - yes, it makes perfect sense.
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Re: Compassion
Thu, May 24, 2007 - 9:00 PMI don't agree with that interpretation for compassion but if it works for you - cool. Honoring suffering is an in the moment phenomena for he suffering is now. I work closely with people who have had their children removed from their care. I do not "become the suffering" however I can be present in their suffering moments. -
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Re: Compassion
Thu, May 24, 2007 - 9:21 PMjust to clarify: i'm not talking about some kind of uber-empathy for another's suffering. i'm talking about really being with my own, when it occurs......cuz that's the point of commonality for me.
the stories are different, but the human condition is the same. we're all this mix of fucked-up and sublime. we're all capable of the same highs and lows, the same beauty and ugliness. and the experience of that ends a kind of conceptual isolation that occurs in thinking we are "this" and not "that".
so in the end, it's not compassion *for* anything.....it's what arises when the walls come down. -
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Re: Compassion
Fri, May 25, 2007 - 4:30 AMThere are many ways to approach being compassionate. -
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Re: Compassion
Fri, May 25, 2007 - 10:33 AMof course, i agree. what i was trying to express is not an approach, but a spontaneous expression..... -
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Re: Compassion
Fri, May 25, 2007 - 12:30 PMSulevay, I don't know what you mean by "a spontaneous expression." Would you mind explaining that a bit? -
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Re: Compassion
Fri, May 25, 2007 - 1:05 PMum.....i was trying to do that all along, so i'm not sure if my limited words can convey more clearly.....
my (conventional) working definition of 'love', for example, is "what happens when you quit needing things to be other than they are."
it takes the personal, discreet, self-inventing storyline out of what's happening - or at least dives underneath that most physical of expressions - and points to the manifestation of dynamic waves....where blame AND credit no longer have much meaning.....
another example (maybe this will help?): i once had a very emotional dialogue with a lover that had me absolutely quaking with uncertainty. huge waves of fear would come up, and my body reacted in panic.....and then equally huge waves of love would arise, where i was literally ecstatic, transported, breathing deeply.....and then another huge wave of fear would hit, as if under that....and then another engulfment in love....
this went on and on, until love and fear were not 2 things at all....even tho i would never have consciously put the 2 together, or even been intellectually inclined to resolve them this way.
it happened.....
so what i've been trying to express is that, despite what we think and what appears to be the case, compassion appears not to be a choice at all...it is simply what occurs, when life speaks. (and life IS this speaking....)
we can interpret, analyze, project, and overlay patterns and memory (a handy brain function that has a wonky side-effect of creating personality), but life is inherently integral and needs none of it. we can *identify* as compassionate, but a closer look reveals we are greedy, self-serving animals as well, akin to every living thing (and then some), and ALL of it is just life expressing whatever it is that life is.
which is not to say there is not the *appearance* of free will...or to say that acting as if we have choice is "wrong" in any way.
we are moved....we are this moving....
anyway, that's what comes out of me at the moment.
:-) -
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Re: Compassion
Fri, May 25, 2007 - 1:49 PMYou working definition of love is far from conventional though interesting. I would say acceptance is "what happens when you quit needing things to be other than they are." I believe love is much more than merely accepting things as they are, though acceptance is definitely part of love. Blame and credit are meaningless in all aspects of life. However, they work well in creating suffering. I love the picture of the waves of fear and love. This is such a wonderful human dance. Neither feeling is bad or good. If we allow the feelings to flow through us when can learn to be compassionate within ourselves. My teacher talks about noticing the feelings and calling them feelings and allowing them to dissipate. It is when we grasp and attempt to freeze this moment of love or push away fear that we become caught.
I believe compassion becomes from awareness. When life speaks I need to be receptive and listen. In some instances I may be compassionate in others appreciative, other times I may laugh.
I can choose to be a "greedy, self-serving animals as well, akin to every living thing" or I can be compassionate and aware. I can and do actively participate in life. That is the path. I dissolve the I and me that separates me from other sensate beings by being aware of our sameness our connectedness. Each person I meet who is suffering is a mirror to me of my suffering. When I stand still long enough to see me in them, I will learn what they were sent to teach me.
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Re: Compassion
Sat, June 9, 2007 - 8:49 PMI agree, klay.
There is no reason to act except from compassion.
:)
