Compassion is not about kindness. Compassion is about awareness. Compassion in the general sense of kindness would be an expression of awareness, but one that might not necessarily be free from the stain of ego-grasping. Genuine compassion is egoless. It is the inherent essence expressed, inseparable from awareness.
This natural essence, which is genuine compassion, does not need to be formulated or even expressed as something like "compassion." We see this exemplified in our great teachers. Their genuine compassion does not require phrases and expressions or even actions.
Just their presence, who they are, is nothing other than the quintessence of compassion. We, in contrast, have to invent and demonstrate compassion. Our contaminated compassion still requires effort and deliberation. That is conventional or general compassion.
The good thing about the use of deliberate or conventional compassion is that it matures the mind so that ego-grasping diminishes. It definitely has that effect and is therefore a skillful method for developing awareness compassion.
Genuine compassion arises as the ability to go beyond self.
This requires that we transcend our preoccupation with our own happiness and suffering. As meditators, one of the first things we can do is to look honestly at the world from behind another's eyes.
Experience that person's craving for happiness and fear of suffering with the same immediacy that we would if his heart and mind were ours. We may see that this individual's immense hope and fear are even greater than our own.
See the similarities we all share. We cannot even begin to commit ourselves to the path of selfless compassion if our mind is unable to sense the sameness of the ground we all stand upon.
By Khandro Rinpoche.
Natural essence.
>> September 14, 2009
Compassion is not about kindness. Compassion is about awareness. Compassion in the general sense of kindness would be an expression of awareness, but one that might not necessarily be free from the stain of ego-grasping. Genuine compassion is egoless. It is the inherent essence expressed, inseparable from awareness.
This natural essence, which is genuine compassion, does not need to be formulated or even expressed as something like "compassion." We see this exemplified in our great teachers. Their genuine compassion does not require phrases and expressions or even actions.
Just their presence, who they are, is nothing other than the quintessence of compassion. We, in contrast, have to invent and demonstrate compassion. Our contaminated compassion still requires effort and deliberation. That is conventional or general compassion.
The good thing about the use of deliberate or conventional compassion is that it matures the mind so that ego-grasping diminishes. It definitely has that effect and is therefore a skillful method for developing awareness compassion.
Genuine compassion arises as the ability to go beyond self.
This requires that we transcend our preoccupation with our own happiness and suffering. As meditators, one of the first things we can do is to look honestly at the world from behind another's eyes.
Experience that person's craving for happiness and fear of suffering with the same immediacy that we would if his heart and mind were ours. We may see that this individual's immense hope and fear are even greater than our own.
See the similarities we all share. We cannot even begin to commit ourselves to the path of selfless compassion if our mind is unable to sense the sameness of the ground we all stand upon.
By Khandro Rinpoche.
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