This website is the home of The Four Noble Truths on the web.
Compassion
First hold all beings with compassion. Then recite mantras for them.
Love naturally overflows into compassion. Compassion naturally arises if you focus
on sufferings of those you love.
In the moment we give rise to compassion, there is no self-clinging. We must train
to give rise to one moment of compassion after another.
The kind of heart that feels pain and wants to help, that is called compassion. That
kind of heart is so precious - right away you are a bodhisattva. If you don’t feel
compassion, then cry. ‘Why is my heart like a stone?’ Pray. Whether you not you can
help, develop this heart.
Bring to mind the sufferings of all sentient beings. Reach out to every single living
being.
If we cannot bear our suffering, that is self-cherishing. If we cannot bear the suffering
our mother, that is attachment. If we are not affected by the suffering of others,
that is indifference. If we rejoice in the suffering of others, that is hatred. Stabilize
compassion. Remove prejudice.
When you hear of suffering of others, involve in the suffering of others. Generate
sensation, a feeling. See that suffering affects others. Develop compassion.
It does matter if other beings are not happy.
Arise compassion to enemy. Wish that their negative emotions go away, because harm
results from it.
Return harm with compassion. Otherwise what is the difference between practitioner
and non-practitioner?
Where there is space, there is suffering. No center, no boundary. Suffering is inconceivably
vast.
When you can generate compassion, this is the Wish-Fulfilling Tree.
What do they want? Happiness. Then you can generate compassion.
Whenever you hear of suffering, create wish to alleviate suffering.
Think about prisoners awaiting execution. Think about animals in slaughter house.
Put yourself in their place. Feel their pain of separation of body and consciousness.
Their fear in bardo. They have been our parents. Train until you are moved to tears.
Start with those dear to you, then those not dear. Meditate without attachment.
To help, we need power, but we also need compassion.
What they want is happiness, what they have is suffering.
Om is the opening syllable. Mani is Jewel, refers to compassion. Padme is Lotus,
which blooms in mud. Hum means ‘make it happen’. We are making compassion blossom
in samsara.
Compassion purifies habit of self-clinging gradually.
Practice compassion. Everything else will follow. When you invite the emperor, don’t
need to invite the entourage.
Compassion protects from the extreme of emptiness.
Reflect on their ignorance. They want happiness, but they create causes of suffering.
Happiness is rare, like stars in daytime.
We cannot find anyone who wishes suffering.
If you have anger, you don’t have compassion. If you have desire, you don’t have
compassion.
Recite mantras for animals slaughtered for food.
Practice compassion. Emptiness will come later.
Compassion is what makes tantric practice mahayana.
Objectless Compassion is realization that sentient beings are empty of self-nature,
but from their side they hold a self and suffer.