"Compassion
is not just a feeling of pity and empathy, but an active force, a fundamental
energy that is ceaselessly at work to remove the causes of suffering. It cannot
help arising, because in the realization of emptiness there are no boundaries
between oneself and others. Compassion is absolute sensitivity, unbiased love,
and limitless concern for everything in existence. It is the natural outward
expression of the bliss of enlightenment. Even in ordinary life, when we are happy
and fulfilled, we feel more loving towards the world and we want to express
that love. Skillful means is the application of compassion, the enlightened
activity that strives to remove suffering and to lead all sentient beings
toward supreme happiness.
Emptiness
and compassion are completely intertwined. The relationship between them has
been compared to that of a flame and its light, or a tree and its leaves.
Activity in the world is not truly enlightened unless it springs from the
awareness that, in the absolute sense, nothing is being done or needs to be
done. Yet at the same time, the awakened heart feels as its own the suffering
of all who are not yet awakened. The bodhisattvas embody this activity for the
welfare of all beings."
.........Francesca
Fremantle, "Luminous Emptiness - Understanding the Tibetan Book of the
Dead"
A
very important tenet is proposed in the above writing. Many a time one
associates compassion with a mental attitude of feeling of pity or empathy. In
this mode one becomes reactive in response and has no access to the fundamental
nature of why compassion gets evoked in the human heart. This is very similar
to treating the symptom of the disease rather than addressing the root cause.
The nature of compassion needs to emanate from deep within human awareness.
This is why Francesca calls it a "fundamental energy that is ceaselessly
at work to remove the causes of suffering". Please note that it does not
remove suffering but removes the causes of suffering. The nature of compassion
then has to equivocally act across all objective perception. Soren Kierkegard
differentiated between objective truths and subjective truths. Objective truths
are filtered and altered by our subjective truths. This creates distinct
boundaries in our perceptions. If compassion is to be unbiased love for all
creation then it has to dismantle all boundaries constructed through objective
perception.
The
root cause of suffering is attachment and whether one is attached to any mental
or ego construct, be it a belief system or personal possession in the material
or power domain, the germination process is set in motion. To root out this
cause there can only be a subjective realization of any individual operating in
this state, through the giver of compassion. This is achieved through the
natural outward expression of the bliss of enlightenment which is all healing
consciousness of the realized individual.
This
well illustrated in the story of Lord Buddha and Angulimala, the
personification of that which causes suffering. Angulimala causes suffering
through murder for personal gratification and sports a garland of human fingers and
terrorizes the whole region. When Buddha encounters him in the forest he offers
himself. The force of compassion flowing outward so touched the consciousness
of the perpetrator of evil that he surrenders to the boundless ocean of love. So also when Christ encountered
the woman accused of adultery and the woman at the well, there is a change in
the consciousness of all participants in the event. This is the outward flow of
the force of compassion. When the soldiers encounter Christ at the garden to
arrest him for killing him, his self identification to the soldiers so that no
suffering result for his followers, throws the soldiers to the ground. This the
force of compassionate energy flowing out from an enlightened individual.
The
next level of understanding is the core theme of today's article. Emptiness and
compassion cannot be segregated. They are the integral part of the same state
of being of one who has realized the true nature of compassion. If one has to
utilize the power of compassion then the individual self has to merge with the
universal self so that the boundless or borderless ocean of creation can be perceived
without differentiation. This is the concept of Emptiness. This emptiness is
the limitless capacity to hold the entire creation. In this mode, the suffering
of any entity in creation becomes the suffering of the Self.
At its most fundamental level any suffering is the state of being of the self that is rooted only in ego consciousness thus suffering through false attachments.
Let
us make a sincere effort to be Bodhisattvas through a state of emptying
ourselves of all ego attachments so that we become dispensers of true compassion.
Love
to you all.
to strive towards that 'emptiness sublime'....... easily worded but.... gets pulled down by the never ending subjectivity....
ReplyDeletenice blog..... made me think!
Very well said!
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to conceptualize but takes a lot of hard work to reach this state.
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