Why do we need compassion? After all, any philosophy is aimed at overcoming suffering, so why else should you suffer for others?
Or in other words, some people ask me: WHY DO I NEED TO HAVE COMPASSION FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE ACCUMULATED BAD KARMA AND ARE REAPING ITS BENEFITS?
In general, people tend to accept certain cliches, if we have been told since childhood that compassion is good and not compassion is bad, then we sort of put this information in by inertia, and it is likely that if someone in our environment says the opposite, we can lash out at him with reproach. But will this be a real understanding?
I don’t think so. Since unintelligent cliches may be good at the first stage, but when our mind begins to free itself from fixed ideas and concepts, these cliches can also disappear.
COMPASSION most likely came from the understanding that everything is ESSENTIALLY THE SAME. I have already written about this here and quoted from the theory of Hinduism.
In Buddhism, this is also confirmed by the Theory of Emptiness, interdependence. But it’s not my job to sort all this out right now, so let me give you a childish answer.:
To put it very simply, we are all cells of a single organism, so someone else’s pain is also our pain somewhere, the same as when our arm or leg hurts. Therefore, when you feel compassion for another, then both you and him benefit from it. Indeed, FOR HIM, it means that someone has shared his suffering and it is easier for him to endure and survive this suffering. You all know perfectly well that when a person is “suffocating” from pain, he can commit suicide or kill another person, and this will create even more serious savings. When we are able to listen to and understand such a person, we can save them from a more violent path. As a result, when we find ourselves in the same situation, someone will come to our aid.
Secondly, when a person sees that someone sympathizes with him, his heart will never harden, but on the contrary, it will give him the opportunity to believe in something pure and high, in something that makes sense in this world, because compassion is inherent in a higher consciousness, one might even say Divine consciousness..
Here is what is written about it in the “Book of Golden Rules” as arranged by H.P. Blavatsky:
“Compassion is not a quality. It is the Law of Laws, eternal Harmony, the Universal Soul Itself; the boundless universal Essence, the Light of abiding Truth, the harmony of all things, the Law of eternal Love.
The more you merge with him, the more you dissolve your being into a Single Being, the more your Soul becomes one with all that exists, the more completely you will transform into perfect compassion.146
This is the path of the arhat, along which the Buddhas of Perfection come.
Do you know the secret meaning of the sacred scrolls, according to which you pronounce:
“Om! I believe that not all arhats receive the sweet reward of nirvana.”
“Om! I believe that not all Buddhas enter the nirvanadarma.”
Truly, on the Path of Arya, you will no longer “enter the stream”, you are the “renounced one”.148 The stream has been crossed. Truly, you have received the right to the dharmakaya robe; but sambhogakaya is greater than the one who has achieved nirvana, and even greater is nirmanakaya, the buddha of Compassion.149
Bow your head and listen with all your might, O Bodhisattva… Compassion says, “Can there be bliss while everything that lives is doomed to suffer? Will you agree to be saved and hear the whole world groan?”
From now on, you’ve listened. “
In other texts, we find that one of the greatest Merits is to give comfort to one’s neighbor. And what is the most capable of bringing this reassurance, as if it is not a manifestation of compassion?
If we dive even deeper, then we can assume that compassion is not just patting a person on the head, because when his pain goes away, a new one will take its place. This is a rule that we cannot change until we become a little wiser. Because the root of our suffering is our own stupidity. That is why giving a person access to knowledge about the laws of the universe is much more magnificent, much more fruitful and useful. This is the way the Buddha walked. He opened the doors to great wisdom to people, regardless of their castes and nationalities. He gave them a life-giving stream of knowledge. He gave everyone the opportunity to change their own lives and improve themselves spiritually. Not to become famous, but to give people a chance to escape from this cycle of birth and death. That is why Hindus living on the Ganges still call him Karuna, the God of compassion.
If it’s hard for us to feel it in our hearts, we can approach it with logic. For example, if we take as a basis that everything is a product of our mind, then this means that everything that surrounds us is ourselves decomposed into its constituent elements. And this means that all the people who suffer next to us are our own sufferings beyond time, beyond space. Therefore, it turns out that all the people who surround us are our helpers on the spiritual path, and by helping them, we help ourselves directly.
“May all the sufferings of all beings in all the worlds of the universe subside!
May the defective senses and the crippled members of the creatures become complete now!
May all the sick, weak, crippled and defenseless of the ten sides (of the world) be cured quickly, gain health, strength, (normal physical) abilities!
May all the wretches and sufferers who are threatened to be killed by the tsar, robbers or enemies who suffer hundreds of different sufferings be saved from hundreds of those terrible troubles!
Let those who suffer from beatings and fetters experience various misfortunes, are embarrassed by many thousands of flares, get into terrible troubles and grieve in different ways., –
Let all be freed from their bonds, let those who are beaten be saved from beatings, let those who are killed find life, and let all those who are in distress be delivered from their troubles!
Let the hungry and thirsty creatures find different foods and drinks!
Let the blind see different shapes, and the deaf hear pleasant sounds!
Let the naked find different clothes, and the poor – treasures!
May all beings prosper with abundance of grain and plenty of jewels!
Let them not experience any painful sensations!
May all creatures be beautiful, beautiful in appearance, and lucky!
May they always (have) lots of happiness and other things!
May all beings in the fetters of the Cycle, tightly bound by the rope of the arcana of samsara, be freed from the fetters by the “hands” of wisdom and gain Freedom from suffering!”
/Excerpts from the Golden Light Sutra/.
/ From Elena Kshanti’s book “Secrets of the Universe. A message from the Himalayas.”/
