What is " compassion" to you with regards to Buddhism ?

Being less self-centred and more aware of the suffering of others.  

I would say it's mostly a result of practice, being more aware.  Though of course Right Intention is a factor of the 8-fold path and there are practices like metta bhavana which develop this.

It's similar to the precepts ( sila ), which I think can be seen as both a foundation of practice and as a result of practice.  

So why have you asked the question?

What we commonly refer to as compassion is like the relative expression of buddhanature. It is, of course, because of compassion that Buddha taught. Further, because of the perfection of his motivation, all the Dharma teachings are expressing compassion for beings afflicted by the effects of their own causes. Because the Dharma perfectly demonstrates and reflects the interdependence of all of the phenomena of all sentient beings, it addresses all the afflictions of samsaric beings and their activities by whatever means arise due to those conditions and causes.

No, it's not a choice, it's more like a response which arises naturally with greater awareness of other people and their suffering.  Also other forms of life.

So are you saying that compassion is something you learned from Buddhism teachings?

Of course not. Compassion as the expression of buddhanature is not limited to the likes of sounds, words, phrases, emotions, concepts, actions, an individual. But because we relate to and communicate by means of the likes of these, there is relate-ableness. The Dharma, as I suggested, uses all available means.

While it may not be "natural," human beings tend to practice the worldly dharmas rather than the Buddhadharma. The 8 worldly dharmas revolve around self and feed into its narcissism. The habitual nature of this type of motivation tends to increase grasping nature rather than compassion, which isn't attached to a self.

I tend to agree with Chandrakirti that buddhas are born from bodhisattvas and that bodhisattvas are born from compassion.

Thank you for bringing up the topic of compassion csee.

Initially fixating on this so-called 'I' as an [existing] self,
'Mine' gives rise to grasping.
Helpless beings driven as an irrigation wheel,
To compassion for these, I bow down.

--Chandrakirti, in the Madhyamakavatara, 1:3

Do you agree that with their knowledge of Buddhism , one tends to increase emotion on compassion ?



I'm not exactly sure what you are asking here. I think that compassion, because it is less concerned with self, tends to decrease the emotions.



Compassion is more like being with the passions when they arise, so that one isn't dominated by them. This can also help us recognize the habitual nature of belief, thought and the resultant emotional reactivity.



Compassion employs the human realm's dominant affliction of desire (which seems to be the less intense center of all the other emotional afflictions) to help us spend less unnecessary time in, for example, the hungry ghost realm--grasping--or the hell realms--anger and fear.

Hey csee,

I'll try and address your questions here soon. I don't think they are silly at all. As to what I understand self "to be," though, it is kind of illustrated by the first line of today's Glimpse as something that often "needs" protection. To that end, though it may appear static--a state of being--it is our actions which belie its fiction with their insistence that it be acknowledged, respected, pitied, pampered, etc.

Hi csee.

I don't really think "our versions" of compassion are so different. You keep wanting to say mine is resulted from emotion, whereas I keep saying that it's not necessarily emotional. I agree that emotions may come into play. In fact, even what we think of as negative emotion--anger, for example--experienced, can be a cause for compassion. One may see one's hated enemy, with all the attendant thoughts and emotions that revolve around that hatred. Moving to act on that, one sees that the enemy is playing a game with his daughter and notices that it is much the same as the way he plays with his own daughter. There's an immediate connection there, free from thought. That connection, which appears before any thought or emotion, is what I would say is compassion. But in this example, our aggressor may, after that pause, go with aggression due to thoughts revolving around his reputation or the like.

I would say that compassion is indeed a condition of mind, but that because we lack mindfulness, we forget the precious human life and its impermanence, don't realize that karma takes care of everything without scheming intervention, and so we grasp after existence and survival...or power and authority. It is because of the uncontrollable, habitual, cyclic nature of this that we want to cultivate compassion. Cultivating compassion is with mindfulness and wisdom.

Accepting everything as sameness is, as I understand it, called equanimity--the fourth of the four immeasureables. This is with Samanthabhadra Buddha, or Kuntuzangpo--the primordial Buddha--who is often referred to as All-accomplishing Good, or Evenness. Because of Buddha Samanthabhadra's realization, compassion is inseparable from samsara. But without understanding and mindfulness, it can appear as nihilism or eternalism. So, just as All-accomplishing Goodness may be with us incessantly, so is the suffering of samsara. And samsara is most often the apparent "reality" for sentient beings. And again, this is why we cultivate compassion.

Csee, my impression of your "current understanding” is to be personally aware of the immediacy of experience without recourse to teachers, teaching, or terminology. Within such an understanding, and using common language, it is possible to observe that every living being strives to avoid their own suffering.

Human life is precious because of the way we experience and reflect on suffering. Hell beings and hungry ghosts are utterly consumed by suffering with no opportunity to reflect upon it. Animals have the opportunity to reflect but lack the capability. Gods have the capability but lack sufficient experience to reflect on.

Humans feel personal suffering and observe it in others. Humans also experience love in the form of wishing ourselves and others to have what is good. You don’t need a teacher or jargon - or Buddhism - to understand suffering and love. These things arise in our minds and we can allow ourselves to be aware of them.

When the reflective awareness of love interacts with a reflective awareness of suffering, we get compassion. Compassion for oneself is the wish to eliminate the causes that create suffering. Compassion for others is the feeling that others’ suffering is as intolerable as our own.

I think what most of us in this forum call “Buddhism” is the process of striving to become more compassionate. And I think most of us believe that we will be more successful by following the examples and lessons of those who have striven for compassion before us.