EXAMINING TRUE COMPASSION

Let us now bring a few of these threads together.

 

We saw that there was a state of advancement on the path which we called Arahatship in which the syptoms of Sexuality, Identity and Duality were dissolved and a state of advancement in which the Dual mind was dissolved. It would not be surprising to find that the perception of Compassion varied with these two states and with the previous state of simply being a member of the Noble sangha on the path.

That is precisely the case. 

There is:

A Compassion which is Common

A Compassion which is Transcendental

A Compassion which is beyond Consciousness.

              and we must also add

A Popular Compassion which is akin to the dictionary definition.

The Popular Compassion is “An experience of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken with suffering or misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain or remove its cause.”

But we have said that in Buddhadharma the natural human creature cannot have Personal Suffering as a consequence. 

The Common Compassion which is then developed upon the Dharma Path generates a happiness which is common, which is present when there is a clear confidence that others can be freed from suffering. This can only happen if there is a clear consciousness of the truth of the Dharma and a clear confidence in the fact that the true nature of the human creature is to be free from suffering (we say nothing here of a freedom from happiness).

You can perhaps see then the state of the person who has disolved the symptoms of Identity and experiences the Transcendental Compassion. He or she, free of the three poisons, will see that the Identity is present in Happiness and that therefore it is the true nature of the human creature to be free from Suffering and free from Happiness. 

This of course is based upon the teachings presented by Buddha with regard to there being no INDIVIDUAL who can be either Suffering or Unhappy.

 

But let us look further at the Diamond Sutra:

 Section XXIV.

Subhuti, if there be one who gives away in gifts of alms (through common compassion) a mass of the seven treasures equal in extent to as many mighty Mount Sumerus as there would be in three thousand galaxies of worlds, and if there be another who selects even only four lines from this Discourse upon the Perfection of Transcendental Wisdom, receives and retains them, and clearly expounds them to others, the merit of the latter will be so far greater than that of the former that no conceivable comparison can be made between them.

It appears that the Transcendental Compassion which transmits the truth of the Dharma is so great that no comparison can be made between it and Common Compassion. Now why is that? It is because Common Compassion is directed at the freedom from suffering of Individuals. The Transcendental Compassion is directed at the release from bondage of the “totality” of human creatures.

You can best imagine Suffering as being UNIVERSAL and that there are no individuals with Suffering. This suffering is like a giant Octopus that has let loose its black ink over all human creatures so that they are in IGNORANCE. Now with its millions of tentacles it reaches into the darkness and whatever APPARENT individual it touches experiences the DELUSION of SUFFERING.

Those who understand this generate a COMPASSION which is also UNIVERSAL, aimed at vigourously yanking that octopus away from humanity and dissipating the IGNORANCE. They do this with the arm of the PERFECTION OF TRANSCENDENTAL WISDOM.

Now that does not mean that those transcendentally awakened are not aware of the delusion of individual existence, nor are they relieved of the natural responsibility to help others. It does mean that their Vision is more profound and ample with regard to suffering. This vision has been evolved through the DIRECT EXPERIENCES of the vacuity of the five Skandhas and the DIRECT EXPERIENCE of the vacuity of IDENTITY.

Finally we come to THE COMPASSION BEYOND CONSCIOUSNESS. This is the state of “neither Compassion nor No-Compassion.” The key is in the statement that the Compassion is beyond Consciousness. If there is no Consciousness, there can neither be Compassion nor No-Compassion.

What then happens from this discursive viewpoint, is that the true nature of the Awakened person simply experiences the true Compassion which can have no description nor form.

 

Someone viewing the APPARENT individual comportment of this person would not be able to distinguish his or her state from that of a person experiencing Transcendental Compassion nor be able to distinguish any difference in Apparent Actions resulting from that Compassion. The Compassion beyond Consciousness is only experienced by the APPARENT AWAKENED ONE without awareness of the Compassion or lack of it.

How then can he know of its presence? Only by subsequent observable actions in which there is no Identity or Duality present.

I trust this makes the enigma a little clearer.

COMMON COMPASSION

 

The Mundane Compassion is “An experience of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken with suffering or misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain or remove its cause.”

But we have said that in Buddhadharma the natural human creature cannot have Personal Suffering as a consequence. The Common Compassion which is then developed upon the Dharma Path generates a happiness which is common, which is present when there is a clear confidence that others can be freed from suffering. This can only happen if there is a clear consciousness of the truth of the Dharma and a clear confidence in the fact that the true nature of the human creature is to be free from suffering (we say nothing here of a freedom from happiness).

It should be clear that the Popular Compassion experienced is a product of social and religious conditioning in which guilt plays a major part along with confessions and repentance. The difference within Buddha Dharma is related to the concept of virtue.

In the path of Buddha Dharma, Virtue is a state which we call COMPOSING and UPHOLDING. It provides a unification of the human processes and therefore serves as a foundation for profitable states. Clearly as a state of the human creature it would be an error to consider it as a human ideal generated by the mind. We say that VIRTUE is a natural state and has nothing whatsoever to do with rules, regulations or commandments.

True Virtue then in human creatures is either dormant, covered over by a blanket of ignorance, or it is revealed and experienced as part of the Life Force, as part of the wise nature which we call the Buddha Nature. This natural virtue then reveals itself in all intentions that are correct, actions that are correct and attitudes that are correct.

The beauty of the Buddha Dharma ideal is that a man or woman can perform a non-virtuous act without being a person without virtue. Do you see the subtle difference? Any condemnation then is of the attitude, intentions and actions, not the person. All that one need then to become a virtuous person is to take a sincere and honest pledge to be virtuous. It matters not that you fall out of the raft of virtue, for if your pledge is sincere you will always get back in. But the pledge must be notivated by a true understanding of the natural human state of virtue and not promoted by law, rule or commandments.

 

In the Buddha Dharma precepts, one hears masters speaking of Buddha's commandments, for example, “Do not kill.” That is an error, it is a hang-up of the religious eternalist positions where there is a power that controls the human creature and demands obedience.

 

Buddha declared, “REFRAIN FROM KILLING.” Do you see again the subtle difference, and the necessity to see carefully such subtle differences? How does one refrain from anything? Not by going head to head against the Ignorance of Mara. No, one must apply restraint rather like one applies brakes in a car upon an icy road or like one may rein in a runaway horse. A firm but constant application of ever increasing energy, that is the way. To what end? Perhaps with the target of attaining VIRTUE?  No. No. No.  The idea is to permit the natural system to take the place of Identity, which must be dissolved. If one applies the idea that “I must achieve virtue,” one falls in the trap of waking up the Identity with that “I.” When “I” is awakened there can be no progress. One must simply allow virtue to emerge.

 

Now when this virtue arises it impregnates one's intentions, which in turn generates virtuous actions, which in turn re-aligns correct attitudes and displaces both the ignorance that blankets virtue and the social/religious virtue that in Buddha Dharma has no place. When we speak of morality we do not generate ideas of social and religious beliefs. This morality, which is natural, actually generates a natural restraint of the senses (Indriya Samvara), mindfulness, an auto-regulation, and a state of general well-being.

From where did this blanket of ignorance come? It came from craving, supplemented by wrong view and justifications of Identity. Now, even if virtue is revealed, the identities will be present and so limits may be placed upon that virtue by Identity ideas of the necessity of personal gain, fame or influence. The ideal state, of course, is natural unlimited virtue.

Against these forces initially there are usually different motives in play.

 

 

Only the third will lead to a removal of Mara’s blanket of Ignorance.

 

You can see then that VIRTUE is a natural human phenomenon that COMPOSES and UPHOLDS correct attitudes, intentions and actions, WITH REGARD TO OTHERS. We can imagine virtue best not just as a state, but as a force which generates that state.

The question is then, “Does VIRTUE generate COMPASSION?”

Surprisingly, the answer is no. Though it is true that the POPULAR VIRTUE learned and promulgated by Religions, State, Society, and Education does generate a COMPASSION which is false, TRUE and NATURAL VIRTUE does not generate NATURAL COMPASSION.

Let us examine the normal CORRECT path of actions, which starts we must suppose with CORRECT ATTITUDES which are stored in memory. From this base of Correct Attitudes, in response to a stimulus, which may arise spontaneously internally or be provoked by an external event, the mechanism of intention selection is put in motion. Eventually a final intention is generated and there is a preparation to convert that intention into an action or sublimate it for some valid reason.

TRUE COMPASSION arises as a result of CORRECT INTENTION.

NOTE THAT WE DO NOT SAY THAT CORRECT INTENTION ARISES FROM COMPASSION.

That is very important to understand.

 

For a better understanding, we will explain the mechanism of this process that leads to compassion. Pay close attention.

The human system is a sophisticated bio-computer and as such is replete with feedback and correction systems. Our Buddha Nature, the storehouse of primordial memory, with a recent short-term storage area, is the base of a marvellous feedback system. Every time that an Attitude, an Intention, or a Potential Action is generated, then that information is fed to the Buddha Nature to see if it is consistent with natural human behaviour. How marvellous that is.

If the Attitude is found to be correct and does no harm to the mind or body of the system (or others) it is passed on to the Intention process. Likewise the Final Intention is evaluated and if it is consistent with what is naturally correct the Intention is passed on for the preparation of Actions.

Now that Buddha Nature agreement induces in the system a state of Well-Being.

If there is no agreement then the system simply sends a signal for a re-computation to take place.

You can see that in the natural system there is only Well-Being. There is no experience of Ill-Being. This too is important to understand.

 

Now NATURAL COMPASSION is related to CORRECT INTENTIONS. When the Well-Being associated with a Correct Intention is experienced, the system detects that it has arisen from a CORRECT DISCRIMINATION. VOLITION then notes this data and generates a special experience which is passed to consciousness as NATURAL COMPASSION.

NATURAL COMPASSION then is an experience generated as a consequence of the internal generation of CORRECT INTENTIONS.

In an adulterated system stained by Identity this does not occur. The Buddha Nature is relegated under Identity pressure for satiation. Correct discrimination is not valid or useful for Identity Satiation of Craving.  

Therefore, the IDENTITY generates a motivating mental COMPASSION which evokes INTENTIONS which are calculated to lead to satiation of some Identity requirement.

The Identity might wish to appear virtuous or to feel virtuous, so it generates a false state of Compassion. This brings about an Intention which appears honourable, but is not.

The former is Common and noble Compassion, which is natural and correct.

The latter is Popular Compassion, which is false.

 

Natural and correct Common Compassion does not reinforce further Natural and Correct Compassion. Popular Compassion on the other hand does reinforce the habit strength of that false compassion, and within the system there is an experience of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken with suffering or misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain or remove its cause. But that experience is generated by the predisposition for suffering which historically is ever-present with Identity. Thus the Compassion is egocentric, reflecting one’s own repugnance at the idea that “I too can suffer.”

The Common Compassion which is developed upon the Dharma Path generates a a clear historic confidence that others can be freed from suffering, because there is a clear consciousness of the truth of the Dharma and a clear confidence in the fact that the true nature of the human creature is to be free from suffering. Thus, Common Compasion, accompanied by the natural Well-Being, is a positive state. There is no suffering, no empathy, no identification, no pity and no tears, just the natural impulse to change what can be changed, even if there is some sacrifice involved in the future action which may arise from the intention.

                                            THE GENERATION OF COMMON COMPASSION

 

We have said that the Common Compassion is developed upon the Dharma Path and it generates a happiness which is common, which is present when there is a clear confidence that others can be freed from suffering. Thus True Compassion when it is produced is free from any vestige of suffering.

 

But where does it arise? We said it arises from a comparator system that accepts a Noble Intention.

 

Do you remember that we clearly stated?

 

TRUE COMPASSION arises as a result of CORRECT INTENTION.

CORRECT INTENTIONS DO NOT ARISE FROM COMPASSION.

 

It is natural when thinking of compassion with a social bias for Popular Compassion to think that natural compassion only arises when one perceives suffering or pain in others, but that is not correct.

 

 ALL CORRECT INTENTIONS GENERATE TRUE COMPASSION.

 

That too is very important to understand.

 

It seems ridiculous, does it not, that the Intention to Read a book should generate Natural Compassion for others or to carry the apparent absurdity further that one's Intention to simply look at a rising moon should generate Natural Compassion. We think it ridiculous because we do not see the roots of all Compassion.

We possess a Life Force and it is the natural function of that Life Force to perpetuate apparent being. Its impulse is threefold:

 

We fail on all three counts, but that is not central to our discussion. In order to bring about these three effectively, the human creature has developed a tribal nature... That is easy to understand, but it is not easy to accept that there is interdependence between al the members of the human tribe, which is now extended to absurd limits. But the system today knows little about this important data base and the Identities wish to keep everything antagonistic to their interests hidden. Thus everything that we believe, think and do has as its basic reference the good and the survival of the tribe and the apparent individuals within it. The natural system does not then have only individual survival as its base.

It is natural for the human creature to survive but, when necessary, to sacrifice him- or herself for the tribe. Certainly this is not a popular notion and conflicts with our sense of individual importance.

Everything that the human creature does when there is no Identity has all other creatures as a natural reference and compassion is experienced when correct intentions are sent to our “Buddha Nature Encyclopaedia” for evaluation and approval.

 

You can perhaps see then why simply eating correctly evokes compassion for all sentient creatures quite naturally and the orations which declare that each thing we do for each sentient creature are really quite correct, but we are blinded by superstition and ritual and cannot see that.

 

Perhaps that is clear, but the question exists when we ask for example if eating in a restaurant as opposed to electing and cooking our own food generates compassion.

Yes it does, for the system as it is has no knowledge of restaurants, although the system is able to ascertain if a particular food is correct for the sustenance of mind and body, for the eventual benefit of the apparent self and all human creatures.

That seems rather a mistake of evolution, but that is not so, for the Buddha Nature Encyclopaedia has available a year book just like encyclopaedias in which there is constant updating. This is opened at birth and awaits new data which are correlated with the base data… if new information is in harmony with the base data then it is integrated in the "Buddha Nature Year Book."

The problem is that our "BNYB" has been closed and sealed for ten thousand years and the only data provided for our use is what the Identities say...

They are generally in error, though the Super Identity may sometimes declare that it is best to eat correctly at home… But this voice is not impulsed by correctness and thus, although it may coincide with what is naturally correct, it is never interested in our "BNYB."

With the Awakening we have the great fortune that the seals are ripped from the Year Book and we can begin writing again.

 

In case you are wondering if the new Year Book material is ever written into the base data… yes it is, but under very special conditions.