Lesson 6 Part 2 POPULAR 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:
4. 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 Buddha Dharma 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 dissolved the symptoms of Identity and experiences the Transcendental Compassion. He or she, free of 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 awy 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, 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 or she 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.
We shall continue in Part 3.