COMPASSION FOR ALL SENTIENT CREATURES
First it is expedient to always remember these three points.
TRUE COMPASSION arises as a result of CORRECT INTENTION.
CORRECT INTENTION DOES NOT ARISE FROM COMPASSION.
ALL CORRECT INTENTIONS GENERATE TRUE COMPASSION.
You will remember that we declared that we posses a Life Force and it is the natural function of that Life f¡Force to perpetuate apparent being. Its impulse is threefold:
To bring about present correct survival attitudes, intentions and actions to perpetuate the individual life.
To generate a force for natural and correct reproduction (different in men and women) to bring about the continuation of the species.
To generate a correct ambit for those future human creatures.
In terms of our Human Compassion it is the third that is relevant.
The Mahayana movement arose as a result of the observation that many Arahats fell from their attained position and that therefore the attained state was not permanent. Their opposition group, much larger, declared that the state of Arahat was clearly un-reversable. Evidence shows that the minority were in fact correct.
The two problems then had to be faced.
Why was it not permanent despite the excellent meditations available and great dedication on the part of the arahats?
What could be done to alleviate the temptations of Mara (Identidad) to regress to mundane behaviour, which was generally of a sexual or greedy nature?
After serious reflection, the idea was presented that the only solution was to keep the Identity constantly at bay by constantly devoting one's meditations, studies and daily comportment to other sentient beings.
Thus was born the concept of advances on a Bodhichitta path.
What they did not realize at the time was that the state of Arahat was only a partial solution to the human condition of suffering, because the real root of all human problems is the presence of a Dual Thinking Mind.
What is this Dual Thinking Mind? It is rooted in the natural differentiation of PERCEPTION, which is transformed in the mind from a mental differentiation of the apparent separation of all things, which is effectively used in the system as a healthy and useful tool, to a mental discrimination which believes that this separation is real. The physiological stimulus for this was the increment of the intellectual capacity to think in abstract terms and apply words.
Thus it is words and forms applied to perception that permit discrimination to arise in Volition, causing faulty and debilitating perceptions based upon a mistakenly believed separation of all things into apparent individual entities.
Make sure now that you get that straight.
Differentiation permits the perception of a useful separation which is known to be artificial, but provides correct and efficient responses. All sentient creatures posess that capacity.
Discrimination permits a separation that appears real and this apparent separation allows desire for and clinging to particulars to take hold.
The later Mahayana groups who understood the concept of “All is mind” or "All is Stained Consciousness,” which Buddha actually predicated, saw that the correct path was towards a state of a NON-DUAL MIND.
Now the interesting thing about that non-dual mind is that when it is achieved the third point of our trio, “to generate a correct ambit for those future human creatures,” becomes revealed. In fact, when the NON-DUAL STATE or AWAKENING is attained the Life Force insists upon this behaviour. Thus the realized Bodhisattva is by his nature unable to avoid helping all sentient creatures.
Why all sentient creatures? It is because the sophisticated human creature, when his or her true sensitivity, discrimination, and intelligence is revealed, can see at a level more profound than mere intellect the interdependence of all life on this planet, and indeed the universe. He can also see the interdependence upon non-animate substances like heat, water, earth and air.
Thus, generating a future ambit which protects the mind and bodies of all sentient creatures becomes more than a mere precept. That is why it is declared that when one becomes a Bodhisattva there are no more rules or precepts to be governed by. Nature itself rules correctly.
But to reach that point one requires a guide or precept. Thus there are two levels of dispensed compassion.
The first is to generate Compassion to all individual sentient creatures.
The second is to continue that practice, but add to it the clear objective to attain Bodhisattvahood and attain the noble human perspective which is for all sentient creatures, namely, all humanity.
But the actual perception of a Bodhisattva is not simply the understanding beyond intellect that we all form a part of one whole. It is the experience of the totality of humanity in which the splitting off into parts as individuals is clearly only an illusory tool. There are no parts, only “One.” That one is not a god or being, for that concept generates a new Absolute Duality of “God and the rest.”
Perhaps the Indians were closest considering God to be all and not apart from all, as other Religions believe.
The question then arises, What is Buddhahood? Is there a difference in perception? In most groups of Buddha Dharma a central idea is presented related to the Bodhisattva Ideal. It becomes a matter of a resolution to give up the attainment of Buddhahood in order to remain a bodhisattva to help all sentient creature.
We present here a different concept, in which it is suggested that one has to renounce Bodhisttvahood to become a Buddha. That appears to be more consistent with the truth.
If that was indeed understood to be the truth, why was the reverse idea presented?
Perhaps to present an incentive for the Bodhisattva Path, for it is clear that if one makes a sacrifice to be upon a path, one's resolution to remain on that path is stronger. Perhaps we can claim that the Buddha Sacrifice is an expedient means to maintain one upon the Bodhisattva path.
We are left anyway with two critical, perhaps unanswerable, questions.
Does a Buddha then have no more compassion for all sentient creatures since, at least in theory, his Karmic protection of future creatures is eliminated when his full energy dissolves and returns to the boundless and formless energy of all universes?
What contribution does a Buddha then make after death for the benefit of all sentient creatures?