TERMS STARTING WITH
Compassion [from Latin com with + pati to bear, suffer] Sympathetic understanding; the feeling of one’s unity with all that is, resulting in an “intimate magnetic sympathy with all that is.” (OG)
compassionable ::: a. --> Deserving compassion or pity; pitiable.
compassion ::: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. compassion"s.
compassionate ::: a. --> Having a temper or disposition to pity; sympathetic; merciful.
Complaining; inviting pity; pitiable. ::: v. t. --> To have compassion for; to pity; to commiserate; to sympathize with.
compassionated ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Compassionate
compassionately ::: adv. --> In a compassionate manner; mercifully.
compassionateness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being compassionate.
compassionate
compassionating ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Compassionate
compassion ::: n. --> Literally, suffering with another; a sensation of sorrow excited by the distress or misfortunes of another; pity; commiseration. ::: v. t. --> To pity.
compassion. See KARUnA.
compassion
COMPASSION There is the Dtvme Compassion acting on as many as it can reach throuch the nets of the Law (cosmic or of Karma) and giving them tbcir chance
TERMS ANYWHERE
(1680-1758 AD) Sufi poet and Qawwali, born near Bahawalpur, Pakistan. His message was one of truth, love and compassion. His guide was Hazrat Shah Inayat, a well-known Qadiri Sufi and gardener by profession. Bullah asked his guide, "I
1. compassion (P. karunā)
1.* Fig. The deepest feelings of love, affection or compassion. *heart-strings".
2. compassion (S. karunā; T. snying rje; C. bei 悲)
abhayamudrA. (T. mi 'jigs pa'i phyag rgya; C. shiwuwei yin; J. semuiin; K. simuoe in 施無畏印). In Sanskrit, "the gesture of fearlessness" or "gesture of protection"; also sometimes called the gesture of granting refuge. This gesture (MUDRA) is typically formed with the palm of the right hand facing outward at shoulder height and the fingers pointing up, although both hands may simultaneously be raised in this posture in a double abhayamudrA. Occasionally, the index, second, or third finger touches the thumb, with the remaining fingers extended upward. This gesture is associated with sAKYAMUNI Buddha immediately following his enlightenment, and standing buddha images will often be depicted with this mudrA, portraying a sense of the security, serenity, and compassion that derive from enlightenment. This gesture is also commonly associated with AMOGHASIDDHI.
abhirati. (T. mngon dga'; C. miaoxi/abiluoti; J. myoki/abiradai; K. myohŭi/abiraje 妙喜/阿比羅提). In Sanskrit, "delight," "repose," or "wondrous joy"; the world system (LOKADHATU) and buddha-field (BUDDHAKsETRA) of the buddha AKsOBHYA, which is said to be located in the east. Abhirati is one of the earliest of the buddha-fields to appear in Buddhist literature and is depicted as an idealized form of our ordinary SAHA world. As its name implies, abhirati is a land of delight, the antithesis of the suffering that plagues our world, and its pleasures are the by-products of Aksobhya's immense merit and compassion. In his land, Aksobhya sits on a platform sheltered by a huge BODHI TREE, which is surrounded by row after row of palm trees and jasmine bushes. The soil is golden in color and as soft as cotton. Although abhirati, like our world, has a sun and moon, both pale next to the radiance of Aksobhya himself. In abhirati, there are gender distinctions, as in our world, but no physical sexuality. A man who entertains sexual thoughts toward a woman would instantly see this desire transformed into a DHYANA that derives from the meditation on impurity (AsUBHABHAVANA), while a woman can become pregnant by a man's glance (even though women do not experience menstruation). Food and drink appear spontaneously whenever a person is hungry or thirsty. Abhirati is designed to provide the optimal environment for Buddhist practice, and rebirth there is a direct result of an adept having planted meritorious roots (KUsALAMuLA), engaging in salutary actions, and then dedicating any merit deriving from those actions to his future rebirth in that land. Aksobhya will eventually attain PARINIRVAnA in abhirati through a final act of self-immolation (see SHESHEN). Abhirati is described in the AKsOBHYATATHAGATASYAVYuHA, an important precursor to the more famous SUKHAVATĪVYuHA that describes SUKHAVATĪ, the buddha-field of AMITABHA.
“A Buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in this manvantara; they have reached Nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lower centers of consciousness of a Buddha are in Nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enables a Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind’s supreme Guide and Instructor, living usually as a Nirmanakaya” (OG 33-4).
adhyAsaya. (T. lhag bsam; C. zhengzhi xin; J. shojiki no shin, K. chongjik sim 正直心). In Sanskrit, "determination" or "resolution"; a term used especially to describe the commitment of the BODHISATTVA to liberate all beings from suffering. In the Tibetan mind-training (BLO SBYONG) tradition, the bodhisattva's resolute commitment is the last in a series of six causes (preceded by recollecting that all beings have been one's mother, recollecting their kindness, wishing to repay them, love, and compassion), which culminate in BODHICITTA or BODHICITTOTPADA. See also XINXIN.
Adi-buddhi (Sanskrit) Ādi-buddhi [from ādi first, original + buddhi from the verbal root budh to know, perceive, awaken] Original or primordial buddhi; the cosmic essence of divine intelligence imbodied in adi-buddha, the divine-spiritual head of the cosmic hierarchy of compassion, “the spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent root of divine intelligence” (SD 1:572). Adi-buddhi or dharmakaya is “the mystic, universally diffused essence . . . the all-pervading supreme and absolute intelligence with its periodically manifesting Divinity — ‘Avalokiteshvara’ . . . the aggregate intelligence of the universal intelligences including that of the Dhyan Chohans even of the highest order” (ML 90).
Agonshu. (阿含宗). In Japanese, "AGAMA School"; a Japanese "new religion" structured from elements drawn from esoteric Buddhism (MIKKYo) and indigenous Japanese religions; founded in 1970 by Kiriyama Seiyu (born Tsutsumi Masao in 1921). Kiriyama's teachings are presented first in his Henshin no genri ("Principles of Transformation"; 1975). Kiriyama believed he had been saved by the compassion of Kannon (AVALOKITEsVARA) and was told by that BODHISATTVA to teach others using the HOMA (J. goma) fire rituals drawn from Buddhist esoteric (MIKKYo) traditions. Later, while Kiriyama was reading the Agama (J. agon) scriptures, he realized that Buddhism as it was currently constituted in Japan did not correspond to the original teachings of the Buddha. In 1978, Kiriyama changed the name of his religious movement to Agon, the Japanese pronunciation of the transcription of Agama, positing that his teachings derived from the earliest scriptures of Buddhism and thus legitimizing them. His practices are fundamentally concerned with removing practitioners' karmic hindrances (KARMAVARAnA). Since many of these hindrances, he claims, are the result of neglecting one's ancestors or are inherited from them, much attention is also paid in the school to transforming the spirits of the dead into buddhas themselves, which in turn will also free the current generation from their karmic obstructions. Spiritual power in the school derives from the shinsei busshari (true sARĪRA [relics] of the Buddha), a sacred reliquary holding a bone fragment of the Buddha himself, given to Kiriyama in 1986 by the president of Sri Lanka. Individual adherents keep a miniature replica of the sarīra in their own homes, and the relic is said to have the transformational power to turn ancestors into buddhas. A "Star Festival" (Hoshi Matsuri) is held in Kyoto on each National Foundation Day (February 11), at which time two massive homa fires are lit, one liberating the spirits of the ancestors (and thus freeing the current generation from inherited karmic obstructions), the other helping to make the deepest wishes of its adherents come true. Adherents write millions of prayers on wooden sticks, which are cast into the two fires.
ahiMsA. (T. 'tshe ba med pa; C. buhai; J. fugai; K. purhae 不害). In Sanskrit and PAli, "absence of harmful intentions," "harmlessness," "noninjury," or "nonviolence." The religious ideal and ethical injunction of "harmlessness" toward all living beings was shared in some fashion by several of the Indian sRAMAnA traditions, including the Buddhists as well as the JAINAs, who made it a central tenet of their religion. Some of the corollaries of this idea included the precept against killing, the injunction to refrain from physically and verbally abusing sentient beings, and vegetarianism. The Jainas were especially stringent in their interpretation of "harmlessness" toward all living creatures, demanding strict vegetarianism from their followers in order to avoid injuring sentient creatures, a requirement that the Buddha rejected when his rival in the order, DEVADATTA, proposed it in his list of austerities (see DHUTAnGA). The Buddha's view was that monks were a "field of merit" (PUnYAKsETRA) for the laity and should accept all offerings made to them, including meat, unless the monk knew that the animal had been killed specifically to feed him, for example. The voluntary vegetarianism that is now prevalent in both MahAyAna Buddhism and wider Indian Hindu culture is almost certainly a result of Jaina influence and constitutes that religion's most enduring contribution to Indian religion. Buddhism treated "absence of harmful intentions" as one of the forty-six mental factors (CAITTA) according to the SARVASTIVADA-VAIBHAsIKA school of ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGACARA school, and one of the fifty-two CETASIKAs in the PAli ABHIDHAMMA. It is the opposite of "harmful intention" or "injury" (VIHIMSA, and is sometimes seen written as avihiMsA) and one of the states of mind comprising right intention (S. samyaksaMkalpa; P. sammAsankappa) in the noble eightfold path (ARYAstAnGIKAMARGA). "Absence of harmful intentions" is also traditionally taken to be a precondition for the cultivation of "compassion" (KARUnA). See VIHIMSA.
“a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its inner divinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray; where, so to say, the personal man has put on the garments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now — that man is a Bodhisattva. His higher principles have nearly reached Nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a Buddha, a human Buddha, a Manushya-Buddha. Obviously, if such a Bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnation or in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a Manushya-Buddha. A Buddha, in the esoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached Nirvana and remain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the Bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the Nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a Nirmanakaya . . . a Bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a Dhyani-Buddha or Celestial Buddha — in other words one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own Divine Monad” (OG 19).
AksobhyatathAgatasyavyuha. (T. De bzhin gshegs pa mi 'khrugs pa'i bkod pa; C. Achu foguo jing; J. Ashuku bukkokukyo; K. Ach'ok pulguk kyong 阿閦佛國經). In Sanskrit, "The Array of the TATHAGATAAKsOBHYA"; a SuTRA in which the Buddha, at sARIPUTRA's request, teaches his eminent disciple about the buddha AKsOBHYA; also known as the Aksobhyavyuha. It was first translated into Chinese in the mid-second century CE by LOKAKsEMA, an Indo-Scythian monk from KUSHAN, and later retranslated by the Tang-period monk BODHIRUCI in the early eighth century as part of his rendering of the RATNAKutASuTRA. The scripture also exists in a Tibetan translation by Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, and Ye shes sde. The text explains that in the distant past, a monk made a vow to achieve buddhahood. He followed the arduous BODHISATTVA path, engaging in myriad virtues; the text especially emphasizes his practice of morality (sĪLA). He eventually achieves buddhahood as the buddha Aksobhya in a buddha-field (BUDDHAKsETRA) located in the east called ABHIRATI, which the sutra describes in some detail as an ideal domain for the practice of the dharma. As its name implies, Abhirati is a land of delight, the antithesis of the suffering that plagues our world, and its pleasures are the by-products of Aksobhya's immense merit and compassion. In his land, Aksobhya sits on a platform sheltered by a huge BODHI TREE, which is surrounded by rows of palm trees and jasmine bushes. Its soil is golden in color and as soft as cotton, and the ground is flat with no gullies or gravel. Although Abhirati, like our world, has a sun and moon, both pale next to the radiance of Aksobhya himself. In Abhirati, the three unfortunate realms (APAYA) of hell denizens, ghosts, and animals do not exist. Among humans, there are gender distinctions but no physical sexuality. A man who entertains sexual thoughts toward a woman would instantly see that desire transformed into a DHYANA that derives from the meditation on impurity (AsUBHABHAVANA), while a woman can become pregnant by a man's glance (even though women do not experience menstruation). Food and drink appear spontaneously whenever a person is hungry or thirsty. There is no illness, no ugliness, and no crime. Described as a kind of idealized monastic community, Abhirati is designed to provide the optimal environment to engage in Buddhist practice, both for those who seek to become ARHATs and for those practicing the bodhisattva path. Rebirth there is a direct result of having planted virtuous roots (KUsALAMuLA), engaging in wholesome actions, and then dedicating any merit deriving from those actions to one's future rebirth in that land. One is also reborn there by accepting, memorizing, and spreading this sutra. Aksobhya will eventually attain PARINIRVAnA in Abhirati through a final act of self-immolation (see SHESHEN). After his demise, his teachings will slowly disappear from the world.
akunin shoki. (惡人正機). In Japanese, lit. "evil people have the right capacity"; the emblematic teaching of the JoDO SHINSHu teacher SHINRAN (1173-1263), which suggests that AMITABHA's compassion is directed primarily to evildoers. When AmitAbha was still the monk named DHARMAKARA, he made a series of forty-eight vows (PRAnIDHANA) that he promised to fulfill before he became a buddha. The most important of these vows to much of the PURE LAND tradition is the eighteenth, in which he vows that all beings who call his name will be reborn in his pure land of SUKHAVATĪ. This prospect of salvation has nothing to do with whether one is a monk or layperson, man or woman, saint or sinner, learned or ignorant. In this doctrine, Shinran goes so far as to claim that if a good man can be reborn in the pure land, so much more so can an evil man. This is because the good man remains attached to the delusion that his virtuous deeds will somehow bring about his salvation, while the evil man has abandoned this conceit and accepts that only through AmitAbha's grace will rebirth in the pure land be won.
AlayavijNAna. (T. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa; C. alaiyeshi/zangshi; J. arayashiki/zoshiki; K. aroeyasik/changsik 阿賴耶識/藏識). In Sanskrit, "storehouse consciousness" or "foundational consciousness"; the eighth of the eight types of consciousness (VIJNANA) posited in the YOGACARA school. All forms of Buddhist thought must be able to uphold (1) the principle of the cause and effect of actions (KARMAN), the structure of SAMSARA, and the process of liberation (VIMOKsA) from it, while also upholding (2) the fundamental doctrines of impermanence (ANITYA) and the lack of a perduring self (ANATMAN). The most famous and comprehensive solution to the range of problems created by these apparently contradictory elements is the AlayavijNAna, often translated as the "storehouse consciousness." This doctrinal concept derives in India from the YOGACARA school, especially from ASAnGA and VASUBANDHU and their commentators. Whereas other schools of Buddhist thought posit six consciousnesses (vijNAna), in the YogAcAra system there are eight, adding the afflicted mind (KLIstAMANAS) and the AlayavijNAna. It appears that once the SarvAstivAda's school's eponymous doctrine of the existence of dharmas in the past, present, and future was rejected by most other schools of Buddhism, some doctrinal solution was required to provide continuity between past and future, including past and future lifetimes. The alAyavijNAna provides that solution as a foundational form of consciousness, itself ethically neutral, where all the seeds (BIJA) of all deeds done in the past reside, and from which they fructify in the form of experience. Thus, the AlayavijNAna is said to pervade the entire body during life, to withdraw from the body at the time of death (with the extremities becoming cold as it slowly exits), and to carry the complete karmic record to the next rebirth destiny. Among the many doctrinal problems that the presence of the AlayavijNAna is meant to solve, it appears that one of its earliest references is in the context not of rebirth but in that of the NIRODHASAMAPATTI, or "trance of cessation," where all conscious activity, that is, all CITTA and CAITTA, cease. Although the meditator may appear as if dead during that trance, consciousness is able to be reactivated because the AlayavijNAna remains present throughout, with the seeds of future experience lying dormant in it, available to bear fruit when the person arises from meditation. The AlayavijNAna thus provides continuity from moment to moment within a given lifetime and from lifetime to lifetime, all providing the link between an action performed in the past and its effect experienced in the present, despite protracted periods of latency between seed and fruition. In YogAcAra, where the existence of an external world is denied, when a seed bears fruit, it bifurcates into an observing subject and an observed object, with that object falsely imagined to exist separately from the consciousness that perceives it. The response by the subject to that object produces more seeds, either positive, negative, or neutral, which are deposited in the AlayavijNAna, remaining there until they in turn bear their fruit. Although said to be neutral and a kind of silent observer of experience, the AlayavijNAna is thus also the recipient of karmic seeds as they are produced, receiving impressions (VASANA) from them. In the context of Buddhist soteriological discussions, the AlayavijNAna explains why contaminants (ASRAVA) remain even when unwholesome states of mind are not actively present, and it provides the basis for the mistaken belief in self (Atman). Indeed, it is said that the klistamanas perceives the AlayavijNAna as a perduring self. The AlayavijNAna also explains how progress on the path can continue over several lifetimes and why some follow the path of the sRAVAKA and others the path of the BODHISATTVA; it is said that one's lineage (GOTRA) is in fact a seed that resides permanently in the AlayavijNAna. In India, the doctrine of the AlayavijNAna was controversial, with some members of the YogAcAra school rejecting its existence, arguing that the functions it is meant to serve can be accommodated within the standard six-consciousness system. The MADHYAMAKA, notably figures such as BHAVAVIVEKA and CANDRAKĪRTI, attacked the YogAcAra proponents of the AlayavijNAna, describing it as a form of self, which all Buddhists must reject. ¶ In East Asia, the AlayavijNAna was conceived as one possible solution to persistent questions in Buddhism about karmic continuity and about the origin of ignorance (MOHA). For the latter, some explanation was required as to how sentient beings, whom many strands of MAHAYANA claimed were inherently enlightened, began to presume themselves to be ignorant. Debates raged within different strands of the Chinese YogAcAra traditions as to whether the AlayavijNAna is intrinsically impure because of the presence of these seeds of past experience (the position of the Northern branch of the Chinese DI LUN ZONG and the Chinese FAXIANG tradition of XUANZANG and KUIJI), or whether the AlayavijNAna included both pure and impure elements because it involved also the functioning of thusness, or TATHATA (the Southern Di lun school's position). Since the sentient being has had a veritable interminable period of time in which to collect an infinity of seeds-which would essentially make it impossible to hope to counteract them one by one-the mainstream strands of YogAcAra viewed the mind as nevertheless tending inveterately toward impurity (dausthulya). This impurity could only be overcome through a "transformation of the basis" (AsRAYAPARAVṚTTI), which would completely eradicate the karmic seeds stored in the storehouse consciousness, liberating the bodhisattva from the effects of all past actions and freeing him to project compassion liberally throughout the world. In some later interpretations, this transformation would then convert the AlayavijNAna into a ninth "immaculate consciousness" (AMALAVIJNANA). See also DASHENG QIXIN LUN.
Al-Ra’uf ::: The compassionate and pitying One who protects individuals who turn to Him from all kinds of behavior which may cause harm or trouble to them.
Although advancing steadily in spirituality and upwards towards a lower nirvana, and therefore evolving on a path which is not only not harmful to humanity and others, but in a sense is even passively beneficial, the Pratyeka Buddha, precisely because his thoughts are involved in spiritual freedom and benefits for himself, is really enwrapped in a spiritual selfishness; and hence in the intuitive, albeit popular, consideration of Northern Buddhism is called by such names as the Solitary or the Rhinoceros — applied in contrast to the Buddhas of Compassion, whose entire effort is to merge the individual into the universal, to expand their sympathies to include all that is, to follow the path of immortality (amrita), which is self-identification without loss of individuality with all that is. When the sacrifice of the lower personal and inferior self, with all its hoard of selfish thought and impulses, for the sake of bringing into full and unfettered activity the ineffable glorious faculties and powers and functions of the higher nature — not for the purpose of selfish personal advancement, but in order to become a helper of all that is — the consequence is that as time passes, the disciple so living and dedicating himself finds himself becoming the very incarnation of his inner divinity. He becomes, as it were, a man-god on earth. This, however, is not the objective, for holding such an objective as the goal to be attained would be in itself a proof that selfishness still abides in the nature.
Amal: “In occult vision the colour of the mind is either yellow or blue. The yellow intensifies into the gold of the Supramental and the blue into the Divine Mother’s compassionate infinity.”
Amrita-yana (Sanskrit) Amṛta-yāna [from a not + mṛta dead from the verbal root mṛ to die + yāna path, vehicle] The path of immortality; in The Voice of the Silence the path followed by the Buddhas of Compassion or of Perfection. It is the “secret path,” the arya (noble) path of the heart doctrine of esoteric wisdom. The Buddhas of Compassion instead of donning the dharmakaya vesture and then entering nirvana, as the Pratyeka Buddhas do, give up nirvana and assume the nirmanakaya robe, thus enabling them to work directly for all beings less evolved than they; and because of this great individual sacrifice, the nirmanakaya condition is in one sense the holiest of the trikaya (three vestures). The amrita-yana is thus a lofty spiritual pathway, and leads to the ineffable glories of self-conscious immortality in the cosmic manvantaric “eternity.”
Anastasis (Greek) Rising up; used in referring to the dead and to resurrection. However, this ancient mystical term was originally used for the rising of the initiant when, having completed the dread trials of initiation, he rose a new man, one who was reborn, or what in India was called a dvija (twice-born). Another significance belonging from earliest times to the cycle of initiation is that when a person through severe training, initiation, and a complete turning away from things of matter to things of spirit, had succeeded in becoming at one with his inner god at least on occasions, he was then considered to have arisen or to have become resurrected out of all the lower ranges of kosmic life, and to have attained self-conscious existence in the spirit. Having attained anastasis, he took his place in the hierarchy of light or compassion as one of the co-laborers with the gods.
Angel of Compassion —Rachmiel or Raphael
appanAsamAdhi. In PAli, "absorptive concentration"; the more advanced of the two broad types of concentration (SAMADHI) discussed in PAli commentarial literature. Both of these two types of samAdhi are used with reference to meditators who are specializing in calmness (samatha; S. sAMATHA) techniques. The preliminary "threshold concentration" (UPACARASAMADHI) helps to calm and focus the mind but is too discursive to lead to full meditative absorption (JHANA; S. DHYANA). In order to develop jhAna, meditators must proceed to cultivate less discursive topics of meditation (KAMMAttHANA) that will lead to "absorptive concentration" and thence jhAna: e.g., mindfulness of breathing (AnApAnasati, S. ANAPANASMṚTI); the four "divine abidings" (BRAHMAVIHARA; [alt. P. appamaNNa], S. APRAMAnA), namely, loving-kindness (P. mettA; S. MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnA), altruistic or empathetic joy (MUDITA), and equanimity or impartiality (P. upekkhA; S. UPEKsA); and the ten "visual devices" (KASInA)-devices that are constructed from the elements earth, water, fire, and air; the colors blue, yellow, red, and white; and light and space. See also KHANIKASAMADHI.
apramAna. (P. appammaNNA; T. tshad med pa; C. wuliangxin; J. muryoshin; K. muryangsim 無量心). In Sanskrit, "the boundless states," "unlimiteds," or "limitless qualities." This list is identical to the four "divine abidings" (BRAHMAVIHARA) of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnA), empathetic joy (MUDITA), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKsA). When taken as objects of concentration and extended in meditation to all beings without limit, the divine abidings then become "boundless states" (apramAna). The meditator is taught to take up each of the boundless states in the same way: starting with the first apramAna, for example, filling his mind with loving-kindness, he pervades the world with it, first in one direction, then in a second direction, then a third and a fourth, then above, below, and all around, identifying himself with all beings and remaining free from hatred and ill will. In the same way, he takes up compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. These four factors are taken up as objects of meditation to counter the influence of specific unwholesome states of mind: viz., loving-kindness counteracts hostility (VYAPADA); compassion counters harmfulness (VIHIMSA); empathetic joy counters dissatisfaction or envy regarding others' achievements (arati); and equanimity counters both the desire and hostility arising from sensuality (KAMARAGA-VYAPADA) and the desire to win the approval of others (anunaya). Of these boundless states, the first three are capable of producing the first three of the four DHYANAs, or meditative absorptions; the fourth divine abiding is the only one capable of producing the fourth meditative absorption.
As early as one hundred years after the Buddha died and had entered his parinirvana, differences in the doctrines and discipline of the Order become manifest. In the course of the centuries two basic trends developed into what has become popular to call the Hinayana (the lesser vehicle or path) or Theravada (doctrine of the elders), and Mahayana (the greater vehicle or path). The Theravada emphasized the fourfold path leading to nirvana, total liberation of the arhat from material concerns. The Mahayana held the bodhisattvayana as the ideal, the way of compassion for all sentient beings, culminating in renunciation of nirvana in order to return and inspire others “to awake and follow the dhamma.” It is this fundamental difference in goal that characterizes the Old Wisdom School (arhatship) from the New Wisdom School (bodhsattvahood). See also BUDDHA OF COMPASSION; PRATYEKA BUDDHA
AsrayaparAvṛtti. [alt. Asrayaparivṛtti] (T. gnas yongs su 'gyur pa; C. zhuanyi; J. ten'e; K. chonŭi 轉依). In Sanskrit, "transformation of the basis" or "fundamental transmutation"; the transmutation of the defiled state in which one has not abandoned the afflictions (KLEsA) into a purified state in which the klesas have been abandoned. This transmutation thus transforms an ordinary person (PṚTHAGJANA) into a noble one (ARYA). In the YOGACARA school's interpretation, by understanding (1) the emptiness (suNYATA) of the imagined reality (PARIKALPITA) that ordinary people mistakenly ascribe to the sensory images they experience (viz., "unreal imaginings," or ABHuTAPARIKALPA) and (2) the conditioned origination of things through the interdependent aspect of cognition (PARATANTRA), the basis will be transformed into the perfected (PARNIsPANNA) nature, and enlightenment realized. STHIRAMATI posits three aspects to this transformation: transformation of the basis of the mind (cittAsrayaparAvṛtti), transformation of the basis of the path (mArgAsrayaparAvṛtti), and transformation of the basis of the proclivities (dausthulyAsrayaparAvṛtti). "Transformation of the basis of mind" transmutes the imaginary into the perfected through the awareness of emptiness. Insight into the perfected in turn empties the path of any sense of sequential progression, thus transmuting the mundane path (LAUKIKAMARGA) with its multiple steps into a supramundane path (lokottaramArga, cf. LOKUTTARAMAGGA) that has no fixed locus; this is the "transformation of the basis of the path." Finally, "transformation of the basis of the proclivities" eradicates the seeds (BĪJA) of action (KARMAN) that are stored in the storehouse consciousness (ALAYAVIJNANA), liberating the bodhisattva from the effects of any past unwholesome actions and freeing him to project compassion liberally throughout the world.
astavimoksa. (P. atthavimokkha; T. rnam par thar pa brgyad; C. ba jietuo; J. hachigedatsu; K. p'al haet'al 八解脱). In Sanskrit, "eight liberations"; referring to a systematic meditation practice for cultivating detachment and ultimately liberation (VIMOKsA). There are eight stages in the attenuation of consciousness that accompany the cultivation of increasingly deeper states of meditative absorption (DHYANA). In the first four dhyAnas of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPAVACARADHYANA), the first three stages entail (1) the perception of materiality (RuPA) in that plane of subtle materiality (S. rupasaMjNin, P. rupasaNNī), (2) the perception of external forms while not perceiving one's own form (S. arupasaMjNin, P. arupasaNNī), and (3) the developing of confidence through contemplating the beautiful (S. subha, P. subha). The next five stages transcend the realm of subtle materiality to take in the four immaterial dhyAnas (ARuPYAVACARADHYANA) and beyond: (4) passing beyond the material plane with the idea of "limitless space," one attains the plane of limitless space (AKAsANANTYAYATANA); (5) passing beyond the plane of limitless space with the idea of "limitless consciousness," one attains the plane of limitless consciousness (VIJNANANANTYAYATANA); (6) passing beyond the plane of limitless consciousness with the idea that "there is nothing," one attains the plane of nothingness (AKINCANYAYATANA); (7) passing beyond the plane of nothingness, one attains the plane of neither perception nor nonperception (NAIVASAMJNANASAMJNAYATANA); and (8) passing beyond the plane of neither perception nor nonperception, one attains the cessation of all perception and sensation (SAMJNAVEDAYITANIRODHA). ¶ The ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA and YOGACARABHuMIsASTRA give an explanation of the first three of the eight vimoksas within the larger context of bodhisattvas who compassionately manifest shapes, smells, and so on for the purpose of training others. Bodhisattvas who have reached any of the nine levels (the RuPADHATU, the four subtle-materiality DHYANAs, and four immaterial attainments) engage in this type of practice. In the first vimoksa, they destroy "form outside," i.e., those in the rupadhAtu who have not destroyed attachment to forms (to their own color, shape, smell, and so on) cultivate detachment to the forms they see outside. (Other bodhisattvas who have reached the first dhyAna and so on do this by relaxing their detachment for the duration of the meditation.) In the second vimoksa, they destroy the "form inside," i.e., they cultivate detachment to their own color and shape. (Again, others who have reached the immaterial attainments and have no attachment to their own form relax that detachment for the duration of the meditation.) In the third, they gain control over what they want to believe about forms by meditating on the relative nature of beauty, ugliness, and size. They destroy grasping at anything as having an absolute pleasant or unpleasant identity, and perceive them all as having the same taste as pleasant, or however else they want them to be. These texts finally give an explanation of the remaining five vimoksas, "to loosen the rope of craving for the taste of the immaterial levels."
Avaivartika (Sanskrit) Avaivartika [from a not + vi-vṛt to turn around, revolve] Non-revolving, nontransmigrating; in the case of a reimbodying entity, one who is advanced so far on the evolutionary path that he is no longer enslaved by, or enchained in, the whirling waves of samsara. Hence also translated “one who does not revolve any more,” applied to seventh round human beings, and therefore strictly referable to one who has reached nirvana. Also applied to every buddha “who turns no more back; who goes straight to Nirvana” (TG 44), for whether nirvana is entered as in the case of the Pratyeka Buddhas, or whether the avaivartika renounces that lofty state and remains in the nirmanakaya as a Buddha of Compassion, both classes of buddhas have passed beyond the necessity of “revolving” any more in this round.
Avalokitesvarasahasrabhujanetra. In Sanskrit, "Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed AVALOKITEsVARA"; one of the manifestations of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara. See SAHASRABHUJASAHASRANETRAVALOKITEsVARA.
Avalokitesvara. (T. Spyan ras gzigs; C. Guanshiyin/Guanyin; J. Kanzeon/Kannon; K. Kwanseŭm/Kwanŭm 觀世音/觀音). In Sanskrit, "Lord who Looks Down [in Empathy]"; the BODHISATTVA of compassion, the most widely worshipped of the MAHAYANA bodhisattvas and one of the earliest to appear in Buddhist literature. According to legend, Avalokitesvara was produced from a beam of light that radiated from the forehead of AMITABHA while that buddha was deep in meditation. For this reason, Buddhist iconography often depicts AmitAbha as embedded in Avalokitesvara's crown. His name dates back to the beginning of the Common Era, when he replaced the Vedic god BRAHMA as the attendant to sAKYAMUNI Buddha, inheriting in turn BrahmA's attribute of the lotus (PADMA). Images of Avalokitesvara as PADMAPAnI LOKEsVARA ("Lord with a Lotus in his Hand"), an early name, are numerous. Avalokitesvara is the interlocutor or main figure in numerous important MahAyAna sutras, including the PRAJNAPARAMITAHṚDAYASuTRA ("Heart Sutra"). His cult was introduced to China in the first century CE, where his name was translated as Guanshiyin ("Perceiver of the Sounds of the World") or GUANYIN ("Perceiver of Sounds"); his cult entered Korea and Japan with the advent of Buddhism in those countries. Avalokitesvara was once worshipped widely in Southeast Asia as well, beginning at the end of the first millennium CE. Although the MahAyAna tradition eventually faded from the region, images of Avalokitesvara remain. Avalokitesvara is also the patron deity of Tibet, where he is said to have taken the form of a monkey and mated with TARA in the form of a local demoness to produce the Tibetan race. Tibetan political and religious leaders have been identified as incarnations of him, such as the seventh-century king SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO (although that attribution was most likely a later addition to the king's legacy) and, notably, the DALAI LAMAs. The PO TA LA Palace, the residence of the Dalai Lamas, in the Tibetan capital of LHA SA is named for Avalokitesvara's abode on Mount POTALAKA in India. In China, Avalokitesvara as Guanyin underwent a transformation in gender into a popular female bodhisattva, although the male iconographic form also persists throughout East Asia. PUTUOSHAN, located off the east coast of China south of Shanghai, is said to be Potalaka. Avalokitesvara is generally depicted in the full raiments of a bodhisattva, often with an image of AmitAbha in his crown. He appears in numerous forms, among them the two-armed PadmapAni who stands and holds a lotus flower; the four-armed seated Avalokitesvara, known either as Caturbhuja Avalokitesvara [CaturbhujAvalokitesvara] or CintAmani Avalokitesvara [CintAmanyavalokitesvara], who holds the wish-fulfilling jewel (CINTAMAnI) with his central hands in ANJALIMUDRA, and a lotus and crystal rosary in his left and right hands, respectively; the eleven-armed, eleven-faced EKADAsAMUKHA; and the thousand-armed and thousand-headed SAHASRABHUJASAHASRANETRAVALOKITEsVARA (q.v. MAHAKARUnIKA). Tradition holds that his head split into multiple skulls when he beheld the suffering of the world. Numerous other forms also exist in which the god has three or more heads, and any number of arms. In his wrathful form as AstabhayatrAnAvalokitesvara (T. Spyan ras gzigs 'jigs pa brgyad skyob), "Avalokitesvara who Protects against the Eight Fears," the bodhisattva stands in ARDHAPARYAnKA ("half cross-legged posture") and has one face and eight hands, each of which holds a symbol of one of the eight fears. This name is also given to eight separate forms of Avalokitesvara that are each dedicated to protecting from one of the eight fears, namely: AgnibhayatrAnAvalokitesvara ("Avalokitesvara Who Protects from Fear of Fire") and so on, replacing fire with Jala (water), SiMha (lion), Hasti (elephant), Danda (cudgel), NAga (snake), dAkinī (witch) [alt. PisAcī]; and Cora (thief). In addition to his common iconographic characteristic, the lotus flower, Avalokitesvara also frequently holds, among other accoutrements, a jeweled rosary (JAPAMALA) given to him by Aksamati (as related in chapter twenty-five of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA), or a vase. In East Asia, Avalokitesvara often appears in a triad: the buddha AmitAbha in the center, flanked to his left and right by his two bodhisattva attendants, Avalokitesvara and MAHASTHAMAPRAPTA, respectively. In Tibet, Avalokitesvara is part of a popular triad with VAJRAPAnI and MANJUsRĪ. As one of the AstAMAHOPAPUTRA, Avalokitesvara also appears with the other bodhisattvas in group representation. The tantric deity AMOGHAPAsA is also a form of Avalokitesvara. The famous mantra of Avalokitesvara, OM MAnI PADME HuM, is widely recited in the MahAyAna traditions and nearly universally in Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to the twenty-fifth chapter of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra, the KARAndAVYuHA is also devoted to him. See also BAIYI GUANYIN; GUANYIN; MIAOSHAN; MAnI BKA' 'BUM.
Avarana. (T. sgrib pa; C. zhang; J. sho; K. chang 障). In Sanskrit and PAli, "obstruction," "obstacle," or "hindrance." In MAHAYANA literature, two types of Avarana are commonly described: "obstructions that are the afflictions," or "afflictive obstructions" (KLEsAVARAnA), and cognitive or noetic obstructions, viz., "obstructions to omniscience" (JNEYAVARAnA). sRAVAKAs and PRATYEKABUDDHAs can be freed from the afflictive obstructions, but only BODHISATTVAs are able to free themselves from the cognitive obstructions. In the YOGACARA system, the cognitive obstructions result from fundamental misapprehensions about the nature of reality. Because of the attachment that derives from the reification of what are actually imaginary external phenomena, conceptualization and discrimination arise in the mind, which in turn lead to pride, ignorance, and wrong views. Based on the mistakes in understanding generated by these cognitive obstructions, the individual engages in defiled actions motivated by anger, envy, etc., which constitute the afflictive obstructions. The afflictive obstructions may be removed by followers of the srAvaka, pratyekabuddha, and beginning bodhisattva paths by applying various antidotes or counteragents (PRATIPAKsA) to the afflictions or defilements (KLEsA); overcoming these types of obstructions will lead to freedom from further rebirth. The cognitive obstructions, however, can only be overcome by advanced bodhisattvas who seek instead to achieve buddhahood, by perfecting their understanding of emptiness (suNYATA) and compassion (KARUnA) and amassing a great store of merit (PUnYA) by engaging in the bodhisattva deeds (CARYA). Buddhas, therefore, are the only class of beings who have overcome both types of obstructions and thus are able simultaneously to cognize all objects of knowledge in the universe. The jNeyAvarana are therefore sometimes translated as "obstructions to omniscience." In the elaboration of the obstructions in the YogAcAra text CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimAtratAsiddhi), there are ten types of Avarana that are specifically said to obstruct the ten types of suchness (TATHATA) correlated with the ten stages of the bodhisattva path (DAsABHuMI): (1) the obstruction of the common illusions of the unenlightened (pṛthagjanatvAvarana; C. yishengxing zhang); (2) the obstruction of deluded conduct (mithyApratipattyAvarana; C. xiexing zhang); (3) the obstruction of dullness (dhandhatvAvarana; C. andun zhang); (4) the obstruction of the manifestation of subtle afflictions (suksmaklesasamudAcArAvarana; C. xihuo xianxing zhang); (5) the obstruction of the lesser HĪNAYANA ideal of PARINIRVAnA (hīnayAnaparinirvAnAvarana; C. xiasheng niepan zhang); (6) the obstruction of the manifestation of coarse characteristics (sthulanimittasamudAcArAvarana; C. cuxiang xianxing zhang); (7) the obstruction of the manifestation of subtle characteristics (suksmanimittasamudAcArAvarana; C. xixiang xianxing zhang); (8) the obstruction of the continuance of activity even in the immaterial realm that is free from characteristics (nirnimittAbhisaMskArAvarana; C. wuxiang jiaxing zhang); (9) the obstruction of not desiring to act to bring salvation to others (parahitacaryAkAmanAvarana; C. buyuxing zhang); and (10) the obstruction of not yet acquiring mastery over all things (dharmesuvasitApratilambhAvarana; fa weizizai zhang). These ten obstructions are overcome by practicing, respectively: (1) the perfection of giving (DANAPARAMITA); (2) the perfection of morality (sĪLAPARAMITA); (3) the perfection of forbearance (KsANTIPARAMITA); (4) the perfection of energetic effort (VĪRYAPARAMITA); (5) the perfection of meditative absorption (DHYANAPARAMITA); (6) the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA); (7) the perfection of expedient means (UPAYAPARAMITA); (8) the perfection of the vow (to attain enlightenment) (PRAnIDHANAPARAMITA); (9) the perfection of powers (BALAPARAMITA); and (10) the perfection of omniscience (jNAnapAramitA). See also KARMAVARAnA; NĪVARAnA.
Baiyi Guanyin. (S. PAndaravAsinī; T. Gos dkar mo; J. Byakue kannon; K. Paegŭi Kwanŭm 白衣觀音). In Chinese, "White-Robed GUANYIN (Perceiver of Sounds)." An esoteric form of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA (known as Guanyin in Chinese), who became a popular focus of cultic worship in East Asia. The cult of Baiyi Guanyin began around the tenth century in China, whence it spread to Korea and Japan. Several indigenous Chinese scriptures praise the compassion and miraculous powers of White-Robed Guanyin. According to the various Baiyi Guanyin APOCRYPHA, she was also a grantor of children, as was Songzi Guanyin. Many testimonials from literati are appended to these scriptures, which attest to Baiyi Guanyin's ability to ensure the birth of sons, although it is also said that she granted children of both genders. Like many other Guanyin-related texts, the White-Robed Guanyin texts frequently invoke esoteric Buddhist terminology such as DHARAnĪ, MUDRA, and MANTRA. Beginning in the tenth century, Baiyi Guanyin's cult was associated with the founding of temples, as well as the production of countless images commissioned by both religious and laity. Many worshippers, especially monastics and royalty, had visions of White-Robed Guanyin. These dreams range from being promised children in return for a residence (such as the Upper Tianzhu monastery outside of Hangzhou, later also associated with Princess MIAOSHAN), to enlarging existing structures or even restoring them once a vision or dream of White-Robed Guanyin occurred. In such visions and dreams, White-Robed Guanyin appeared as a female, thus differentiating this form of the bodhisattva from SHUIYUE GUANYIN (Moon-in-the-Water Avalokitesvara), who was similarly dressed in a white robe, but appeared as a male. Some miracle tales highlighting the donors' names were also produced in honor of Baiyi Guanyin, lending further credence to the accounts of the bodhisattva's miraculous powers.
Compassion [from Latin com with + pati to bear, suffer] Sympathetic understanding; the feeling of one’s unity with all that is, resulting in an “intimate magnetic sympathy with all that is.” (OG)
Because self-destruction, so called, is always wrong, and an unwarrantable and violent interference with the orderly processes of nature, the act is bound to bring disharmony and trouble for all concerned. But in laying down general laws we must always allow for specific instances, for there is no dogmatic hard-and-fast rule in these matters. Suicides among themselves differ enormously as between the cowardly and selfish act of an evil person, the uncontrolled act of the insane, and the utterly mistaken but perhaps even compassionate act of one who thinks that by suicide he can aid others. These extremes are simply enormous, and nature which in its actions is perfect justice, albeit automatic, watches over and protects, as far as natural laws permit, these last cases of sincere but erroneous belief or thought, born of ignorance. We dare not judge in default of full knowledge of the karmic heritage, or the deeper causes which culminated in the act.
bhavacakra. (P. bhavacakka; T. srid pa'i khor lo; C. youlun; J. urin; K. yuryun 有輪). In Sanskrit, "wheel of existence"; a visual depiction of SAMSARA in the form of a wheel, best known in its Tibetan forms but widely used in other Buddhist traditions as well. The BHAVACAKRA is a seminal example of Buddhist didactic art. The chart is comprised of a series of concentric circles, each containing pictorial representations of some of the major features of Buddhist cosmology and didactics. Standard versions consist of an outer ring of images depicting the twelve-linked chain of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA). Within this ring is another circle broken into six equal sectors-one for each of the six realms of existence in saMsAra. The salutary realms of divinities (DEVA), demigods (ASURA), and humans (MANUsYA) are found in the top half of the circle, while the unfortunate realms (DURGATI; APAYA) of animals (TIRYAK), hungry ghosts (PRETA), and hell denizens (NARAKA) are found in the bottom half. Inside this circle is a ring that is divided evenly into dark and light halves. The most popular interpretation of these two halves is that the light half depicts the path of bliss, or the path that leads to better rebirth and to liberation, while the dark half represents the path of darkness, which leads to misfortune and rebirth in the hells. Finally, in the center of the picture is a small circle in which can be seen a bird, a snake, and a pig. These three animals represent the "three poisons" (TRIVIsA)-the principal afflictions (KLEsA) of greed or sensuality (LOBHA or RAGA), hatred or aversion (DVEsA), and delusion (MOHA)-that bind beings to the round of rebirth. The entire wheel is held in the jaws and claws of a demon whose identity varies from version to version. Often this demon is presumed to be MARA, the great tempter who was defeated in his attempt to sway GAUTAMA from enlightenment. Another common figure who grips the wheel is YAMA, the king of death, based on the idea that Yama was the original being, the first to die, and hence the ruler over all caught in the cycle of birth and death. Often outside the circle appear one or more buddhas, who may be pointing to a SuTRA, or to some other religious object. The buddhas' location outside the circle indicates their escape from the cycle of birth and death. The same figure of a buddha may be also found among the denizens of hell, indicating that a buddha's compassion extends to beings in even the most inauspicious destinies. According to several Indian texts, the Buddha instructed that the bhavacakra should be painted at the entrance of a monastery for the instruction of the laity; remnants of a bhavacakra painting were discovered at AJAntA.
bhava (Maheshwari bhava; Maheshwari-bhava; Maheswari bhava) ::: the Mahesvari aspect of devibhava; the temperament of Mahesvari, the sakti or devi in "her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness".Mahesvari-Mah Mahesvari-Mahalaksmi
Bhutesa or Bhutesvara (Sanskrit) Bhūteśa, Bhūteśvara [from bhūta living being + īśa, īśvara lord] Lord of beings, lord of manifested entities and things; a name applied to each member of the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva). Siva in exoteric mythology and popular superstition is supposed to possess the special status of lord of the bhutas or kama-lokic spooks, and is the special patron of ascetics, students of occultism, and of those training themselves in mystical knowledge; so that this superstitious characterization of Siva is an entirely exoteric distortion of a profound esoteric fact. The real meaning is that Siva, often figurated as the supreme initiator, is the lord of those who “have been,” but who now are become regenerates through initiation — the mystical idea here being of the preservation of self-conscious effort through darkness into light, from ignorance to wisdom, and from selfishness into the divine compassion of the cosmic heart. In view of the karmic past of such progressed entities, their former selves in this cosmic time period are the bhutas (have-beens) of what now they are. Bhutesa is also applied to Krishna in this sense.
bleeding ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bleed ::: a. --> Emitting, or appearing to emit, blood or sap, etc.; also, expressing anguish or compassion. ::: n.
blo sbyong. (lojong). In Tibetan, "mind training"; a tradition of Tibetan Buddhist practice associated especially with the BKA' GDAMS sect and providing pithy instructions on the cultivation of compassion (KARUnA) and BODHICITTA. The trainings are based primarily on the technique for the equalizing and exchange of self and other, as set forth in the eighth chapter of sANTIDEVA's BODHICARYAVATARA, a poem in ten chapters on the BODHISATTVA path. The practice is to transform the conception of self (ATMAGRAHA), characterized as a self-cherishing attitude (T. rang gces 'dzin) into cherishing others (gzhan gces 'dzin), by contemplating the illusory nature of the self, the faults in self-cherishing, and the benefits that flow from cherishing others. The training seeks to transform difficulties into reasons to reaffirm a commitment to bodhicitta. Dharmaraksita's Blo sbyong mtshon cha'i 'khor lo (sometimes rendered as "Wheel of Sharp Weapons"), translated into Tibetan by ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNANA and 'BROM STON, founders of the Bka' gdam sect, in the eleventh century; Glang ri thang pa's (Langri Thangpa) (1054-1123) BLO SBYONG TSHIG BRGYAD MA ("Eight Verses on Mind Training"); 'CHAD KA BA YE SHES RDO RJE's BLO SBYONG DON BDUN MA (Lojong dondünma) ("Seven Points of Mind Training"), and Hor ston Nam mkha'i dpal bzang's (1373-1447) Blo sbyong nyi ma'i 'od zer ("Mind Training like the Rays of the Sun") are four among a large number of widely studied and practiced blo sbyong texts. The Blo sbyong mtshon cha'i 'khor lo, for example, compares the bodhisattva to a hero who can withstand spears and arrows, and to a peacock that eats poison and becomes even more beautiful; it says difficulties faced in day-to-day life are reasons to strengthen resolve because they are like the spears and arrow of karmic results launched by earlier unsalutary actions. From this perspective, circumstances that are ordinarily upsetting or depressing are transformed into reasons for happiness, by thinking that negative KARMAN has been extinguished. The influence of tantric Buddhism is discernable in the training in blo sbyong texts like the Mtshon cha'i 'khor lo that exhorts practitioners to imagine themselves as the deity YAMANTAKA and mentally launch an attack on the conception of self, imagining it as a battle. The conception of self is taken as the primary reason for the earlier unsalutary actions that caused negative results, and for engaging in present unsalutary deeds that harm others and do nothing to advance the practitioner's own welfare.
Blo sbyong tshig brgyad ma. (Lojong Tsikgyema). In Tibetan, "Eight Verses on Mind Training"; a text composed by the BKA' GDAMS scholar Glang ri thang pa (Langri Thangpa, 1054-1123), based upon the instructions for generating BODHICITTA transmitted to Tibet by the Bengali master ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNANA. The work became famous in Tibet for its penetrating advice for the practice of compassion (KARUnA). It formed the basis for future influential works, including the often-quoted BLO SBYONG DON BDUN MA ("Seven Points of Mind Training"), by the Bka' gdams scholar 'CHAD KA BA YE SHES RDO RJE, written several decades later. The first seven verses teach the practice of conventional (SAMVṚTI) bodhicitta, and the last verse ultimate (PARAMARTHA) bodhicitta. The first training is to view sentient beings as wish-granting gems because it is only by feeling compassion for beings that bodhisattvas reach enlightenment; the second is to cultivate an attitude similar to a person of low status whose natural place is serving others; and the third is to immediately confront and counteract afflictions (KLEsA) (here understood specifically as selfishness, attachment to one's own interests, and hatred for those who oppose them). The fourth training is to treat people who are actually cruel as extremely rare and precious because they present an opportunity to practice patience and compassion, without which enlightenment is impossible; the fifth is the famous advice to "give all victory to others; take all defeat for yourself;" the sixth is to treat ungrateful persons as special gurus, and the seventh is to practice GTONG LEN (giving and taking), a practice of breathing out love and compassion and breathing in the sufferings of others. The eighth training is in a mind free from all conceptions.
bodhicitta. (T. byang chub kyi sems; C. putixin; J. bodaishin; K. porisim 菩提心). In Sanskrit, "thought of enlightenment" or "aspiration to enlightenment"; the intention to reach the complete, perfect enlightenment (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAMBODHI) of the buddhas, in order to liberate all sentient beings in the universe from suffering. As the generative cause that leads to the eventual achievement of buddhahood and all that it represents, bodhicitta is one of the most crucial terms in MAHAYANA Buddhism. The achievement of bodhicitta marks the beginning of the BODHISATTVA path: bodhicitta refers to the aspiration that inspires the bodhisattva, the being who seeks buddhahood. In some schools of MahAyAna Buddhism, bodhicitta is conceived as being latent in all sentient beings as the "innately pure mind" (prakṛtiparisuddhacitta), as, for example, in the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA: "Knowing one's own mind according to reality is BODHI, and bodhicitta is the innately pure mind that is originally existent." In this sense, bodhicitta was conceived as a universal principle, related to such terms as DHARMAKAYA, TATHAGATA, or TATHATA. However, not all schools of the MahAyAna (e.g., some strands of YOGACARA) hold that all beings are destined for buddhahood and, thus, not all beings are endowed with bodhicitta. Regardless of whether or not bodhicitta is regarded as somehow innate, however, bodhicitta is also a quality of mind that must be developed, hence the important term BODHICITTOTPADA, "generation of the aspiration to enlightenment." Both the BODHISATTVABHuMI and the MAHAYANASuTRALAMKARA provide a detailed explanation of bodhicitta. In late Indian MahAyAna treatises by such important authors as sANTIDEVA, KAMALAsĪLA, and ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNANA, techniques are set forth for cultivating bodhicitta. The development of bodhicitta also figures heavily in MahAyAna liturgies, especially in those where one receives the bodhisattva precepts (BODHISATTVASAMVARA). In this literature, two types of bodhicitta are enumerated. First, the "conventional bodhicitta" (SAMVṚTIBODHICITTA) refers to a bodhisattva's mental aspiration to achieve enlightenment, as described above. Second, the "ultimate bodhicitta" (PARAMARTHABODHICITTA) refers to the mind that directly realizes either emptiness (suNYATA) or the enlightenment inherent in the mind. This "conventional bodhicitta" is further subdivided between PRAnIDHICITTOTPADA, literally, "aspirational creation of the attitude" (where "attitude," CITTA, refers to bodhicitta), where one makes public one's vow (PRAnIDHANA) to attain buddhahood; and PRASTHANACITTOTPADA, literally "creation of the attitude of setting out," where one actually sets out to practice the path to buddhahood. In discussing this latter pair, sAntideva in his BODHICARYAVATARA compares the first type to the decision to undertake a journey and the second type to actually setting out on the journey; in the case of the bodhisattva path, then, the first therefore refers to the process of developing the aspiration to buddhahood for the sake of others, while the second refers to undertaking the various practices of the bodhisattva path, such as the six perfections (PARAMITA). The AVATAMSAKASuTRA describes three types of bodhicitta, those like a herder, a ferryman, and a king. In the first case the bodhisattva first delivers all others into enlightenment before entering enlightenment himself, just as a herder takes his flock into the pen before entering the pen himself; in the second case, they all enter enlightenment together, just as a ferryman and his passengers arrive together at the further shore; and in the third, the bodhisattva first reaches enlightenment and then helps others to reach the goal, just as a king first ascends to the throne and then benefits his subjects. A standard definition of bodhicitta is found at the beginning of the ABHISAMAYALAMKARA, where it is defined as an intention or wish that has two aims: buddhahood, and the welfare of those beings whom that buddhahood will benefit; the text also gives a list of twenty-two types of bodhicitta, with examples for each. Later writers like Arya VIMUKTISENA and HARIBHADRA locate the AbhisamayAlaMkAra's twenty-two types of bodhicitta at different stages of the bodhisattva path and at enlightenment. At the beginning of his MADHYAMAKAVATARA, CANDRAKĪRTI compares compassion (KARUnA) to a seed, water, and crops and says it is important at the start (where compassion begins the bodhisattva's path), in the middle (where it sustains the bodhisattva and prevents a fall into the limited NIRVAnA of the ARHAT), and at the end when buddhahood is attained (where it explains the unending, spontaneous actions for the sake of others that derive from enlightenment). KarunA is taken to be a cause of bodhicitta because bodhicitta initially arises and ultimately will persist, only if MAHAKARUnA ("great empathy for others' suffering") is strong. In part because of its connotation as a generative force, in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, bodhicitta comes also to refer to semen, especially in the practice of sexual yoga, where the physical seed (BĪJA) of awakening (representing UPAYA) is placed in the lotus of wisdom (PRAJNA).
Bodhicittavivarana. (T. Byang chub sems 'grel). In Sanskrit, "Exposition of the Mind of Enlightenment"; a work traditionally ascribed to NAGARJUNA, although the text is not cited by NAgArjuna's commentators BUDDHAPALITA, CANDRAKĪRTI, or BHAVAVIVEKA. This absence, together with apparently tantric elements in the text and the fact that it contains a sustained critique of VIJNANAVADA, have led some scholars to conclude that it is not the work of the same NAgArjuna who authored the MuLAMADHYAMAKAKARIKA. Nonetheless, the work is widely cited in later Indian MahAyAna literature and is important in Tibet. The text consists of 112 stanzas, preceded by a brief section in prose. It is essentially a compendium of MAHAYANA theory and practice, intended for bodhisattvas, both monastic and lay, organized around the theme of BODHICITTA, both in its conventional aspect (SAMVṚTIBODHICITTA) as the aspiration to buddhahood out of compassion for all sentient beings, and in its ultimate aspect (PARAMARTHABODHICITTA) as the insight into emptiness (suNYATA). In addition to the refutation of VijNAnavAda, the text refutes the self as understood by the TĪRTHIKAs and the SKANDHAs as understood by the sRAVAKAs.
bodhicittotpAda. (T. byang chub kyi sems bskyed pa; C. fa puti xin; J. hotsubodaishin; K. pal pori sim 發菩提心). In Sanskrit, "generating the aspiration for enlightenment," "creating (utpAda) the thought (CITTA) of enlightenment (BODHI)"; a term used to describe both the process of developing BODHICITTA, the aspiration to achieve buddhahood, as well as the state achieved through such development. The MAHAYANA tradition treats this aspiration as having great significance in one's spiritual career, since it marks the entry into the MahAyAna and the beginning of the BODHISATTVA path. The process by which this "thought of enlightenment" (bodhicitta) is developed and sustained is bodhicittotpAda. Various types of techniques or conditional environments conducive to bodhicittotpAda are described in numerous MahAyAna texts and treatises. The BODHISATTVABHuMI says that there are four predominant conditions (ADHIPATIPRATYAYA) for generating bodhicitta: (1) witnessing an inconceivable miracle (ṛddhiprAtihArya) performed by a buddha or a bodhisattva, (2) listening to a teaching regarding enlightenment (BODHI) or to the doctrine directed at bodhisattvas (BODHISATTVAPItAKA), (3) recognizing the dharma's potential to be extinguished and seeking therefore to protect the true dharma (SADDHARMA), (4) seeing that sentient beings are troubled by afflictions (KLEsA) and empathizing with them. The Fa putixinjing lun introduces another set of four conditions for generating bodhicitta: (1) reflecting on the buddhas; (2) contemplating the dangers (ADĪNAVA) inherent in the body; (3) developing compassion (KARUnA) toward sentient beings; (4) seeking the supreme result (PHALA). The Chinese apocryphal treatise DASHENG QIXIN LUN ("Awakening of Faith According to the MahAyAna") refers to three types of bodhicittotpAda: that which derives from the accomplishment of faith, from understanding and practice, and from realization. JINGYING HUIYUAN (523-592) in his DASHENG YIZHANG ("Compendium on the Purport of MahAyAna") classifies bodhicittotpAda into three groups: (1) the generation of the mind based on characteristics, in which the bodhisattva, perceiving the characteristics of SAMSARA and NIRVAnA, abhors saMsAra and aspires to seek nirvAna; (2) the generation of the mind separate from characteristics, in which the bodhisattva, recognizing that the nature of saMsAra is not different from nirvAna, leaves behind any perception of their distinctive characteristics and generates an awareness of their equivalency; (3) the generation of the mind based on truth, in which the bodhisattva, recognizing that the original nature of bodhi is identical to his own mind, returns to his own original state of mind. The Korean scholiast WoNHYO (617-686), in his Muryangsugyong chongyo ("Doctrinal Essentials of the 'Sutra of Immeasurable Life'"), considers the four great vows of the bodhisattva (see C. SI HONGSHIYUAN) to be bodhicitta and divides its generation into two categories: viz., the aspiration that accords with phenomena (susa palsim) and the aspiration that conforms with principle (suri palsim). The topic of bodhicittotpAda is the subject of extensive discussion and exegesis in Tibetan Buddhism. For example, in his LAM RIM CHEN MO, TSONG KHA PA sets forth two techniques for developing this aspiration. The first, called the "seven cause and effect precepts" (rgyu 'bras man ngag bdun) is said to derive from ATIsA DIPAMKARAsRĪJNANA. The seven are (1) recognition of all sentient beings as having been one's mother in a past life, (2) recognition of their kindness, (3) the wish to repay their kindness, (4) love, (5) compassion, (6) the wish to liberate them from suffering, and (7) bodhicitta. The second, called the equalizing and exchange of self and other (bdag gzhan mnyam brje) is derived from the eighth chapter of sANTIDEVA's BODHICARYAVATARA. It begins with the recognition that oneself and others equally want happiness and do not want suffering. It goes on to recognize that by cherishing others more than oneself, one ensures the welfare of both oneself (by becoming a buddha) and others (by teaching them the dharma). MahAyAna sutra literature typically assumes that, after generating the bodhicitta, the bodhisattva will require not one, but three "incalculable eons" (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) of time in order to complete all the stages (BHuMI) of the bodhisattva path (MARGA) and achieve buddhahood. The Chinese HUAYAN ZONG noted, however, that the bodhisattva had no compunction about practicing for such an infinity of time, because he realized at the very inception of the path that he was already a fully enlightened buddha. They cite in support of this claim the statement in the "BrahmacaryA" chapter of the AVATAMSAKASuTRA that "at the time of the initial generation of the aspiration for enlightenment (bodhicittotpAda), complete, perfect enlightenment (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAMBODHI) is already achieved."
bodhisaMbhAra. (T. byang chub kyi tshogs; C. puti ju/puti ziliang; J. bodaigu/bodaishiryo; K. pori ku/pori charyang 菩提具/菩提資糧). In Sanskrit, "collection" of, or "equipment" (SAMBHARA) for, "enlightenment" (BODHI); the term refers to specific sets of spiritual requisites (also called "accumulations") necessary for the attainment of awakening. The BODHISATTVA becomes equipped with these factors during his progress along the path (MARGA) leading to the attainment of buddhahood. In a buddha, the amount of this "enlightenment-collection" is understood to be infinite. These factors are often divided into two major groups: the collection of merit (PUnYASAMBHARA) and the collection of knowledge (JNANASAMBHARA). The collection of merit (PUnYA) entails the strengthening of four perfections (PARAMITA): generosity (DANA), morality (sĪLA), patience (KsANTI), and energy (VĪRYA). The collection of knowledge entails the cultivation of meditative states leading to the realization that emptiness (suNYATA) is the ultimate nature of all things. The bodhisaMbhAra were expounded in the *BodhisaMbhAraka, attributed to the MADHYAMAKA exegete NAGARJUNA, which is now extant only in Dharmagupta's 609 CE Chinese translation, titled the Puti ziliang lun. In this treatise, NAgArjuna explains that the acquisition, development, and fruition of these factors is an essentially interminable process: enlightenment will be achieved when these factors have been developed for as many eons as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River (see GAnGANADĪVALUKA). The text also emphasizes the importance of compassion (KARUnA), calling it the mother of perfect wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA). The perfection of wisdom sutras stress that PARInAMANA (turning over [merit]) and ANUMODANA (rejoicing [in the good deeds of others]) are necessary to amass the collection necessary to reach the final goal.
bodhisattva. (P. bodhisatta; T. byang chub sems dpa'; C. pusa; J. bosatsu; K. posal 菩薩). In Sanskrit, lit. "enlightenment being." The etymology is uncertain, but the term is typically glossed to mean a "being (SATTVA) intent on achieving enlightenment (BODHI)," viz., a being who has resolved to become a buddha. In the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS, the Buddha refers to himself in his many past lifetimes prior to his enlightenment as a bodhisattva; the word is thus generally reserved for the historical Buddha prior to his own enlightenment. In the MAHAYANA traditions, by contrast, a bodhisattva can designate any being who resolves to generate BODHICITTA and follow the vehicle of the bodhisattvas (BODHISATTVAYANA) toward the achievement of buddhahood. The MahAyAna denotation of the term first appears in the AstASAHASRIKAPRAJNAPARAMITA, considered one of the earliest MahAyAna sutras, suggesting that it was already in use in this sense by at least the first century BCE. Schools differ on the precise length and constituent stages of the bodhisattva path (MARGA), but generally agree that it encompasses a huge number of lifetimes-according to many presentations, three incalculable eons of time (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA)-during which the bodhisattva develops specific virtues known as perfections (PARAMITA) and proceeds through a series of stages (BHuMI). Although all traditions agree that the bodhisattva is motivated by "great compassion" (MAHAKARUnA) to achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible, Western literature often describes the bodhisattva as someone who postpones his enlightenment in order to save all beings from suffering. This description is primarily relevant to the mainstream schools, where an adherent is said to recognize his ability to achieve the enlightenment of an ARHAT more quickly by following the teachings of a buddha, but chooses instead to become a bodhisattva; by choosing this longer course, he perfects himself over many lifetimes in order to achieve the superior enlightenment of a buddha at a point in the far-distant future when the teachings of the preceding buddha have completely disappeared. In the MahAyAna, the nirvAna of the arhat is disparaged and is regarded as far inferior to buddhahood. Thus, the bodhisattva postpones nothing, instead striving to achieve buddhahood as quickly as possible. In both the mainstream and MahAyana traditions, the bodhisattva, spending his penultimate lifetime in the TUsITA heaven, takes his final rebirth in order to become a buddha and restore the dharma to the world. MAITREYA is the bodhisattva who will succeed the dispensation (sASANA) of the current buddha, GAUTAMA or sAKYAMUNI; he is said to be waiting in the tusita heaven, until the conditions are right for him to take his final rebirth and become the next buddha in the lineage. In the MahAyAna tradition, many bodhisattvas are described as having powers that rival or even surpass those of the buddhas themselves, and come to symbolize specific spiritual qualities, such as AVALOKITEsVARA (the bodhisattva of compassion), MANJUsRĪ (the bodhisattva of wisdom), VAJRAPAnI (the bodhisattva of power), and SAMANTABHADRA (the bodhisattva of extensive practice). In Western literature, these figures are sometimes referred to as "celestial bodhisattvas." ¶ In Korea, the term posal also designates laywomen residents of monasteries, who assist with the menial chores of cooking, preserving food, doing laundry, etc. These posal are often widows or divorcées, who work for the monastery in exchange for room and board for themselves and their children. The posal will often serve the monastery permanently and end up retiring there as well.
Bodhisattva(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word: literally "he whose essence (sattva) has become intelligence (bodhi)." Asexplained exoterically, a bodhisattva means one who in another incarnation or in a few more incarnationswill become a buddha. A bodhisattva from the standpoint of the occult teachings is more than that. Whena man, a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its innerdivinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray -- where, so to say, the personal man has put on thegarments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now -- that man is a bodhisattva. Hishigher principles have nearly reached nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a buddha, a humanbuddha, a manushya-buddha. Obviously, if such a bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnationor in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a manushya-buddha. A buddha, in theesoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached nirvana andremain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine touse popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth outof pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a nirmanakaya. In a very mysticalpart of the esoteric philosophy, a bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a dhyani-buddha orcelestial buddha -- in other words, one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own divinemonad.
Bodhisattva ::: Without delving too deeply into Buddhist philosophy, a Bodhisattva can be thought of as a being that has attained at least some level of enlightenment and has made the compassionate decision to continue causally in the phenomenal world in order to help raise all other beings from states of suffering toward realization and to help elevate and evolve society for the betterment of all beings.
bowel ::: n. --> One of the intestines of an animal; an entrail, especially of man; a gut; -- generally used in the plural.
Hence, figuratively: The interior part of anything; as, the bowels of the earth.
The seat of pity or kindness. Hence: Tenderness; compassion.
Offspring. ::: v. t.
BrahmA. [alt. MahAbrahmA] (T. Tshangs pa; C. Fantian; J. Bonten; K. Pomch'on 梵天). An Indian divinity who was adopted into the Buddhist pantheon as a protector of the teachings (DHARMAPALA) and king of the BRAHMALOKA (in the narrow sense of that term). A particular form of the god BrahmA, called SAHAMPATI, plays a crucial role in the inception of the Buddhist dispensation or teaching (sASANA). During the seven weeks following his enlightenment, the newly awakened buddha GAUTAMA was unsure as to whether he should teach, wondering whether there would be anyone in this world who would be able to duplicate his experience. BrahmA descended to earth and convinced him that there were persons "with little dust in their eyes" who would be able to understand his teachings. The Buddha then surveyed the world to determine the most suitable persons to hear the DHARMA. Seeing that his former meditation teachers had died, he chose the "group of five" (PANCAVARGIKA) and proceeded to ṚsIPATANA, where he taught his first sermon, the "Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANASuTRA; P. DHAMMACAKKAPPAVATTANASUTTA). Because of this intervention, BrahmA is considered one of the main dharmapAlas. BUDDHAGHOSA explains, however, that the compassionate Buddha never had any hesitation about teaching the dharma but felt that if he were implored by the god BrahmA, who was revered in the world, it would lend credence to his mission. BrahmA is depicted with four faces and four arms, and his primary attributes are the lotus and the CAKRA. The figure of BrahmA also fused with early Indian BODHISATTVAs such as PADMAPAnI (AVALOKITEsVARA). In Tibet the dharmapAla TSHANGS PA DKAR PO is a fusion of BrahmA and PE HAR RGYAL PO.
brahmavihAra. (T. tshangs pa'i gnas; C. fanzhu; J. bonju; K. pomju 梵住). In Sanskrit and PAli, "divine abidings," or "highest religious state." This is a classification of four meditative topics used for the cultivation of tranquility meditation (sAMATHA): loving-kindness (MAITRĪ; P. mettA), compassion (KARUnA), empathetic joy (MUDITA), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKsA; P. upekkhA). The meditator is taught to take up each of the divine abidings in the same way: starting with the first brahmavihAra, for example, filling his mind with loving-kindness, he pervades the world with it, first in one direction; then in a second direction; then a third and a fourth; then above, below, and all around; always identifying himself with all beings and keeping himself free from hatred and ill will. In the same way, he develops compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. These four factors are taken up as objects of meditation to counter the influence of specific unwholesome (AKUsALA) states of mind: viz., loving-kindness counteracts hostility (VYAPADA), compassion counters harmfulness (VIHIMSA), empathetic joy counters dissatisfaction or envy regarding others achievements (arati), and equanimity counters both the desire and hostility arising from sensuality (kAmarAgavyApAda) as well as the desire to win the approval of others (anunaya). Of these divine abidings, the first three are capable of producing the first three of the four meditative absorptions (DHYANA); the fourth divine abiding is the only one capable of producing the fourth meditative absorption. The four divine abidings are listed in the VISUDDHIMAGGA as four of the forty meditative topics (KAMMAttHANA) that may be pursued by the meditator. The Visuddhimagga notes they are useful only for the cultivation of tranquility (P. samatha; S. samatha), and not for the cultivation of insight (P. VIPASSANA; S. VIPAsYANA). Taken as objects of concentration and extended in meditation to all beings without limit, the divine abidings also come to be known as the "boundless states" (APRAMAnA).
'Brom ston Rgyal ba'i 'byung gnas. (Dromton Gyalwe Jungne) (1004-1064). The foremost Tibetan disciple of the Bengali scholar ATIsA, and central figure in the founding of the BKA' GDAMS sect of Tibetan Buddhism during the period known as the later dissemination (PHYI DAR) of Buddhism in Tibet. Born in central Tibet, he began his education at an early age. Toward the middle years of his life, news of Atisa's arrival in western Tibet reached him, and he set out on the arduous journey to meet the master. 'Brom ston pa became an early and close student of Atisa and made arrangements for his Indian guru's tour of central Tibet in 1045. After Atisa's death, 'Brom ston pa established RWA SGRENG monastery in 1056, consolidating his career as translator and teacher at this important religious institution. He is remembered especially for the firm austerity of his religious practice. 'Brom ston pa's instructions, as recorded in Bka' gdams pa works such as the Bka' gdams gtor bu ("Bka' gdams Miscellania"), perhaps wary of the potential abuses of tantric practice, instead emphasize meditation on impermanence and compassion coupled with adherence to strict ethical principles and monastic discipline.
Brotherhood of Compassion. See HIERARCHY OF COMPASSION; MAHATMA
Buddhabhumisutra. (T. Sangs rgyas kyi sa'i mdo; C. Fodi jing; J. Butsujikyo; K. Pulchi kyong 佛地經). In Sanskrit, "Scripture on the Stage of Buddhahood," an important MAHAYANA scripture on the experience of enlightenment. The sutra begins with a description of the PURE LAND in which the scripture is taught and its audience of BODHISATTVAs, mahAsrAvakas, and MAHASATTVAs. The text goes on to describe the five factors that exemplify the stage of buddhahood (buddhabhumi). The first of these is (1) the wisdom of the DHARMADHATU, which is likened to space (AKAsA) itself, in that it is all-pervasive and uncontained. The next two factors are (2) mirror-like wisdom, or great perfect mirror wisdom (ADARsAJNANA), in which the perfect interfusion between all things is seen as if reflected in a great mirror, and (3) the wisdom of equality, or impartial wisdom (SAMATAJNANA), which transcends all dichotomies to see everything impartially without coloring by the ego. The scripture then describes (4) the wisdom of specific knowledge (PRATYAVEKsAnAJNANA) and (5) the wisdom of having accomplished what was to be done (KṚTYANUstHANAJNANA), both of which are attained as a result of the subsequently attained wisdom (TATPṚstHALABDHAJNANA); these two types of knowledge clarify that the dharmadhAtu is a realm characterized by both emptiness (suNYATA) and compassion (KARUnA). Finally, similes are offered to elucidate the nature of these wisdoms. The Chinese translation, in one roll, was made by XUANZANG and his translation team in 645 CE. In tantric Buddhism, these five wisdoms or knowledges (JNANA) are linked with the five "buddha families" (see PANCATATHAGATA).
buddhakula. (T. sangs rgyas rigs; C. rulai jia; J. nyoraike; K. yorae ka 如來家). In Sanskrit, "buddha family"; synonymous with GOTRA ("lineage"); buddhakula and gotra, like BUDDHADHATU and TATHAGATAGARBHA refer to the potential inherent in all sentient beings to achieve buddhahood. The RATNAGOTRAVIBHAGA describes a confluence of three necessary factors: the altruistic effort that buddhas make out of their great compassion (MAHAKARUnA) to disseminate their doctrines; the ultimate nature of beings that is purified of any essential defilement; and, last, buddhakula or gotra, i.e., belonging to a lineage that does not lead to endless rebirth or to a final end in the limited NIRVAnA of HĪNAYANA adepts, but rather to the royal state of a buddha. The defining mark of the buddhakula is the seed of great compassion (mahAkarunA). Because of the confluence of these three factors, all beings are said to have the TATHAGATAGARBHA, which in this interpretation of the compound means the womb or embryo of a tathAgata. In tantric Buddhism, there are typically five (but sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on the tantra) buddha families (see PANCAJINA, PANCATATHAGATA), the families of VAIROCANA, AKsOBHYA, RATNASAMBHAVA, AMITABHA, and AMOGHASIDDHI. These buddhas (regarded as the final purification and transformation of the five SKANDHAs) are the forms in which adepts with differing personality types, those in whom the five KLEsAs of delusion (MOHA), hatred (DVEsA), pride (MANA), desire (RAGA), and jealousy (ĪRsYA), respectively, predominate, reach the goal. The five buddha families are also connected with the five YOGACARA knowledges or wisdoms (JNANA) (see BUDDHABHuMISuTRA; PANCAJNANA).
Buddha of Compassion One who, having gained the right to nirvana, renounces it to return to help all living beings. “They are men who have raised themselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, the light of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the human soul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry and selfish: through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words, through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becoming god-men, man-gods — human divinities.
Buddha(Sanskrit) ::: The past participle of the root budh, meaning "to perceive," "to become cognizant of," also "toawaken," and "to recover consciousness." It signifies one who is spiritually awakened, no longer living"the living death" of ordinary men, but awakened to the spiritual influence from within or from "above."When man has awakened from the living death in which ordinary mortals live, when he has cast off thetoils of both mind and flesh and, to use the old Christian term, has put on the garments of eternity, thenhe has awakened, he is a buddha. He has become one with -- not "absorbed" as is constantly translatedbut has become one with -- the Self of selves, with the paramatman, the Supreme Self. (See also Bodhi,Buddhi)A buddha in the esoteric teaching is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more in thismanvantara; they have reached nirvana and remain there. This does not mean, however, that the lowercenters of consciousness of a buddha are in nirvana, for the contrary is true; and it is this fact that enablesa Buddha of Compassion to remain in the lower realms of being as mankind's supreme guide andinstructor, living usually as a nirmanakaya.
Buddha(s) of Compassion ::: One who, having won all, gained all -- gained the right to kosmic peace and bliss -- renounces it so thathe may return as a Son of Light in order to help humanity, and indeed all that is.The Buddhas of Compassion are the noblest flowers of the human race. They are men who have raisedthemselves from humanity into quasi-divinity; and this is done by letting the light imprisoned within, thelight of the inner god, pour forth and manifest itself through the humanity of the man, through the humansoul of the man. Through sacrifice and abandoning of all that is mean and wrong, ignoble and paltry andselfish; through opening up the inner nature so that the god within may shine forth; in other words,through self-directed evolution, they have raised themselves from mere manhood into becominggod-men, man-gods -- human divinities.They are called Buddhas of Compassion because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feelintimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, untilfinally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because itis at one with the universe. "The dewdrop slips into the shining sea" -- its origin.Feeling the urge of almighty love in their hearts, the Buddhas of Compassion advance forever steadilytowards still greater heights of spiritual achievement; and the reason is that they have become thevehicles of universal love and universal wisdom. As impersonal love is universal, their whole natureexpands consequently with the universal powers that are working through them. The Buddhas ofCompassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from theSilent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and evenbeyond themselves to their chelas or disciples. Spiritually and mystically they contrast strongly withwhat Asiatic occultism, through the medium of Buddhism, has called the Pratyeka Buddhas.
buddha. (T. sangs rgyas; C. fo; J. butsu/hotoke; K. pul 佛). In Sanskrit and PAli, "awakened one" or "enlightened one"; an epithet derived from the Sanskrit root √budh, meaning "to awaken" or "to open up" (as does a flower) and thus traditionally etymologized as one who has awakened from the deep sleep of ignorance and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge. The term was used in ancient India by a number of different religious groups, but came to be most strongly associated with followers of the teacher GAUTAMA, the "Sage of the sAKYA Clan" (sAKYAMUNI), who claimed to be only the most recent of a succession of buddhas who had appeared in the world over many eons of time (KALPA). In addition to sAkyamuni, there are many other buddhas named in Buddhist literature, from various lists of buddhas of the past, present, and future, to "buddhas of the ten directions" (dasadigbuddha), viz., everywhere. Although the precise nature of buddhahood is debated by the various schools, a buddha is a person who, in the far distant past, made a previous vow (PuRVAPRAnIDHANA) to become a buddha in order to reestablish the dispensation or teaching (sASANA) at a time when it was lost to the world. The path to buddhahood is much longer than that of the ARHAT-as many as three incalculable eons of time (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) in some computations-because of the long process of training over the BODHISATTVA path (MARGA), involving mastery of the six or ten "perfections" (PARAMITA). Buddhas can remember both their past lives and the past lives of all sentient beings, and relate events from those past lives in the JATAKA and AVADANA literature. Although there is great interest in the West in the "biography" of Gautama or sAkyamuni Buddha, the early tradition seemed intent on demonstrating his similarity to the buddhas of the past rather than his uniqueness. Such a concern was motivated in part by the need to demonstrate that what the Buddha taught was not the innovation of an individual, but rather the rediscovery of a timeless truth (what the Buddha himself called "an ancient path" [S. purAnamArga, P. purAnamagga]) that had been discovered in precisely the same way, since time immemorial, by a person who undertook the same type of extended preparation. In this sense, the doctrine of the existence of past buddhas allowed the early Buddhist community to claim an authority similar to that of the Vedas of their Hindu rivals and of the JAINA tradition of previous tīrthankaras. Thus, in their biographies, all of the buddhas of the past and future are portrayed as doing many of the same things. They all sit cross-legged in their mother's womb; they are all born in the "middle country" (madhyadesa) of the continent of JAMBUDVĪPA; immediately after their birth they all take seven steps to the north; they all renounce the world after seeing the four sights (CATURNIMITTA; an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a mendicant) and after the birth of a son; they all achieve enlightenment seated on a bed of grass; they stride first with their right foot when they walk; they never stoop to pass through a door; they all establish a SAMGHA; they all can live for an eon if requested to do so; they never die before their teaching is complete; they all die after eating meat. Four sites on the earth are identical for all buddhas: the place of enlightenment, the place of the first sermon that "turns the wheel of the dharma" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA), the place of descending from TRAYASTRIMsA (heaven of the thirty-three), and the place of their bed in JETAVANA monastery. Buddhas can differ from each other in only eight ways: life span, height, caste (either brAhmana or KsATRIYA), the conveyance by which they go forth from the world, the period of time spent in the practice of asceticism prior to their enlightenment, the kind of tree they sit under on the night of their enlightenment, the size of their seat there, and the extent of their aura. In addition, there are twelve deeds that all buddhas (dvAdasabuddhakArya) perform. (1) They descend from TUsITA heaven for their final birth; (2) they enter their mother's womb; (3) they take birth in LUMBINĪ Garden; (4) they are proficient in the worldly arts; (5) they enjoy the company of consorts; (6) they renounce the world; (7) they practice asceticism on the banks of the NAIRANJANA River; (8) they go to the BODHIMAndA; (9) they subjugate MARA; (10) they attain enlightenment; (11) they turn the wheel of the dharma; and (12) they pass into PARINIRVAnA. They all have a body adorned with the thirty-two major marks (LAKsAnA; MAHAPURUsALAKsAnA) and the eighty secondary marks (ANUVYANJANA) of a great man (MAHAPURUsA). They all have two bodies: a physical body (RuPAKAYA) and a body of qualities (DHARMAKAYA; see BUDDHAKAYA). These qualities of a buddha are accepted by the major schools of Buddhism. It is not the case, as is sometimes suggested, that the buddha of the mainstream traditions is somehow more "human" and the buddha in the MAHAYANA somehow more "superhuman"; all Buddhist traditions relate stories of buddhas performing miraculous feats, such as the sRAVASTĪ MIRACLES described in mainstream materials. Among the many extraordinary powers of the buddhas are a list of "unshared factors" (AVEnIKA[BUDDHA]DHARMA) that are unique to them, including their perfect mindfulness and their inability ever to make a mistake. The buddhas have ten powers specific to them that derive from their unique range of knowledge (for the list, see BALA). The buddhas also are claimed to have an uncanny ability to apply "skill in means" (UPAYAKAUsALYA), that is, to adapt their teachings to the specific needs of their audience. This teaching role is what distinguishes a "complete and perfect buddha" (SAMYAKSAMBUDDHA) from a "solitary buddha" (PRATYEKABUDDHA) who does not teach: a solitary buddha may be enlightened but he neglects to develop the great compassion (MAHAKARUnA) that ultimately prompts a samyaksaMbuddha to seek to lead others to liberation. The MahAyAna develops an innovative perspective on the person of a buddha, which it conceived as having three bodies (TRIKAYA): the DHARMAKAYA, a transcendent principle that is sometimes translated as "truth body"; an enjoyment body (SAMBHOGAKAYA) that is visible only to advanced bodhisattvas in exalted realms; and an emanation body (NIRMAnAKAYA) that displays the deeds of a buddha to the world. Also in the MahAyAna is the notion of a universe filled with innumerable buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA), the most famous of these being SUKHAVATĪ of AmitAbha. Whereas the mainstream traditions claim that the profundity of a buddha is so great that a single universe can only sustain one buddha at any one time, MahAyAna SuTRAs often include scenes of multiple buddhas appearing together. See also names of specific buddhas, including AKsOBHYA, AMITABHA, AMOGHASIDDHI, RATNASAMBHAVA, VAIROCANA. For indigenous language terms for buddha, see FO (C); HOTOKE (J); PHRA PHUTTHA JAO (Thai); PUCH'o(NIM) (K); SANGS RGYAS (T).
“Canst thou destroy divine compassion? . . . Compassion is no attribute. It is the LAW of laws — eternal Harmony, Alaya’s SELF; a shoreless universal essence, the light of everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.
Catuḥsataka. (T. Bzhi brgya pa; C. Guang Bai lun ben; J. Kohyakuronpon; K. Kwang Paengnon pon 廣百論本). In Sanskrit, "Four Hundred [Stanzas]"; the magnum opus of ARYADEVA, a third century CE Indian monk of the MADHYAMAKA school of MAHAYANA philosophy and the chief disciple of NAGARJUNA, the founder of that tradition. The four-hundred verses are divided into sixteen chapters of twenty-five stanzas each, which cover many of the seminal teachings of Madhyamaka philosophy. The first four of the sixteen chapters are dedicated to arguments against erroneous conceptions of permanence, satisfaction, purity, and a substantial self. In chapter 5, Aryadeva discusses the career of a BODHISATTVA, emphasizing the necessity for compassion (KARUnA) in all of the bodhisattva's actions. Chapter 6 is a treatment of the three afflictions (KLEsA) of greed or sensuality (LOBHA or RAGA), hatred or aversion (DVEsA), and delusion (MOHA). Chapter 7 explains the need to reject sensual pleasures. In chapter 8, Aryadeva discusses the proper conduct and attitude of a student of the TATHAGATA's teaching. Chapters 9 through 15 contain a series of arguments refuting the erroneous views of other Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools. These refutations center on Aryadeva's understanding of emptiness (suNYATA) as the fundamental characteristic of reality. For example, in chapter 9, Aryadeva argues against the conception that anything, including liberation, is permanent and independent of causes. In chapter 11, Aryadeva argues against the SARVASTIVADA claim that dharmas exist in reality in the past, present, and future. Chapter 16, the final chapter, is a discussion of emptiness and its centrality to the Madhyamaka school and its doctrine. There is a lengthy and influential commentary on the text by CANDRAKĪRTI, entitled CatuḥsatakatīkA; its full title is BodhisattvayogacaryAcatuḥsatakatīkA. The Catuḥsataka was translated into Chinese by XUANZANG and his translation team at DACI'ENSI, in either 647 or 650-651 CE. The work is counted as one of the "three treatises" of the Chinese SAN LUN ZONG, where it is treated as Aryadeva's own expansion of his *sATAsASTRA (C. BAI LUN; "One Hundred Treatise"); hence, the Chinese instead translates the title as "Expanded Text on the One Hundred [Verse] Treatise." Some have speculated, to the contrary, that the satasAstra is an abbreviated version of the Catuḥsataka. The two works consider many of the same topics, including the nature of NIRVAnA and the meaning of emptiness in a similar fashion and both refute SAMkhya and Vaisesika positions, but the order of their treatment of these topics and their specific contents differ; the satasAstra also contains material not found in the Catuḥsataka. It is, therefore, safer to presume that these are two independent texts, not that one is a summary or expansion of the other. It is possible that the satasAstra represents KumArajīva's interpretation of the Catuḥsataka, but this is difficult to determine without further clarity on the Indian text that KumArajīva translated.
Catuḥstava. (T. Bstod pa bzhi). In Sanskrit, "Four Songs of Praise"; a set of four devotional hymns attributed to the Indian monk NAGARJUNA, the founder of the MADHYAMAKA school of MAHAYANA philosophy. More than four such hymns have survived, so it is uncertain which were the original four. The four hymns now included in this set are entitled LOKATĪTASTAVA ("Hymn to He Who Transcends the World"), NIRAUPAMYASTAVA ("Hymn to He Who Is Unequaled"), ACINTYASTAVA ("Hymn to the Inconceivable"), and PARAMARTHASTAVA ("Hymn to the Ultimate"). These verses are addressed to the Buddha himself, in honor of his virtues and various aspects of his enlightenment. The author praises the Buddha for his supreme insight, his compassion, and his efforts to awaken all beings. The hymns also contain many important aspects of the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. For example, verses five through ten of the LokAtītastava are used to explain the interdependence, and therefore inessential nature, of each of the five aggregates (SKANDHA).
Celestial Order of Beings Hierarchies of creative powers of various orders; in The Secret Doctrine (1:213) seven orders of celestial beings or creative powers are described: 1) Divine Flames, Fiery Lions, or Lions of Life (symbolized by the sign Leo), the nucleole of the superior divine world; formless Fiery Breaths, identical in one aspect with the upper Sephirothal triad which is placed in the archetypal world; 2) those of fire and aether, corresponding to atma-buddhi, formless but somewhat less spiritual and more ethereal; 3) those which correspond to atma-buddhi-manas, the triads; 4) ethereal entities, the highest rupa group, the nursery of human conscious spiritual souls, the imperishable jivas; 5) connected with the microcosmic pentagon, the crocodile, Capricorn contains the dual attributes of both spiritual and physical aspects of the universe, and dual human nature; 6) and 7) partake of the lower qualities of the quaternary, conscious ethereal entities, invisible, giving rise to numerous orders of nature spirits and spirits of atoms. See also HIERARCHIES; HIERARCHY OF COMPASSION
Changlu Zongze. (J. Choro Sosaku; K. Changno Chongsaek 長蘆宗賾) (d.u.; fl. c. late eleventh to early twelfth centuries). Chinese CHAN monk of the YUNMEN ZONG. Little is known about his life, but Changlu is said to have been a native of Yongnian in Luozhou, in present-day Henan province. Changlu also seems to have had a close relation to the disciples of Tianyi Yihuai (993-1064), himself a disciple of the Yunmen Chan master XUEDOU CHONGXUAN. Changlu eventually became a student of Tianyi's disciples Fayun Faxiu (1027-1090) and Changlu Yingfu (d.u.), and later inherited the latter's lineage. Changlu Zongze is most famous for his compilation of the influential text on Chan monastic regulations or "rules of purity" (QINGGUI), the CHANYUAN QINGGUI, during his tenure at the Chan monastery Hongji chanyuan in 1103. When a revised edition of the Chanyuan qinggui was published in 1202, the meditation manual ZUOCHAN YI, probably composed by Changlu or his colleagues, was included. Changlu is also remembered as a PURE LAND adept renowned for his rigorous practice of NIANFO, the recitation of the name of the buddha AMITABHA. He later moved to Changlu in present-day Jiangxi province, whence he acquired his toponym. Changlu was later given the title Chan master Cijue (Compassionate Enlightenment).
Charon (Greek) Ferryman of the Styx in Hades, the son of Erebos (darkness) and either Nux (night) or the Styx; equivalent to the Egyptian Khu-en-ua, the hawk-headed steersman who conveys souls across the black waters that separate life from death. Originally Mercury guided the souls to the underworld, but later Charon was said to ferry souls across who had a coin, put in their mouth at death by their relatives, and who had been properly buried. Hades is kama-loka, entered not only by the shades of the departed but by candidates for initiation, and by high adepts who enter the underworld at certain times on missions of compassion, as Jesus is stated to have descended into Hell.
cheshwarabhavah sarvakarmasamarthyam) ::: heroism, impetuosity, the urge towards battle, loud laughter, compassion, sovereignty, capacity for all action: the four specific attributes of Mahakali and the three attributes common to all four aspects of daivi prakr.ti. savaso napatah savaso
Chitkala (Sanskrit) Citkala [from cit abstract thought or consciousness + the verbal root kal to urge on, impel, stimulate] The inciters or stimulators of consciousness or intelligent thought; manasaputras. The spiritual beings who, during the course of the early and middle third root-race, furnished humanity with the higher manasic element from their own essence; hence one of the guardian spirits of the human race. Because the chitkalas or kaumarika manasaputras belong to the Hierarchy of Light or Compassion, they have frequently been allied with what the Chinese call Kwan-Yin, the goddess of mercy or pity, who may be called the feminine aspect of the cosmic Third Logos.
Choice, Moment of In theosophical literature, the point when the individual, on becoming a buddha, must decide either to renounce the world and its suffering and enter nirvana as a Pratyeka Buddha, or to return as a Buddha of Compassion to help others until all living beings reach nirvana. This decision will be determined by the aspirations and motives of the individual over many lives.
Cimin Huiri. (J. Jimin Enichi; K. Chamin Hyeil 慈愍慧日) (680-748). Founder of the Cimin lineage of Chinese PURE LAND Buddhism. Inspired by his meeting with the pilgrim and translator YIJING (635-713), Huiri also traveled to India between 702 and 719, where he is said to have studied with Indian teachers about SUKHAVATĪ, the pure land of AMITABHA and had a vision in which the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA personally instructed him in pure land teachings. After Huiri returned to China, he taught an ecumenical approach to pure land practice, which combined the practices of meditation, recitation, and discipline. Because Huiri's approach differs markedly from that offered by LUSHAN HUIYUAN (334-416) and TANLUAN (476-542), his teachings are sometimes considered to constitute a separate Cimin line of the Chinese pure land tradition. Huiri also made a concerted effort to respond to critiques of pure land practice made by adepts within the CHAN ZONG, who disparaged the pure land approach as an expedient intended for spiritually inferior practitioners. The Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756) bestowed on Huiri the posthumous title of Cimin Sanzang (TREPItAKA Compassionate Sympathy) for his service in transmitting the pure land teaching. Cimin's combination of recitation of the Buddha's name (NIANFO) with meditation subsequently influenced the nianfo Chan of YONGMING YANSHOU (904-975).
clement ::: a. --> Mild in temper and disposition; merciful; compassionate.
commiseration ::: n. --> The act of commiserating; sorrow for the wants, afflictions, or distresses of another; pity; compassion.
compassionable ::: a. --> Deserving compassion or pity; pitiable.
compassion ::: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. compassion"s.
compassionate ::: a. --> Having a temper or disposition to pity; sympathetic; merciful.
Complaining; inviting pity; pitiable. ::: v. t. --> To have compassion for; to pity; to commiserate; to sympathize with.
compassionated ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Compassionate
compassionately ::: adv. --> In a compassionate manner; mercifully.
compassionateness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being compassionate.
compassionate
compassionating ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Compassionate
compassion ::: n. --> Literally, suffering with another; a sensation of sorrow excited by the distress or misfortunes of another; pity; commiseration. ::: v. t. --> To pity.
compassion. See KARUnA.
compassion
COMPASSION There is the Dtvme Compassion acting on as many as it can reach throuch the nets of the Law (cosmic or of Karma) and giving them tbcir chance
Cosmic kama or desire, equivalent to the Greek eros, is the source of fohat, the driving intelligent energies of the universe. It is impersonal compassion and sympathy.
CulAssapurasutta. (C. Mayi jing; J. Meyukyo; K. Maŭp kyong 馬邑經). In PAli, "Shorter Discourse at Assapura"; the fortieth sutta in the MAJJHIMANIKAYA (a separate SARVASTIVADA recension appears as the 183rd sutra in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMAGAMA); preached by the Buddha to a group of monks dwelling in the market town of Assapura in the country of the Angans. The people of Assapura were greatly devoted to the Buddha, the DHARMA, and the SAMGHA and were especially generous in their support of the community of monks. In recognition of their generosity, the Buddha advised his monks that the true path of the recluse is not concerned with mere outward purification through austerities but rather with inward purification through freedom from passion and mental defilements. The dedicated monk should therefore devote himself to the path laid down by the Buddha until he has abandoned twelve unwholesome states of mind: (1) covetousness, (2) ill will, (3) anger, (4) resentment, (5) contempt, (6) insolence, (7) envy, (8) greed, (9) fraud, (10) deceit, (11) evil wishes, and (12) wrong view. Having abandoned these twelve, the monk should then strive to cultivate the divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHARA) of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; through those virtues, the monk attains inner peace and thereby practices the true path of the recluse.
Dabei zhou. (J. Daihiju; K. Taebi chu 大悲咒). In Chinese, "Great Compassion Spell," also known as the Qianshou zhou; an esoteric code (DHARAnĪ) associated with the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA in his guise as MAHAKARUnIKA, which is widely used liturgically in East Asian Buddhism, especially in funeral ceremonies. See the extensive treatment of this dhAranī in QIANSHOU JING, s.v.
Daci'ensi. (J. Daijionji; K. Taejaŭnsa 大慈恩寺). In Chinese, the "Beneficence of Great Compassion Monastery" or "Great Maternal Grace Monastery"; a major scholastic center during the Sui and Tang dynasties, located in the imperial capital of Chang'an (present-day Xi'an). Originally founded in 589 CE during the Sui dynasty as Wulousi (Free of Contaminants Monastery), it was later rebuilt in 648 CE during the Tang by the prince who would later become the Gaozong emperor (r. 649-683). The monastery was rebuilt to honor the prince's deceased mother, Empress Wende (601-636 CE), in whose memory it was given its new name. The monastery became best known as the base for the translation bureau established by the pilgrim and scholar XUANZANG (600/602-664 CE) and his collaborators, including WoNCH'ŬK (C. Yuance) and KUIJI. At the monastery, Xuanzang and his team translated much of the scholastic literature of Indian Buddhism, including the ABHIDHARMAMAHAVIBHAsA, *ABHIDHARMANYAYANUSARA, NYAYAMUKHA, and CHENG WEISHI LUN. In 652 CE, Xuanzang commissioned a pagoda, named the DAYAN TA (Great Wild Goose Pagoda), in order to house the numerous Sanskrit manuscripts and Buddhist images he had brought back with him from his sojourn in India; the originally five-story stone pagoda is still a major tourist attraction in Xi'an.
Dalai Lama. (T. DA la'i bla ma). An honorific title given to members of a prominent Tibetan incarnation (SPRUL SKU) lineage belonging to the DGE LUGS sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lamas are traditionally revered as earthly manifestations of AVALOKITEsVARA, the BODHISATTVA of compassion and protector of Tibet. Although the term has become widely known outside the region, Tibetans most frequently refer to the Dalai Lama as Rgyal ba rin po che (Gyalwa Rinpoche) "Precious Conqueror," Sku mdun (Kundun) "The Presence," or Yid bzhin nor bu (Yishin Norbu) "Wish-fulfilling Gem." The name originated during the sixteenth century when ALTAN KHAN, ruler of the Tümed Mongols, bestowed the title on the Dge lugs teacher BSOD NAMS RGYA MTSHO by translating the prelate's name rgya mtsho ("ocean") into Mongolian as dalai. The name thus approximately means "ocean teacher." It is not the case, as is often reported, that the Dalai Lamas are so named because their wisdom is as vast as the ocean. After Bsod nams rgya mtsho, all subsequent incarnations have rgya mtsho as the second component of their name. At the time of his meeting with the Altan Khan, Bsod nams rgya mtsho was already a recognized incarnate lama of the Dge lugs. Bsod nams rgya mtsho became the third Dalai Lama and two of his previous incarnations were posthumously recognized as the first and second holders of the lineage. From that time onward, successive incarnations have all been known as the Dalai Lama. Although writings outside Tibet often describe the Dalai Lama as the head of the Dge lugs sect, that position is held by a figure called the DGA' LDAN KHRI PA, the "Throneholder of Ganden Monastery." The fourteen Dalai Lamas are:
Đạo Hạnh. (道行) (died 1117). Vietnamese monk, popularly known as Từ Đạo Hạnh; CHAN master and thaumaturge, whose miraculous exploits have captured the imagination of Vietnamese Buddhists for centuries. His personal name was Từ Lộ. The Thièn Uyẻn Tập Anh relates that as a young man he was a free spirit who harbored great aspirations. He befriended people of various social backgrounds and was a serious student, passing the royal examination for tăng quan (monk officers). After his father was killed by a sorcerer, Đạo Hạnh went to Mount Từ Sơn to live in seclusion and devoted himself to chanting the "Great Compassion" DHARAnĪ (see DABEI ZHOU) daily. After chanting it 108,000 times, he gained magical powers and avenged his father's death. He later began to wander to various Buddhist monasteries in search of enlightenment; eventually, under the guidance of Sùng Phạm (1004-1087), he gained realization. He is said to have tamed mountain snakes and wild beasts, burned his finger to pray for rain, and blessed water with mantras to cure disease. It is believed that Đạo Hạnh used his magical powers to reincarnate himself as the son of King Lý Nhan Tông (r. 1072-1127) and was eventually enthroned as King Lý Thàn Tông (r. 1128-1138). In northern Vietnam, the story of Đạo Hạnh is still reenacted during festivals.
daya ::: compassion; "oneness, a participating sympathy, a free idendaya tity, with all energies in all beings and therefore a spontaneous and fruitful harmony with all the divine will in the universe", a quality common to the four aspects of daivi prakr.ti. daya isvarabhavah. karmasamarthyam (daya ishwarabhavah kardaya
daya isvarabhavah. sarvakarmasamarthyam ::: compassion, soverdaya eignty, capacity for all action (the attributes common to all four aspects of daivi prakr.ti).
daya. ::: mercy; compassion; empathy; conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings
Daya: Mercy; compassion.
dayā ::: sympathy, compassion, pity; mercy, clemency; kindness.
dharmakāya. (T. chos sku; C. fashen; J. hosshin; K. popsin 法身). In Sanskrit, often translated as "truth body," one of the two (along with the RuPAKĀYA) or three (along with the SAMBHOGAKĀYA and NIRMĀnAKĀYA) bodies of a buddha. In early discussions of the true nature of the Buddha, especially regarding the person of the Buddha to whom one goes for refuge (sARAnA), the term dharmakāya seems to have been coined to refer to the corpus or collection (KĀYA) of the auspicious qualities (DHARMA) of the Buddha, including his wisdom, his compassion, his various powers, etc.; it also referred to the entire corpus (kāya) of the Buddha's teachings (dharma). In the MAHĀYĀNA, the term evolved into a kind of cosmic principle that was regarded as the true nature of the Buddha and the source from which his various other forms derived. In the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ) commentarial tradition, a dispute arose over the interpretation of the eighth chapter of the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA, with VIMUKTISENA arguing that the SVĀBHĀVAKĀYA is the ultimate nature of a buddha and HARIBHADRA arguing that there are two aspects of the dharmakāya: a JNĀNADHARMAKĀYA (knowledge truth body), i.e., the nondual omniscient knowledge of a buddha, and a svābhāvakāya. Later commentators in India and Tibet explored the ramifications of this distinction at length. See also TRIKĀYA.
Dhyani-bodhisattva (Sanskrit) Dhyāni-bodhisattva [from the verbal root dhyai to meditate, contemplate + bodhisattva he whose essence is bodhi (wisdom)] A bodhisattva of meditation or contemplation; the sixth in the descending series of the Hierarchy of Compassion, the mind-born sons of the dhyani-buddhas.
Dhyani-buddha (Sanskrit) Dhyāni-buddha [from the verbal root dhyai to meditate, contemplate + buddha awakened one] Buddhas of contemplation or meditation; the fifth in the descending series in the enumeration of the Hierarchy of Compassion. Two general hierarchies of spiritual beings brought forth our cosmos: the dhyani-buddhas or architects who in their aggregate form the higher and more spiritual side, and actually compose the line of the luminous arc; and the dhyani-chohans or the builders or constructors who form the lower and relatively more material side, the line (from this viewpoint only) of the shadowy arc. Often the term dhyani-chohans is used for both these lines of beings.
Dpal sprul Rin po che. (Patrul Rinpoche) (1808-1887). One of the most important teachers of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism during the nineteenth century, famous for his great humility and simple lifestyle. Recognized as an incarnate lama (SPRUL SKU) while a child, Dpal sprul Rin po che trained under the great ascetic 'Jigs med rgyal ba'i myu gu (Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu), himself a disciple of the renowned treasure revealer (GTER STON) 'JIGS MED GLING PA, from whom he received instructions on the KLONG CHEN SNYING THIG, "Heart Essence of the Great Expanse." He later studied with many other great masters, including MDO MKHYEN RTSE YE SHES RDO RJE, mind emanation (thugs sprul) of 'Jigs med gling pa. Although he established himself as one of the foremost scholars of his time, Dpal sprul Rin po che emulated the renunciate lifestyle of his masters, wandering from place to place with few possessions, often in the guise of an ordinary beggar. He was known for his exceptional kindness, treating both king and pauper with equal compassion. The author of numerous commentaries and treatises on Buddhist philosophy and doctrine, he is perhaps best known for his KUN BZANG BLA MA'I ZHAL LUNG ("Words of My Perfect Teacher"), an explanation of the preliminary practices of the klong chen snying thig. Together with other great lamas of eastern Tibet, Dpal sprul Rin po che was also an active participant in the so-called RIS MED (nonsectarian) movement, which sought to cut through the rampant sectarian controversies of the time. According to one account, when asked what religious affiliation he maintained, Dpal sprul Rinpoche famously remarked that he was only a follower of the Buddha. He is also known as Rdza Dpal sprul (Dza Patrul) and O rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po.
Ekādasamukhāvalokitesvara. (T. Spyan ras gzigs bcu gcig zhal; C. Shiyimian Guanyin; J. Juichimen Kannon; K. Sibilmyon Kwanŭm 十一面觀音). In Sanskrit, "Eleven-Headed AVALOKITEsVARA," one of the most common iconographic forms of the BODHISATTVA of compassion. While theories abound about why he has eleven heads, it is likely that the ten small bodhisattva heads topped by a buddha head represent the ten stages (DAsABHuMI) of the bodhisattva path, along with the final attainment of buddhahood. The facial expressions of these heads range from kind to ferocious and were meant to symbolize the bodhisattva's various abilities to destroy illusions and help all sentient beings attain liberation. According to legend, Avalokitesvara was so exhausted and desperate after trying to save innumerable beings that his skull shattered. AMITĀBHA came to help him and formed new heads from the pieces, which he then arranged on AVALOKITEsVARA's head like a crown, finally putting an image of his own head at the very top. While this eleven-headed form is frequently found in later Buddhist art in Tibet, Nepal, and East Asia, an image from the Indian cave site of KĀNHERI is the only extant artistic evidence that this iconographic form is originally of Indian provenance.
er de. (J. nitoku; K. i tok 二德). In Chinese, "dual virtues" or "two meritorious qualities." There are at least three different sets of "dual virtues": (1) the virtue of wisdom (zhi de) and the virtue of cessation (duan de) (e.g., of ignorance, suffering, and the fetters), (2) the virtue of wisdom (zhi de) and the virtue of compassion (bei de), (3) virtues that are inherent (xing de, i.e., those inherent in one's buddha-nature, or FOXING) and virtues that are cultivated (xiu de).
Eros; This is the love that comes from the desire to reunite. It is a passion contrast with agape which is compassion). Eros originates when the Demiurge sees "light Adam" or the primal man (see Anthropos).
Esoteric School. See HIERARCHY OF COMPASSION; MAHATMA
Fallen Angels Those cosmic entities or dhyanis of various classes who in the course of their evolution descended into matter in order to form and inform the lower worlds. In doing so they rebelled in a purely mystical sense against spirit or heaven, asserting individual free will and divine love. Their act is in part one of compassion and self-sacrifice, and they are eventually saved, while they carry the cycle of evolution along the ascending arc. Christian theology has interpreted this into the legend of the fallen angles, whose rebellion against God is a crime, who are the eternal enemies of God and mankind, and who are in consequence doomed to final destruction. The myth in its original form has many variants, as in the story of Prometheus, Bahak-Zivo, the Dragon of Revelation, the kumaras, etc.
feeling or showing compassion; sympathetic.
forgiving ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Forgive ::: a. --> Disposed to forgive; inclined to overlook offenses; mild; merciful; compassionate; placable; as, a forgiving temper.
From the hierarchy of compassion, the light-side of nature as contrasted with the matter-side, came these semi-divine manasaputras who incarnated in the quasi-senseless, intellectually dormant human race at about the midpoint of the third root-race of this fourth round. By their own spiritual-intellectual fire and flame they quickened the latent mental fires in infant humanity stimulating the thought principle, just as parents teach a little child to think, quickening its mind, by means of books, by precept, by example, and by words. It is the most simple thing to do and yet a glorious achievement. It shows how inferior beings are protected and guided by higher beings, or dhyani-chohans, just as a child is watched, loved, and guided by its parents. Mind was quickened in mankind by the manasaputras, but there was already latent mind in man — unevoked; it required the coming of the superior developed mind, a part of the latter’s own flame to the wick of the unlighted candle, to set the unlighted candlewick aflame in its turn; but it could not be set aflame unless mind were already latent there.
From the zero emanate an infinite number of cosmic Ones or monads. Every absolute is not only the hierarch of its own hierarchy, the One from which all subsequent differentiations emanate, but is also a cosmic jivanmukta, a released monad freed from the pull of the lower planes. Every monad at the threshold of paranirvana reassumes its primeval essence and becomes at one with the absolute of its own hierarchy once more. The absolute is thus the goal of evolution as well as the source, the highest divinity or Silent Watcher of the hierarchy of compassion, which forms the light side of a universe or cosmic hierarchy.
fully functioning person: portrayed by Rogers as the ideal of growth; healthy growth is demonstrated by openness, a high level of spontaneity, compassion and self-direction.
Ghrina: Compassion; pity; aversion; contempt.
gracious ::: 1. Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy. 2. Pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous; charming and elegant. 3. Tender, mild, gentle. 4. Of a merciful or compassionate nature.
Guanyin. (J. Kannon; K. Kwanŭm 觀音). In Chinese, "Perceiver of Sounds," an abbreviation of the longer name Guanshiyin (J. Kanzeon; K. Kwanseŭm; Perceiver of the World's Sounds); the most famous and influential BODHISATTVA in all of East Asia, who is commonly known in Western popular literature as "The Goddess of Mercy." Guanyin (alt. Guanshiyin) is the Chinese translation of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion; this rendering, popularized by the renowned Kuchean translator KUMĀRAJĪVA in his 405-406 CE translation of the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"), derives from an earlier form of this bodhisattva's name, Avalokitasvara, which is attested in some Sanskrit manuscripts of this scripture; Kumārajīva interprets this name as "gazing" (avalokita; C. guan) on the "sounds" (svara; C. yin) [of this wailing "world" (C. shi) of suffering]. Avalokitasvara was supplanted during the seventh century CE by the standard Sanskrit form Avalokitesvara, the "gazing" (avalokita) "lord" (īsvara); this later form is followed in XUANZANG's Chinese rendering Guanzizai (J. Kanjizai; K. Kwanjajae), as found in his 649 CE translation of the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀHṚDAYASuTRA ("Heart Sutra"). The primary textual source for Guanyin worship is the twenty-fifth chapter of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra; that chapter is devoted to the bodhisattva and circulated widely as an independent text in East Asia. The chapter guarantees that if anyone in danger calls out Guanshiyin's name with completely sincerity, the bodhisattva will "perceive the sound" of his call and rescue him from harm. Unlike in India and Tibet, Avalokitesvara took on female form in East Asia around the tenth century. In traditional China, indigenous forms of Guanyin, such as BAIYI GUANYIN (White-Robed Guanyin), Yulan Guanyin (Guanyin with Fish Basket), SHUIYUE GUANYIN (Moon in Water Guanyin), Songzi Guanyin (Child-Granting Guanyin), MALANG FU, as well as Princess MIAOSHAN, became popular subjects of worship. Guanyin was worshipped in China by both monastics and laity, but her functions differed according to her manifestation. Guanyin thus served as a protectress against personal misfortune, a symbol of Buddhist ideals and restraint, or a granter of children. Various religious groups and lay communities also took one of her various forms as their patroness, and in this role, Guanyin was seen as a symbol of personal salvation. Beginning in the tenth century, these different manifestations of Guanyin proliferated throughout China through indigenous sutras (see APOCRYPHA), secular narratives, miracle tales, monastic foundation legends, and images. In later dynasties, and up through the twentieth century, Guanyin worship inspired both male and female religious groups. For example, White Lotus groups (see BAILIAN SHE; BAILIAN JIAO) during the Song dynasty included members from both genders, who were active in erecting STuPAs and founding cloisters that promoted Guanyin worship. In the twentieth century, certain women's groups were formed that took Princess Miaoshan's refusal to marry as inspiration to reject the institution of marriage themselves and, under the auspices of a Buddhist patron, pursue other secular activities as single women. ¶ In Japan, Kannon was originally introduced during the eighth century and took on additional significance as a female deity. For example, Kannon was often invoked by both pilgrims and merchants embarking on long sea voyages or overland travel. Invoking Kannon's name was thought to protect travelers from seven different calamities, such as fire, flood, storms, demons, attackers, lust and material desires, and weapons. Moreover, Kannon worship in Japan transcended sectarian loyalties, and there were numerous miracle tales concerning Kannon that circulated throughout the Japanese isles. ¶ In Korea, Kwanŭm is by far the most popular bodhisattva and is also known there as a deity who offers succor and assistance in difficult situations. The cult of Kwanŭm flourished initially under the patronage of the aristocracy in both the Paekche and Silla kingdoms, and historical records tell of supplications made to Kwanŭm for the birth of children or to protect relatives who were prisoners of war or who had been lost at sea. Hence, while the cult of AMITĀBHA was principally focused on spiritual liberation in the next life, Kwanŭm instead was worshipped for protection in this life. Still today, Kwanŭm is an object of popular worship and a focus of ritual chanting in Korean Buddhist monasteries by both monks and, especially, laywomen (and usually chanted in the form Kwanseŭm).
gunapāramitā. (T. yon tan pha rol tu phyin pa; C. gongde boluomi; J. kudokuharamitsu; K. kongdok paramil 功德波羅蜜). In Sanskrit, "the perfection of qualities," referring to the four salutary qualities of the TATHĀGATAGARBHA: permanence, purity, bliss, and self, as described in the sRĪMĀLĀDEVĪSIMHANĀDASuTRA. These qualities are in distinction to the four perverted views (VIPARYĀSA), where ignorant sentient beings regard the conditioned realm of SAMSĀRA as being permanent, pure, blissful, and self when in fact it is impermanent (ANITYA), impure (asubha), suffering (DUḤKHA), and not-self (ANĀTMAN). More specifically, according to the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākyā, sentient beings assume that all the conditioned phenomena they experience are permanent and real: they consider their own bodies to be pure, regard their five aggregates (SKANDHA) as having a perduring self (ĀTMAN), falsely imagine permanence in the transitory, and mistakenly regard saMsāra as a source of real happiness. In order to counter these attachments, the Buddha therefore taught that saMsāra is impermanent, impure, suffering, and not-self. However, the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākyā says it would be wrong to assume that these four qualities also apply to the tathāgatagarbha or the DHARMAKĀYA; the Buddha teaches that it is endowed with the four gunapāramitā, or perfect qualities, of permanence, purity, bliss, and self. The FOXING LUN ("Buddha-Nature Treatise") additionally presents the gunapāramitā as resulting from the perfection of four soteriological practices, e.g., bliss refers to the condition of being free from suffering, which is experienced through cultivating a SAMĀDHI that overcomes wrong conceptions of emptiness (suNYATĀ); permanence indicates the endless variety of acts that bodhisattvas cultivate on the path of great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ), etc. This positive valorization of the qualities of the tathāgatagarbha serves to counteract any mistaken tendency toward nihilism that might be prompted by the apophatic language used within the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ literature or the MADHYAMAKA school.
Guru-parampara(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound formed of guru, meaning "teacher," and a subordinate compoundparam-para, the latter compound meaning "a row or uninterrupted series or succession." Henceguru-parampara signifies an uninterrupted series or succession of teachers. Every Mystery school oresoteric college of ancient times had its regular and uninterrupted series or succession of teachersucceeding teacher, each one passing on to his successor the mystical authority and headship he himselfhad received from his predecessor.Like everything else of an esoteric character in the ancient world, the guru-parampara or succession ofteachers faithfully copied what actually exists or takes place in nature herself, where a hierarchy with itssummit or head is immediately linked on to a superior hierarchy as well as to an inferior one; and it is inthis manner that the mystical circulations of the kosmos, and the transmission of life or vital currentsthroughout the fabric or web of being is assured.From this ancient fact and teaching of the Mystery schools came the greatly distorted ApostolicSuccession of the Christian Church, a pale and feeble reflection in merely ecclesiastical government of afundamental spiritual and mystical reality. The great Brotherhood of the sages and seers of the world,which in fact is the association of the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion headed by the Maha-chohan,is the purest and most absolute form or example of the guru-parampara existing on our earth today. (Seealso Hermetic Chain)
Heart Doctrine In Mahayana Buddhism, the hidden or esoteric teachings as opposed to the eye doctrine, the public or exoteric teachings. In theosophy, the heart doctrine is considered to contain the more profound and compassionate teachings which go beyond the literal interpretation of the publicly given doctrines. ( )
Hermetic Chain ::: Among the ancient Greeks there existed a mystical tradition of a chain of living beings, one end of whichincluded the divinities in their various grades or stages of divine authority and activities, and the otherend of which ran downwards through inferior gods and heroes and sages to ordinary men, and to thebeings below man. Each link of this living chain of beings inspired and instructed the chain below itself,thus transmitting and communicating from link to link to the end of the marvelous living chain, love andwisdom and knowledge concerning the secrets of the universe, eventuating in mankind as the arts and thesciences necessary for human life and civilization. This was mystically called the Hermetic Chain or theGolden Chain.In the ancient Mysteries the teaching of the existence and nature of the Hermetic Chain was fullyexplained; it is a true teaching because it represents distinctly and clearly and faithfully true and actualoperations of nature. More or less faint and distorted copies of the teaching of this Hermetic Chain orGolden Chain or succession of teachers were taken over by various later formal and exoteric sects, suchas the Christian Church, wherein the doctrine was called the Apostolic Succession. In all the greatMystery schools of antiquity there was this succession of teacher following teacher, each one passing onthe light to his successor as he himself had received it from his predecessor; and as long as thistransmission of light was a reality, it worked enormous spiritual benefit among men. Therefore all suchmovements lived, flourished, and did great good in the world. These teachers were the messengers tomen from the Great Lodge of the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion. (See also Guru-parampara)
Hesed or Chesed (Hebrew) Ḥesed [from ḥāsad to be zealous towards, to feel kindness and love for] Love, kindness; the fourth Sephirah, Mercy, Love, or Compassion, also called Gedulah (greatness, magnificence), emanated from the three preceding Sephiroth or first triad. Hesed is regarded as an active masculine potency, the second in the right pillar of the Sephirothal Tree. Its Divine Name is ’El (the mighty); in the Angelic Order it is represented as the Hashmaim (the scintillating flames), as of polished or burnished brass. In its application to the human body, regarded as the right arm, giving strength; while in its application to the seven globes of our planetary chain it corresponds to globe G. From this Sephiroth is emanated the fifth, Geburah.
Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy The hierarchy of spiritual beings extending from the highest solar or galactic monad, to the least element forming its vehicles or being. “It is built of divinities, demigods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and great and noble men, who serve as a living channel for the spiritual currents coming to this and every other planet of our system from the heart of the solar divinity, and who themselves shed glory and light and peace upon that pathway from the compassionate deeps of their own being. . . .
hīnayāna. (T. theg pa dman pa; C. xiaosheng; J. shojo; K. sosŭng 小乘). In Sanskrit, "lesser vehicle," a pejorative term coined by the MAHĀYĀNA ("Great Vehicle") tradition of Buddhism to refer to the (in their minds' discredited) doctrines and practices of its rival sRĀVAKAYĀNA schools of the mainstream Buddhist tradition. Hīna has the negative connotations of "lesser," "defective," and "vile," and thus the term hīnayāna is inevitably deprecatory. It should be understood that the term hīnayāna is never used self-referentially by the srāvakayāna schools of mainstream Buddhism and thus should never be taken as synonymous with the THERAVĀDA school of contemporary Sri Lankan and Southeast Asian Buddhism. Hīnayāna does, however, have a number of usages in Buddhist literature. (1) Hīnayāna is used by proponents of the Mahāyāna to refer specifically to those who do not accept the Mahāyāna sutras as being the authentic word of the Buddha (BUDDHAVACANA). (2) Hīnayāna is used in Mahāyāna literature to refer collectively to the paths of the sRĀVAKAs and the PRATYEKABUDDHAs (see also ER SHENG), i.e., those who, out of a desire to attain enlightenment for themselves alone, lack sufficient compassion to undertake the BODHISATTVA path leading ultimately to buddhahood. (3) Hīnayāna has been used both by traditional Buddhist exegetes and by modern scholars of Buddhism to refer to the non-Mahāyāna schools of Indian Buddhism, traditionally numbered as eighteen, which themselves each set forth the three paths of the srāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva. See MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS.
Hlidskjalf (Icelandic) [from hlid side, gate; or from hlifd protection + skjalf shelf, bench, plane] The word may mean either that the gods are arrayed by our side in the struggle of life; or deriving it from the Scandinavian lida (to suffer), it could be by extension of meaning the “shelf of compassion,” whence their protection extends over the human race. In the Norse Edda, it is on Hlidskjalf that Odin is enthroned with his consort Frigga and whence he is able to survey all worlds. Frey, the deity of our terrestrial world, also oversees his domain from this vantage point.
"Human pity is born of ignorance & weakness; it is the slave of emotional impressions. Divine compassion understands, discerns & saves.” Essays Divine and Human*
“Human pity is born of ignorance & weakness; it is the slave of emotional impressions. Divine compassion understands, discerns & saves.” Essays Divine and Human
Humphreys, Christmas. (1901-1983). Early British popularizer of Buddhism and founder of the Buddhist Society, the oldest lay Buddhist organization in Europe. Born in London in 1901, Humphreys was the son of Sir Travers Humphreys (1867-1956), a barrister perhaps best known as the junior counsel in the prosecution of the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). Following in his father's footsteps, Humphreys studied law at Cambridge University and eventually became a senior prosecutor at the Old Bailey, London, the central criminal court, and later a circuit judge; he was also involved in the Tokyo war crimes trials as a prosecutor, a post he accepted so he could also further in Japan his studies of Buddhism. (Humphreys's later attempts to inject some Buddhist compassion into his courtroom led to him being called the "gentle judge," who gained a reputation for being lenient with felons. After handing down a six-month suspended sentence to an eighteen-year-old who had raped two women at knifepoint, the public outcry that ensued eventually led to his resignation from the bench in 1976.) Humphreys was interested in Buddhism from his youth and declared himself a Buddhist at age seventeen. In 1924, at the age of twenty-three, he founded the Buddhist Society, London, and served as its president until his death; he was also the first publisher of its journal, The Middle Way. Humphreys strongly advocated a nonsectarian approach to Buddhism, which embraced the individual schools of Buddhism as specific manifestations of the religion's central tenets. His interest in an overarching vision of the whole of the Buddhist tradition led him in 1945 to publish his famous Twelve Principles of Buddhism, which has been translated into fourteen languages. These principles focus on the need to recognize the conditioned nature of reality, the truth of impermanence and suffering, and the path that Buddhism provides to save oneself through "the intuition of the individual." A close associate of DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI and a contemporary of EDWARD CONZE, Humphreys himself wrote over thirty semischolarly and popular books and tracts on Buddhism, including Buddhism: An Introduction and Guide, published in 1951.
Hyeyong. (惠永) (1228-1294). Korean monk of the Koryo dynasty. In 1238, Hyeyong was ordained by Ch'ungyon (d.u.) at the monastery of Nambaegwolsa. Hyeyong passed the Son (CHAN) examinations held at WANGNYUNSA in 1244 and was subsequently given a position at Hŭngdoksa. In 1259, he was given the title Samjung taesa, and four years later, he was elevated to the status of head seat (sujwa). In 1267, Hyeyong moved to the temple Songnisa. Hyeyong's reputation grew, and he was eventually elevated to the highest status of SAMGHA overseer (sŭngt'ong) in 1269. He also resided at such monasteries as PULGUKSA, T'ONGDOSA, and Chunghŭngsa. In 1290, he led a mission of one hundred monks who specialized in copying Buddhist scriptures to Yuan China and delivered a lecture in the capital. He also copied the Buddhist canon in gold. In 1292, he was given the title Poja Kukchon (National Worthy whose Compassion is Universal) and was also given the title of saMgha overseer of the five teachings (Ogyodo Sŭngtong). He resided at the monastery of Tonghwasa and remained there until his death in 1294. Hyeyong composed a treatise entitled the Paegŭihae.
“In addition to this, there was still another class of Manasaputras who, as it were, started the whole thing going by inflaming . . . with their own fire of intelligent thought and self-consciousness those of the human race who, at that time, in the early part of the Third Root-Race in this Round, were ready, who caught the flame; and then their own mental apparatus, their own manasic powers, burst as it were into bloom as a rose unfolds rapidly its petals when the season comes for it to do so. And these Manasaputras . . . were the highly evolved entities from previous cosmic manvantaras, who deliberately, belonging as they do to the hierarchy of the Buddhas of Compassion, as it were left their own sublime spheres and descended among men and taught them — and then withdrew” (SOPh 468).
incompassionate ::: a. --> Not compassionate; void of pity or of tenderness; remorseless.
incompassion ::: n. --> Want of compassion or pity.
In the antithesis between Zeus (here not the supreme Olympian lord) and Prometheus, is the antagonism between the Hebrew Lord God and the serpent. The so-called disobedience of these fallen angels is an act of spiritual chivalry, in which the divine prerogative of free will is exercised in the spirit of compassion, an old order is superseded, and a new chapter in evolution is begun. In both stories the deity invokes a curse upon the fallen angel and his new humanity; and this curse is fulfilled in the suffering caused by the conflict between the two natures in man thus awakened. Prometheus, who may also be taken as representing humanity, is fastened to a rock representing karmic destiny, while the vultures of new-born knowledge and self-consciousness gnaw at his inner being. But the curse ends in a blessing, and Hercules or Dionysos delivers the Chrestos or immanent Christ, enlightens and raises the neophyte.
In theosophical literature, the Hierarchy of Compassion of our solar system is sometimes given as: 1) adi-buddhi (primal wisdom), the mystic universally diffused essence; 2) mahabuddhi (universal buddhi), the Logos; 3) daiviprakriti (universal divine light), universal life, the Second Logos; 4) Sons of Light, the seven cosmic logoi, the logoi of cosmic life, the Third Logos; 5) dhyani-buddhas (buddhas of contemplation); 6) dhyani-bodhisattvas (bodhisattvas of contemplation); 7) manushya-buddhas (human buddhas), racial buddhas; 8) bodhisattvas; and 9) men. Here, the Sons of Light or the seven cosmic logoi emanating from the sun and working in its kingdom are the parents of the rectors or planetary spirits of the seven sacred planets. The seven dhyani-buddhas, also called the celestial buddhas or causal buddhas, through their emanated representatives each govern one round of the septenary cycles of evolution on a planetary chain. The seven dhyani-bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, similarly through their emanated representatives each govern one of the seven globes comprising a planetary chain. The manushya-buddhas are the buddhas which watch over the root-races in a round, two appearing in every race, one near the commencement and one near the midpoint of each root-race. Gautama Buddha was the second racial buddha of the fifth root-race. The bodhisattvas of earth are those spiritual and intellectually advanced human beings who leave the nirvana of buddhahood in order to remain on earth for their sublime work of aiding, stimulating, and guiding those hosts of entities, including humanity, trailing behind them.
In theosophy, used to express the peak of human evolutionary attainment on the earth-chain, the ever-living-human-Banyan or Wondrous Being (SD 1:207). Members of the hierarchy of Compassion under the Wondrous Being are referred to as tendrils descending from the heights to the lower planes of earth, these themselves aspiring to become like their spiritual superior.
Jambupati. In Pāli, lit. "Lord of the Rose Apple"; a type of buddha image found most commonly in the art of Burma (Myanmar) and its Shan state, in which the Buddha is adorned in the royal attire of a "wheel-turning monarch" (CAKRAVARTIN), wearing a magnificent crown and jewels, and seated on a throne. This image derives from a Southeast Asian Buddhist legend (which is apparently unknown in India) about an arrogant king named Jambupati, who terrorized his people. In order to convince him to repent of his unwholesome actions and practice compassion toward his subjects, the Buddha had himself adorned with full royal regalia and seated in a magnificent palace; when Jambupati was brought before the crowned Buddha, he was so humbled by the Buddha's majesty that he repented of his arrogance and took the five precepts (PANCAsĪLA) of a Buddhist layman (UPĀSAKA). In this royal form, the Buddha's UsnĪsA is often extended into a pronounced spire, perhaps suggesting the form of a STuPA. Jambupati Buddha images are most commonly seated in the "earth-touching gesture" (BHuMISPARsAMUDRĀ), although sometimes standing images are also found. The famous ARAKAN BUDDHA, viz., the Mahāmuni image in Arakan (present-day Mandalay), is now crowned in the Jambupati style.
Jen: In Chinese: (1) Man, (2) manhood, (3) moral character, (4) love, kindness, charity, compassion, benevolence.
Jen: Man. Goodness; virtue in general; the moral principle; the moral ideal of the superior man (chun. tzu); the fundamental as well as the sum total of virtues, just as the Prime (yuan) is the origin and the vital force of all things --jen consisting of "man" and "two" and yuan consisting of "two" and "man". (Confucianism.) True manhood; man's character; human-heartedness; moral character; being man-like; "that by which a man is to be a man;" "realization of one's true self and the restoration of the moral order." (Confucius and Mencius.) "The active (yang) and passive (yin) principles are the way of Heaven; the principles of strength and weakness are the way of Earth; and true manhood and righteousness (i) are the way of Man." "True manhood is man's mind and righteousness is man's path." It is one of the three Universally Recognized Moral Qualities of man (ta te), the four Fundamentals of the Moral Life (ssu tuan), and the five Constant Virtues (wu ch'ang). True manhood and righteousness are the basic principles of Confucian ethics and politics. (Confucianism.) The golden rule; "Being true to the principles of one's nature (chung) and the benevolent exercise of them in relation to others (shu)." "The true man, having established his own character, seeks to establish the character of others; and having succeeded, seeks to make others succeed." (Confucius.) Love; benevolence; kindness; charity; compassion; "the character of the heart and the principle of love;" "love towards all men and benefit towards things." (Confucianism.) "Universal love without the element of self," (Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.) "Universal Love." (Han Yu, 767-824.) The moral principle with regard to others. "True manhood is the cardinal virtue by which others are pacified, whereas righteousness is the cardinal principle by which the self is rectified." It means "to love others and not the self." (Tung Chung-shu, 177-104 B.C.) Love of all men and things and impartiality and justice towards all men and things, this virtue being the cardinal virtue not only of man but also of the universe. "Love means to devote oneself to the benefit of other people and things." "Love implies justice, that is, as a man, treating others as men." "The true man regards the universe and all things as a unity. They are all essential to himself. As he realizes the true self, there is no limit to his love." (Ch'eng Ming-tao, 1032-1068.) "Love is the source of all laws, the foundation of all phenomena." "What is received from Heaven at the beginning is simply love, and is therefore the complete substance of the mind." "Love is the love of creating in the mind of Heaven and Earth, and men and other creatures receive it as their mind." (Chu Hsi, 1130-1200.)
Jhumur: “Awe inspiring fear. It is through fear that these forces rule, not through love, not through grace, not through compassion but through terror. There is a very strong tendency in man to regard these dark forces as superior beings. There has long been a vital attraction for them, devil worship, etc. because they give you power, they seem to give you power, power to the ego and Mother says that power will be one of the last things to accept the change. Man’s lust for power is not easily relinquished– he doesn’t feel like giving that up.”
Jingtu shiyi [lun]. (J. Jodo jugi[ron]; K. Chongt'o sibŭi [non] 淨土十疑[論]). In Chinese, "Ten Doubts regarding the PURE LAND"; a popular text on pure land beliefs and practices composed by TIANTAI ZHIYI. As the title suggests, the treatise is an apologia for the practice and verity of the pure land, even though it is exclusively directed at AMITĀBHA's pure land of SUKHĀVATĪ. The "doubts" that Zhiyi addresses in his treatise include: "Doesn't it show a lack of compassion to seek rebirth in the pure land (and thus leave behind those who are suffering in this world)?" "Isn't seeking rebirth in the pure land contradictory to the teaching of non-production (which nullifies the prospect of further rebirths)?" "Why focus on Amitābha and his pure land (as one's sole choice of devotion)?" "How is it that unenlightened beings who are entangled in the fetters (SAMYOJANA) are capable of being reborn in the pure land (and thereby transcend the rounds of rebirth)?" "How could it be that the pure land of sukhāvatī (being entirely male) has no women and no one with HĪNAYĀNA inclinations?"
Jiun Onko. (慈雲飮光) (1718-1804). In Japanese, "Cloud of Compassion, Drinker of Light"; a monk of the Shingon Risshu school, which combined the esoteric teachings of the SHINGONSHu with disciplinary observance of the VINAYA; also known as Jiun Sonja. Up to the age of twelve, he received a traditional Confucian education, but after his father's death the following year, he was entrusted to Horakuji, a Shingon Risshu monastery in Kawachi (present-day osaka prefecture), where he studied esoteric teachings and the SIDDHAM Sanskrit syllabary. During his early studies of Buddhism, Jiun came to realize the centrality of the PRĀTIMOKsA precepts to a monastic vocation, and in 1738 decided to take the full set of monk's precepts (J. gusokukai) at the monastery of Yachuji. In the following year, Jiun was appointed abbot of his old monastery of Horakuji, but he resigned two years later to dedicate himself to ZEN practice in the SoToSHu. In his late twenties, he founded a movement called the "vinaya of the true dharma" (shoboritsu), which encouraged Buddhist clerics to commit themselves to the prātimoksa precepts, regardless of their sectarian affiliations. In 1758, Jiun wrote a massive textbook on Sanskrit, the thousand-roll Bongaku shinryo ("The Ford and Bridge to Sanskrit Studies"), the first such study aid published in Japan. In 1775, he compiled his Juzen hogo ("Dharma Discourses on the Ten Wholesome Ways of Action"), a collection of lectures on the KUsALA-KARMAPATHA that he had delivered the two previous years at Amidadera in Kyoto. Late in his life, he moved to KATSURAGISAN, where he pioneered an eclectic religious movement that came to be called Unden SHINTo ("Shinto transmitted by Jiun") or Katsuragi Shinto, which integrated Shingon, Zen, and Confucianism with Japanese indigenous religion.
Kālāmasutta. (C. Qielan jing; J. Garankyo; K. Karam kyong 伽藍經). In Pāli, "Instruction to the Kālāmas"; popular Western designation for a Pāli sutta (SuTRA) in the AnGUTTARANIKĀYA; delivered to the Kālāma people of Kesaputta, which is more commonly titled in modern Southeast Asian editions of the Pāli canon as the Kesamuttisutta or Kesaputtisutta. (A separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears as the sixteenth SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA; the Sinographs Qielan are a transcription of Kālāma, so this seems to have been the title used for the scripture in the northwest Indian tradition). The sermon is prominently cited in Western writings on Buddhism for its advocacy of free inquiry and a putatively rational approach to religion, which is exempt from intolerance and dogmatism. In classical commentarial materials, however, the text is not interpreted in this way and is rarely mentioned. According to the Pāli recension, the Kālāmas had been visited by many religious teachers and had received conflicting testimony from them on what constituted the religious life; they also were put off by these teachers' tendency to praise only their own dogmas and to revile those of their rivals. Confused, the Kālāmas asked the Buddha to arbitrate. In his response, the Buddha rejects the validity of testimony simply because it is widely known, grounded in "tradition" (anussava; S. ANUsRAVA), appearing in scripture, or taught by a respected teacher. All these standards are said to be unreliable for understanding truth and falsity. Instead, the Buddha encourages them to follow what they themselves learn through their own training to be blamable or praiseworthy, harmful or beneficial. The Buddha then helps the Kālāmas to understand for themselves that the three afflictions of greed or craving (RĀGA; LOBHA), hatred (DVEsA; P. dosa), and delusion (MOHA) are harmful and should therefore be abandoned, while their absence is beneficial and should therefore be developed. The discourse concludes with the Buddha's instruction on how to project in all directions the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnĀ), empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and impartiality (UPEKsĀ) and a brief account of the solace that comes to those whose minds are free from hatred and defilement.
Kamadeva (Sanskrit) Kāmadeva [from kāma desire + deva god, divinity] The Hindu god of love, one of the Visve-devas in the Hindu pantheon. As the Eros of Hesiod was connected in early Greek mythology with the world’s creation, and only afterwards became degraded into the passional Cupid, so was Kama in his original meaning as used in the Vedas, which gives the metaphysical and philosophical significance of his functions in the cosmos. Kama is the first conscious, all-embracing desire for universal good, love, and the first feeling of infinite compassion and mercy for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, that arose in the consciousness of the creative One Force, as soon as it came into life and being as a ray from the Absolute. Kama “is in the Rig-Veda (x. 129) the personification of that feeling which leads and propels to creation. He was the first movement that stirred the One, after its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to create. ‘Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind; and which sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be the bond which connects Entity with Non-Entity’ ” (SD 2:176) — or manas with pure atma-buddhi. Only later did kama become the power that gratifies desire on the animal plane.
kammatthāna. In Pāli, lit. "working ground," viz., "meditative topic"; a topic or object of meditation (BHĀVANĀ) used for training the mind and cultivating mental concentration (SAMĀDHI). The term originally referred to an occupation or vocation, such as farmer, merchant, or mendicant, but was adopted as a technical term to refer generically to various types of meditative exercises. The VISUDDHIMAGGA lists forty topics used for this purpose. First are ten "visualization devices" (KASInA)-devices that are constructed from the elements earth, water, fire, and air; the colors blue, yellow, red, and white, and light and space-to develop concentration. Kasina exercises can produce all four of the "meditative absorptions" (JHĀNA; DHYĀNA) associated with the realm of subtle materiality. Next are ten "loathsome topics" (asubha; see S. AsUBHABHĀVANĀ), such as the decaying of a corpse, which can lead only to the first meditative absorption (dhyāna). These are followed by ten "recollections" (P. anussati; S. ANUSMṚTI): viz., of (1) the Buddha, (2) the dhamma (DHARMA), (3) the sangha (SAMGHA), (4) morality, (5) generosity, (6) the divinities, (7) death, (8) the body, (9) the inbreath and outbreath (P. ānāpānasati, S. ĀNĀPĀNASMṚTI), and (10) peace. Of these, recollection or mindfulness (P. sati; S. SMṚTI) of the inbreath and outbreath can produce all four meditative absorptions, while recollection of the body can produce the first absorption; the remaining recollections only lead to "access concentration" (UPACĀRASAMĀDHI), which immediately precedes but does not reach the level of the first absorption. Next are four "immaterial spheres" (arupāyatana), viz., the "sphere of infinite space" (ākāsānaNcāyatana, S. ĀKĀsĀNANTYĀYATANA); of "infinite consciousness" (viNNānaNcāyatana, S. VIJNĀNĀNANTYĀYATANA); of "nothingness" (ākiNcaNNāyatana, S. ĀKINCANYĀYATANA); and of "neither perception nor nonperception" (nevasaNNānāsaNNāyatana, S. NAIVASAMJNĀNĀSAMJNĀYATANA). Meditation on these objects involves the increasing refinement of the fourth absorption and leads to the acquisition of the "immaterial attainments" (ARuPASAMĀPATTI), also called "immaterial absorptions" (P. arupāvacarajhāna; S. ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA, see DHYĀNA, SAMĀPATTI). Four positive affective states or "divine abidings" (BRAHMAVIHĀRA; [alt. P. appamaNNa]; S. APRAMĀnA), are loving-kindness (mettā; MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnĀ), altruistic or empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and equanimity or impartiality (upekkhā; UPEKsĀ). Of these, loving-kindness, compassion, and altruistic joy can produce only the first three meditative absorptions, but equanimity can produce all four. There is one perception of the loathsomeness of food (āhāre patikkulasaNNā) and one analysis of the four elements (catudhātu vavatthāna), both of which can produce access concentration. Certain of these topics were said to be better suited to specific character types, such as the loathsome topics to persons with strong tendencies toward lust or the perception of the loathsomeness of food for gluttons; others, such as the meditation on the in- and outbreaths, were universally suitable to all character types. The Buddha was said to have had the ability to assess his disciples' character types and determine which topics of meditation would best suit them; as later generations lost this assessment ability, the number of kammatthānas in regular use dropped dramatically, with mindfulness of breathing being by far the most popular topic.
Kārandavyuha. [alt. Karandavyuha; Avalokitesvaraguna-kārandavyuha] (T. Za ma tog bkod pa'i mdo; C. Dasheng zhuangyan baowang jing; J. Daijo shogon hoogyo; K. Taesŭng changom powang kyong 大乘莊嚴寶王經). In Sanskrit, "Description of the Casket [of AVALOKITEsVARA's Qualities]"; the earliest textual source for the BODHISATTVA Avalokitesvara's MANTRA "OM MAnI PADME HuM" (oM, O Jewel-Lotus); the extended version of the title is Avalokitesvaraguna-kārandavyuha. The earliest version of the Kārandavyuha is presumed to have been composed in Kashmir sometime around the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth centuries CE. There are Tibetan and Chinese translations, including a late Chinese rendering made by the Kashmiri translator TIAN XIZAI (d. 1000) in 983. The Kārandavyuha displays characteristics of both sutra and TANTRA literature in its emphasis on the doctrine of rebirth in AMITĀBHA Buddha's pure land (SUKHĀVATĪ), as well as such tantric elements as the mantra "oM mani padme huM" and the use of MAndALAs; it is thought to represent a transitional stage between the two categories of texts. The sutra is composed as a dialogue between sĀKYAMUNI Buddha and the bodhisattva SARVANĪVARAnAVIsKAMBHIN. While describing Avalokitesvara's supernal qualities and his vocation of saving sentient beings, sākyamuni Buddha tells his audience about the mantra "oM mani padme huM" and the merits that it enables its reciters to accrue. Avalokitesvara is said to be the embodiment of the SAMBHOGAKĀYA (enjoyment body), the body of the buddha that remains constantly present in the world for the edification of all beings, and the dharma that he makes manifest is expressed in this six-syllable mantra (sAdAKsArĪ), the recitation of which invokes the power of that bodhisattva's great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ). The sutra claims that the benefit of copying this mantra but once is equivalent to that of copying all the 84,000 teachings of the DHARMA; in addition, there are an infinite number of benefits that derive from a single recitation of it.
Karuna-bhavana (Sanskrit) Karuṇā-bhāvanā [from karuṇā compassion + the verbal root bhū to become] The act of causing meditation or compassion to come into being. The meditation or thought given to cultivating pity and compassion in yoga practices.
karuna ::: compassion; Divine Compassion, Grace.
Karuna: Mercy; compassion; kindness.
karuna. ::: mercy; compassion; kindness
Karunāpundarīka. (T. Snying rje pad ma dkar po; C. Beihua jing; J. Hikekyo; K. Pihwa kyong 悲華經). In Sanskrit, "Lotus of Compassion"; a MAHĀYĀNA SuTRA important in the developing cult surrounding worship of the buddha AMITĀBHA. The sutra was translated into Chinese in ten rolls by DHARMAKsEMA and seems to have been compiled from various shorter texts. The sutra tells the story of how a king and his thousand sons aroused the aspiration for enlightenment (BODHICITTOTPĀDA) and received a prediction that they would each be reborn in the PURE LAND. The sutra is important in the pure land schools for its listing of fifty-one vows of the buddha AMITĀBHA, indicating that it was closely aligned with the teachings of the SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA.
karunā. (T. snying rje; C. bei; J. hi; K. pi 悲). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "compassion," or "empathy"; the wish that others be free from suffering, as distinguished from loving-kindness (MAITRĪ; P. mettā), the wish that others be happy. Compassion is listed as the second of the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) along with loving-kindness, empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and equanimity (UPEKsĀ). As one of the forty topics of meditation (P. KAMMAttHĀNA), compassion is used only for the cultivation of tranquillity (sAMATHA), not insight (VIPAsYANĀ). Compassion is to be developed in the following manner: filling one's mind with compassion, one pervades the world with it, first in one direction, then in a second direction, then a third, a fourth, then above, below, and all around. Of the four divine abidings, compassion, along with loving-kindness and empathetic joy, is capable of producing the first three of the four stages of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). This mainstream Buddhist notion of compassion is to be distinguished from the "great compassion" (MAHĀKARUnĀ) of the BODHISATTVA, whose compassion inspires them to develop BODHICITTA, the aspiration to achieve buddhahood in order to liberate all beings from suffering. This great compassion is distinguished both by its scope (all sentient beings) and its agency (one personally seeks to remove the suffering of others). Great compassion thus becomes the primary motivating force that enables the BODHISATTVA to endure the three infinite eons (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA) necessary to consummate the path to buddhahood. In Mahāyāna literature, numerous techniques are set forth to develop compassion, including acknowledging the kindness one has received from other beings in past lifetimes.
kripa. ::: Grace; blessing; compassion
Kwan-shai-yin is often confused with Kwan-yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, the feminine Logos and counterpart of Kwan-shai-yin; but “Kwan-shai-yin — or the universally manifested voice ‘is active — male; and must not be confounded with Kwan-yin, or Buddhi the Spiritual Soul (the sixth Pr.) and the vehicle of its “Lord.” ’ It is Kwan-yin that is the female principle or the manifested passive, manifesting itself ‘to every creature in the universe, in order to deliver all men from the consequences of sin’ . . . while Kwan-shai-yin, ‘the Son identical with his Father’ is the absolute activity, hence — having no direct relation to objects of sense is — Passivity” (ML 344).
Kwanŭmsa. (觀音寺). In Korean, "AVALOKITEsVARA monastery," the twenty-third parish monastery (PONSA) of the contemporary CHOGYE ORDER of Korean Buddhism, located on Halla Mountain on Cheju Island. Its foundation date is uncertain. The monastery was destroyed during the eighteenth century and rebuilt in 1912 by the laywoman Pong Yogwan (fl. c. 1907), who named it Popchongam (Dharma Well Hermitage). While Pong was on a sea journey to Piyang Island in 1901, she felt she would have been lost at sea were it not for the saving grace of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Pong subsequently was ordained as a nun (BHIKsUnĪ) in 1907 and returned to Cheju island to rebuild the monastery. As the monastery's following increased, it became known as Kwanŭmsa. The monastery's main buddha image and its hanging picture (T'AENGHWA) of the Buddha were brought from Kwangsansa and Yonghwasa. Kwanŭmsa currently manages approximately thirty branch temples (MALSA).
Kwan-yin, Kuan-yin (Chinese) The Chinese Buddhist goddess of compassion, the female aspect of Kwan-shai-yin, referred to in the Stanzas of Dzyan as the triple of Kwan-shai-yin, residing in Kwan-yien-tien, “because in her correlations, metaphysical and cosmical, she is the ‘Mother, the Wife and the Daughter’ of the Logos, just as in the later theological translations she became ‘the Father, Son and (the female) Holy Ghost’ — the Sakti or Energy — the Essence of the three. Thus in the Esotericism of the Vedantins, Daiviprakriti, the Light manifested through Eswara, the Logos, is at one and the same time the Mother and also the Daughter of the Logos or Verbum of Parabrahmam; while in that of the trans-Himalayan teachings it is — in the hierarchy of allegorical and metaphysical theogony — ‘the Mother’ or abstract, ideal matter, Mulaprakriti, the Root of Nature . . . a correlation of Adi-Bhuta, manifested in the Logos, Avalokiteshwara; and from the purely occult and Cosmical, Fohat, the ‘Son of the Son,’ the androgynous energy resulting from this ‘Light of the Logos’ ” (SD 1:136-7).
laukikamārga. (T. 'jig rten pa'i lam; C. shijiandao; J. sekendo; K. segando 世間道). In Sanskrit, lit. "mundane path," those practices that precede the moment of insight (DARsANAMĀRGA) and thus result in a salutary rebirth in SAMSĀRA rather than liberation (VIMUKTI); also called laukika-BHĀVANĀMĀRGA (the mundane path of cultivation). In the five-stage soteriology of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school, the mundane path corresponds to the first two stages, the path of accumulation (SAMBHĀRAMĀRGA) and the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA), because they do not involve the direct perception of reality that transforms an ordinary person (PṚTHAGJANA) into a noble one (ĀRYA). The mundane path is developed when a practitioner has begun to cultivate the three trainings (TRIsIKsĀ) of morality (sĪLA), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom (PRAJNĀ) but has yet to eradicate any of the ten fetters (SAMYOJANA) or to achieve insight (DARsANA). The eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA) is also formulated in terms of the spiritual ascension from mundane (LAUKIKA) to supramundane (LOKOTTARA). For example, mundane right view (SAMYAGDṚstI), the first stage of the eightfold path, refers to the belief in the efficacy of KARMAN and its effects and the reality of a next life after death, thus leading to better rebirths; wrong view (MITHYĀDṚstI), by contrast, denies such beliefs and leads to unsalutary rebirths. After continuing on to cultivate the moral trainings of right speech, action, and livelihood based on this right view, the practitioner next devotes himself to right concentration (SAMYAKSAMĀDHI). Concentration then leads in turn to supramundane right view, which results in direct insight into the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS and the removal of the initial fetters. ¶ In the MADHYĀNTAVIBHĀGA, a Mahāyāna work associated with the name of MAITREYA, the eightfold path is reformulated as a "worldly" path that a bodhisattva treads after the path of vision (darsanamārga), on the model of the Buddha's work for the world after his awakening beneath the BODHI TREE in BODHGAYĀ. The bodhisattva's supramundane vision, described by the seven factors of enlightenment (BODHYAnGA), is an equipoise (SAMĀHITA) in which knowledge is beyond all proliferation (PRAPANCA) and conceptualization (VIKALPA); the states subsequent (pṛsthalabdha) to that equipoise are characterized as the practice of skillful means (UPĀYA) to lead others to liberation, on the model of the Buddha's compassionate activities for the sake of others. The practice serves to accumulate the bodhisattva's merit collection (PUnYASAMBHĀRA); there is no further vision to be gained, only a return to the vision in the supramundane stages characterized as the fundamental (maula) stages of the ten bodhisattva stages (BODHISATTVABHuMI) or a supramundane cultivation (lokottarabhāvanā). All other acts are laukika ("worldly") skillful means.
lingzhi. (J. ryochi/reichi; K. yongji 靈知). In Chinese, "numinous awareness"; the quality of "sentience" common to all sentient beings, which constitutes their capacity both to experience the sensory realms in all their diversity and to attain enlightenment. Numinous awareness is both the inherent faculty that inspires sentient beings to seek enlightenment and the quality of mind perfected through meditative development. As the foundation of sentience, numinous awareness is what enables all sentient beings to see, hear, know, and experience their world and thus constitutes the capacity of the mind to remain "aware" of all sensory stimuli; hence, this "numinous awareness is never dark" (C. lingzhi bumei). This property of awareness is said to be itself "void and calm" (C. kongji) and is consequently able to adapt without limitation to the various inclinations of sentient beings; hence, the term is often known as the "void and calm, numinous awareness" (C. kongji lingzhi). Regardless of whether that particular sentient being's awareness inclines toward greed and hatred or toward wisdom and compassion, however, that sentience itself remains simply "aware." This numinous awareness is therefore equated in the CHAN school with enlightenment (BODHI), TATHĀGATAGARBHA, buddha-nature (BUDDHADHĀTU; C. FOXING), or one's "original face" (BENLAI MIANMU). The enlightenment inherent in the mind is naturally luminous, shining ever outward and allowing beings to experience their external world. This natural quality of luminosity is what is meant by "sentience," and the very fact that "sentient" beings are conscious is ipso facto proof that they are inherently enlightened. If the meditator can turn this radiance emanating from one's mind back to its source, one would rediscover that luminous core of the mind and be instantly enlightened. In CHAN meditation, the quality of introspection that allows the meditator to experience this numinous awareness directly is called "tracing back the radiance" (FANZHAO) or "seeing the nature" (JIANXING). The term receives particular attention in the works of the Chinese Chan/HUAYAN adept GUIFENG ZONGMI (780-841) and the Korean Son master POJO CHINUL (1158-1210). See also RIG PA.
MadhyamakālaMkāra. (T. Dbu ma rgyan). In Sanskrit, "Ornament of the Middle Way"; a verse work in ninety-seven stanzas by the eighth-century Indian master sĀNTARAKsITA; it is accompanied by a prose commentary (vṛtti) by the author. Both the root text and commentary are lost in the original Sanskrit (although verses cited elsewhere remain) but preserved in Tibetan translation. Whereas sāntaraksita's other major work, the TATTVASAMGRAHA, is valued largely for its detailed discussion of competing Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools of Indian philosophy, the MadhyamakālaMkāra, which was composed later, is regarded as the foundational text of the YOGĀCĀRA-MADHYAMAKA synthesis that occurred in late Indian Buddhism, what Tibetan doxographers would dub YOGĀCĀRA-SVĀTANTRIKA-MADHYAMAKA. sāntaraksita argues that the proper method for gaining realization of reality is to first come to the Yogācāra understanding that external objects do not exist and then move to the Madhyamaka view that mind also is empty of self. The MadhyamakālaMkāra famously states (at stanzas 92-93), "Through relying on mind-only, the nonexistence of external objects should be known. Relying on this [Madhyamaka] mode, it should be known that this [mind] also is completely selfless. Those who, having mounted the chariot of the two modes, grasp the reins of reasoning thereby attain the state of a Mahāyānist exactly as it is." sāntaraksita argues that anything that has intrinsic nature (SVABHĀVA) must be intrinsically either one or many. Whatever is neither intrinsically one nor many must lack intrinsic nature. He then goes on to subject a wide range of important philosophical categories to this reasoning in an effort to demonstrate that nothing is endowed with intrinsic nature. These categories include the conditioned (such as the elements of earth, water, fire, and wind), the unconditioned (NIRVĀnA), the person (PUDGALA) asserted by the VĀTSĪPUTRĪYAs, and space (ĀKĀsA). He continues on to apply this same reasoning to the major categories of consciousness of various Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools, focusing upon VAIBHĀsIKA, SAUTRĀNTIKA, and the various subschools of VIJNĀNAVĀDA. In the course of this section, he considers such important topics in Buddhist epistemology as whether or not the object casts an image or "aspect" (ĀKĀRA), toward the perceiving consciousness, and whether reflexivity (SVASAMVEDANA) exists. He concludes that consciousness lacks intrinsic nature (NIḤSVABHĀVA). Roughly the last third of the text is devoted to an exposition of the two truths (SATYADVAYA). He concludes by stating that the follower of the Buddha has compassion for those who hold mistaken philosophical views.
Mahākāla. (T. Nag po chen po; C. Daheitian; J. Daikokuten; K. Taehŭkch'on 大黑天). In Sanskrit, the "Great Black One"; one of the most important wrathful deities of tantric Buddhism. He is a DHARMAPĀLA or "protector of the dharma," of the LOKOTTARA or "supramundane" variety; that is, one regarded as the manifestation of a buddha or bodhisattva. He is said to be the wrathful manifestation of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion. In the form of Avalokitesvara with a thousand arms and eleven heads (see SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA), the top head is that of Mahākāla. He has many aspects, including two-, four-, and six-armed forms, and appears in several colors, the most famous being black and white. He wears a crown of five skulls, symbolizing the transmutation of the five afflictions (KLEsA) into the five wisdoms (PANCAJNĀNA) of a buddha. One of his most popular forms in Tibet is as PaNjaranātha or "Protector of the Pavilion." In this form, which derives from the VajrapaNjaratantra, he is the protector of the HEVAJRATANTRA cycle. Here is depicted as a dwarf-like figure, holding a wooden staff across his arms. In Japan, where he is known as Daikokuten, Mahākāla is a less frightening figure and is one of the "seven gods of good fortune" (SHICHIFUKUJIN), extolled as a god of wealth and a god of the household.
mahākarunā. (T. snying rje chen mo; C. dabei; J. daihi K. taebi 大悲). In Sanskrit, "great compassion"; the compassion specific to BODHISATTVAs, viz., the wish to free all sentient beings from suffering. In expositions of the bodhisattva path, great compassion is distinguished from compassion (KARUnĀ), often defined as the wish that others be free from suffering. "Great compassion" is distinguished both by its scope (all beings) and its agency (one oneself wishes to remove the suffering of others). Thus, it is said that compassion is possessed by both sRĀVAKAs and PRATYEKABUDDHAs who seek the state of the ARHAT, whereas great compassion is limited to bodhisattvas, who decide to seek buddhahood in order to fulfill the wish to liberate all beings from suffering. In this sense, great compassion is regarded as the precursor to BODHICITTA. Thirty-two specific types of a tathāgata's great compassion are listed in the MAHĀVYUTPATTI. Mahākarunā is also an epithet of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion (see MAHĀKARUnIKA), and specifically to his manifestation as the "thousand-armed and thousand-handed AVALOKITEsVARA" (S. SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA).
Mahākarunika. (T. Thugs rje chen po; C. Dabeizhe; J. Daihisha; K. Taebija 大悲者). In Sanskrit, "Great Compassionate One"; an epithet of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion. The name Mahākarunika is also used specifically to refer to one of the more famous iconographic forms of the bodhisattva, his manifestation as the "thousand-armed and thousand-handed Avalokitesvara" (S. SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA). In some versions of this image, each of the hands has an eye in the palm, indicating its ability compassionately to see and offer assistance to suffering sentient beings. In China, the esoteric code associated with Mahākarunika, the DABEI ZHOU (great compassion DHĀRAnĪ), is often chanted at regular offices, especially in Chan monasteries, and is a common part of funeral ceremonies for monks and nuns. ¶ In the UPĀYAKAUsALYASuTRA, Mahākarunika is the name of the Buddha in his previous life as a ship captain. Learning that a bandit plans to murder a group of five hundred merchants also traveling on the ship, the ship captain kills the bandit in order to save the lives of the merchants and to prevent the bandit from committing himself the misdeed of murder. It is said that the ship captain did not suffer any negative results from this deed. This story is often cited as an example of justifiable homicide in Buddhism.
MahāsaMmata. (T. Mang pos bkur pa; C. Dapingdeng wang; J. Daibyodo o; K. Taep'yongdŭng wang 大平等王). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "Greatly Revered" or "Great Consensus"; proper name of the first king of the current world system. After humans began to be reborn following the formation of this current world, wickedness arose, and it became necessary to select a king in order to bring order to society. One person was chosen to rule and he was called MahāsaMmata. In return for serving as king, he was allotted a portion of the harvest. He ruled compassionately without needing to resort to torture, fines, or exile. He is regarded as the progenitor of the KsATRIYA caste, an ancient ancestor of the sĀKYA clan, and as a previous incarnation of the Buddha.
Mahāsthāmaprāpta. (T. Mthu chen thob; C. Dashizhi; J. Daiseishi; K. Taeseji 大勢至). In Sanskrit, "He who has Attained Great Power"; a BODHISATTVA best known as one of the two attendants (along with the far more popular AVALOKITEsVARA) of the buddha AMITĀBHA in his buddha-field (BUDDHAKsETRA) of SUKHĀVATĪ. Mahāsthāmaprāpta is said to represent Amitābha's wisdom, while Avalokitesvara represents his compassion. According to the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING, the light of wisdom emanating from Mahāsthāmaprāpta illuminates all sentient beings, enabling them to leave behind the three unfortunate destinies (APĀYA; DURGATI) and attain unexcelled power; thus, Mahāsthāmaprāpta is considered the bodhisattva of power or strength. There is also a method of contemplation of the bodhisattva, which is the eleventh of the sixteen contemplations described in the Guan jing. An adept who contemplates Mahāsthāmaprāpta comes to reside in the lands of all the buddhas, being relieved from innumerable eons of continued birth-and-death. In the suRAMGAMASuTRA, the bodhisattva advocates the practice of BUDDHĀNUSMṚTI. Mahāsthāmaprāpta also appears in the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") as one of the bodhisattvas who assembled on Vulture Peak (GṚDHRAKutAPARVATA) to hear the teachings of the buddha sĀKYAMUNI. Iconographically, the bodhisattva is rarely depicted alone; he almost always appears in a triad together with Amitābha and Avalokitesvara. Mahāsthāmaprāpta can often be recognized by a small jar on his jeweled crown, which is believed to contain pure water to cleanse sentient beings' afflictions (KLEsA). He is also often described as holding a lotus flower in his hand or joining his palms together in ANJALI. Mahāsthāmaprāpta is one of the twenty-five bodhisattvas who protects those who recite Amitābha's name and welcomes them on their deathbed to the Buddha's PURE LAND. Serving as one of the thirteen bodhisattvas of the Japanese SHINGONSHu of esoteric Buddhism, Mahāsthāmaprāpta is believed to preside over the special ceremony marking the first year anniversary of one's death. He is also depicted in the Cloister of the Lotus Division (Rengebu-in) in the TAIZoKAI MAndALA.
Mahatma: Sanskrit for great soul. An adept of occult sciences and arts who has attained the highest degree of esoteric knowledge. In theosophical terminology, the name is applied to a class of great ones, “elder brothers,” “masters of wisdom and compassion,” living in India and Tibet, who, because of their sympathy for mankind, have renounced the privilege of continuing further their spiritual evolution, to help others who are less advanced than they themselves.
maitrah karuna eva ca ::: [friendly and compassionate]. [Gita 12.13]
Maitreya. (P. Metteya; T. Byams pa; C. Mile; J. Miroku; K. Mirŭk 彌勒). In Sanskrit, "The Benevolent One"; the name of the next buddha, who now abides in TUsITA heaven as a BODHISATTVA, awaiting the proper time for him to take his final rebirth. Buddhists believed that their religion, like all conditioned things, was inevitably impermanent and would eventually vanish from the earth (cf. SADDHARMAVIPRALOPA; MOFA). According to one such calculation, the teachings of the current buddha sĀKYAMUNI would flourish for five hundred years after his death, after which would follow a one-thousand-year period of decline and a three-thousand-year period in which the dharma would be completely forgotten. At the conclusion of this long disappearance, Maitreya would then take his final birth in India (JAMBUDVĪPA) in order to reestablish the Buddhist dispensation anew. According to later calculations, Maitreya will not take rebirth for some time, far longer than the 4,500 years mentioned earlier. He will do so only after the human life span has decreased to ten years and then increased to eighty thousand years. (Stalwart scholiasts have calculated that his rebirth will occur 5.67 billion years after the death of sākyamuni.) Initially a minor figure in early Indian Buddhism, Maitreya (whose name derives from the Indic MAITRĪ, meaning "loving-kindness" or "benevolence") evolved during the early centuries of the Common Era into one of the most popular figures in Buddhism across Asia in both the mainstream and MAHĀYĀNA traditions. He is also known as AJITA, although there are indications that, at some point in history, the two were understood to be different deities. As the first bodhisattva to become a figure of worship, his imagery and cult set standards for the development of later bodhisattvas who became objects of cultic worship, such as AVALOKITEsVARA and MANJUsRĪ. Worship of Maitreya began early in Indian Buddhism and became especially popular in Central and East Asia during the fifth and sixth centuries. Such worship takes several forms, with disciples praying to either meet him when he is reborn on earth or in tusita heaven so that they may then take rebirth with him when he becomes a buddha, a destiny promised in the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") to those who recite his name. Maitreya is also said to appear on earth, such as in a scene in the Chinese pilgrim XUANZANG's account of his seventh-century travels to India: attacked by pirates as he sailed on the Ganges River, Xuanzang prayed to and was rescued by the bodhisattva. Maitreya also famously appeared to the great Indian commentator ASAnGA in the form of a wounded dog as a means of teaching him the importance of compassion. Devotees across the Buddhist world also attempt to extend their life span in order to be alive when Maitreya comes, or to be reborn at the time of his presence in the world, a worldly paradise that will be known as ketumati. His earliest iconography depicts him standing or sitting, holding a vase (KUndIKĀ), symbolizing his imminent birth into the brāhmana caste, and displaying the ABHAYAMUDRĀ, both features that remain common attributes of his images. In addition, he frequently has a small STuPA in his headdress, believed to represent a prophecy regarding his descent to earth to receive the robes of his predecessor from MAHĀKĀsYAPA. Maitreya is also commonly depicted as a buddha, often shown sitting in "European pose" (BHADRĀSANA; see also MAITREYĀSANA), displaying the DHARMACAKRAMUDRĀ. He is said to sit in a chair in "pensive" posture in order to be able to quickly stand and descend to earth at the appropriate time. Once he is reborn, Maitreya will replicate the deeds of sākyamuni, with certain variations. For example, he will live the life of a householder for eight thousand years, but having seen the four sights (CATURNIMITTA) and renounced the world, he will practice asceticism for only one week before achieving buddhahood. As the Buddha, he will first travel to Mount KUKKUtAPĀDA near BODHGAYĀ where the great ARHAT Mahākāsyapa has been entombed in a state of deep SAMĀDHI, awaiting the advent of Maitreya. Mahākāsyapa has kept the robes of sākyamuni, which the previous buddha had entrusted to him to pass on to his successor. Upon his arrival, the mountain will break open, and Mahākāsyapa will come forth from a stupa and give Maitreya his robes. When Maitreya accepts the robes, it will only cover two fingers of his hands, causing people to comment at how diminutive the past buddha must have been. ¶ The cult of Maitreya entered East Asia with the initial propagation of Buddhism and reached widespread popularity starting in the fourth century CE, a result of the popularity of the Saddharmapundarīkasutra and several other early translations of Maitreya scriptures made in the fourth and fifth centuries. The Saddharmapundarīkasutra describes Maitreya's present abode in the tusita heaven, while other sutras discuss his future rebirth on earth and his present residence in heaven. Three important texts belonging to the latter category were translated into Chinese, starting in the fifth century, with two differing emphases: (1) the Guan Mile pusa shangsheng doushuo tian jing promised sentient beings the prospect of rebirth in tusita heaven together with Maitreya; and (2) the Guan Mile pusa xiasheng jing and (3) the Foshuo Mile da chengfo jing emphasized the rebirth of Maitreya in this world, where he will attain buddhahood under the Dragon Flower Tree (Nāgapuspa) and save numerous sentient beings. These three texts constituted the three principal scriptures of the Maitreya cult in East Asia. In China, Maitreya worship became popular from at least the fourth century: DAO'AN (312-385) and his followers were among the first to propagate the cult of Maitreya and the prospect of rebirth in tusita heaven. With the growing popularity of Maitreya, millenarian movements associated with his cult periodically developed in East Asia, which had both devotional and political dimensions. For example, when the Empress WU ZETIAN usurped the Tang-dynasty throne in 690, her followers attempted to justify the coup by referring to her as Maitreya being reborn on earth. In Korea, Maitreya worship was already popular by the sixth century. The Paekche king Mu (r. 600-641) identified his realm as the world in which Maitreya would be reborn. In Silla, the hwarang, an elite group of male youths, was often identified with Maitreya and such eminent Silla monks as WoNHYO (617-686), WoNCH'ŬK (613-696), and Kyonghŭng (fl. seventh century) composed commentaries on the Maitreya scriptures. Paekche monks transmitted Maitreya worship to Japan in the sixth century, where it became especially popular in the late eighth century. The worship of Maitreya in Japan regained popularity around the eleventh century, but gradually was replaced by devotions to AMITĀBHA and KsITIGARBHA. The worship of Maitreya has continued to exist to the present day in both Korea and Japan. The Maitreya cult was influential in the twentieth century, for example, in the establishment of the Korean new religions of Chŭngsan kyo and Yonghwa kyo. Maitreya also merged in China and Japan with a popular indigenous figure, BUDAI (d. 916)-a monk known for his fat belly-whence he acquired his now popular East Asian form of the "laughing Buddha." This Chinese holy man is said to have been an incarnation of the bodhisattva Maitreya (J. Miroku Bosatsu) and is included among the Japanese indigenous pantheon known as the "seven gods of good fortune"(SHICHIFUKUJIN). Hotei represents contentment and happiness and is often depicted holding a large cloth bag (Hotei literally means "hemp sack"). From this bag, which never empties, he feeds the poor and needy. In some places, he has also become the patron saint of restaurants and bars, since those who drink and eat well are said to be influenced by Hotei. Today, nearly all Chinese Buddhist monasteries (and many restaurants as well) will have an image of this Maitreya at the front entrance; folk belief has it that by rubbing his belly one can establish the potential for wealth.
maitrī. (P. mettā; T. byams pa; C. ci/cibei; J. ji/jihi; K. cha/chabi 慈/慈悲). In Sanskrit, "loving-kindness," "kindness"; often seen in Western literature in its Pāli form mettā. Loving-kindness is one of the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) and the four immeasurables (APRAMĀnA), and is defined as the wish for happiness; the other three divine abidings and immeasurables are KARUnĀ, or compassion; MUDITĀ, or sympathetic joy; and UPEKsĀ, or equanimity. Of the four divine abidings, loving-kindness, along with sympathetic joy and compassion, is capable of producing the first three of the four states of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). Equanimity alone is capable of producing the fourth dhyāna. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, loving-kindness is listed as one among forty meditative topics (KAMMAttHĀNA). The text indicates that divine abidings, including loving-kindness, are only to be used for the cultivation of tranquility (P. samatha; S. sAMATHA), not insight (P. VIPASSANĀ; VIPAsYANĀ). In the Visuddhimagga, BUDDHAGHOSA recommends that the practice of mettā (maitrī) begin with wishing for happiness for oneself, and then extending that wish to others. In other contexts, maitrī, as the wish for the happiness of others, is considered one of the factors that motivates the BODHISATTVA to seek to save all beings from suffering. See also METTĀSUTTA.
Manasaputra(s)(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound word: manas, "mind," putra, "son" -- "sons of mind." The teaching is thatthere exists a Hierarchy of Compassion, which H. P. Blavatsky sometimes called the Hierarchy of Mercyor of Pity. This is the light side of nature as contrasted with its matter side or shadow side, its night side.It is from this Hierarchy of Compassion that came those semi-divine entities at about the middle periodof the third root-race of this round, who incarnated in the semi-conscious, quasi-senseless men of thatperiod. These advanced entities are otherwise known as the solar lhas as the Tibetans call them, the solarspirits, who were the men of a former kalpa, and who during the third root-race thus sacrificedthemselves in order to give us intellectual light -- incarnating in those senseless psychophysical shells inorder to awaken the divine flame of egoity and self-consciousness in the sleeping egos which we thenwere. They are ourselves because belonging to the same spiritray that we do; yet we, more strictlyspeaking, were those halfunconscious, half-awakened egos whom they touched with the divine fire oftheir own being. This, our "awakening," was called by H. P. Blavatsky, the incarnation of themanasaputras, or the sons of mind or light. Had that incarnation not taken place, we indeed should havecontinued our evolution by merely "natural" causes, but it would have been slow almost beyondcomprehension, almost interminable; but that act of self-sacrifice, through their immense pity, theirimmense love, though, indeed, acting under karmic impulse, awakened the divine fire in our own selves,gave us light and comprehension and understanding. From that time we ourselves became "sons of thegods," the faculty of self-consciousness in us was awakened, our eyes were opened, responsibilitybecame ours; and our feet were set then definitely upon the path, that inner path, quiet, wonderful,leading us inwards back to our spiritual home.The manasaputras are our higher natures and, paradoxical as it is, are more largely evolved beings thanwe are. They were the spiritual entities who "quickened" our personal egos, which were thus evolved intoself-consciousness, relatively small though that yet be. One, and yet many! As you can light an infinitenumber of candles from one lighted candle, so from a spark of consciousness can you quicken andenliven innumerable other consciousnesses, lying, so to speak, in sleep or latent in the life-atoms.These manasaputras, children of mahat, are said to have quickened and enlightened in us themanas-manas of our manas septenary, because they themselves are typically manasic in their essentialcharacteristic or svabhava. Their own essential or manasic vibrations, so to say, could cause that essenceof manas in ourselves to vibrate in sympathy, much as the sounding of a musical note will causesympathetic response in something like it, a similar note in other things. (See also Agnishvattas)
Ma ni bka' 'bum. In Tibetan, "One Hundred Thousand Pronouncements [Regarding] Mani"; a heterogenious compilation of texts traditionally attributed to the Tibetan king SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO. This large collection of works, usually published in two massive volumes, is generally understood as a treasure text (GTER MA), said to have been revealed by three individuals during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: the SIDDHA Gngos grub (Ngodrup), the famed treasure revealer (GTER STON) NYANG RAL NYI MA 'OD ZER, and Shākya 'Od-a disciple in the Nyang ral lineage sometimes known as Shākya bzang po (Shākya Sangpo). The texts are organized into three parts or cycles (skor): (1) "The cycle of SuTRAs" (mdo skor), containing many legendary accounts of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA and Srong btsan sgam po; (2) "the cycle of sādhanas" (sgrub skor), containing various meditation manuals (SĀDHANA) based on different aspects of Avalokitesvara; and (3) "the cycle of precepts" (zhal gdams kyi skor), a miscellany of texts, many of which relate to the bodhisattva of great compassion. The remaining texts are sometimes referred to as "the cycle of the disclosure of the hidden" (gab pa mngon phyung gi skor). The title of the collection refers to the famed six-syllable MANTRA of Avalokitesvara, OM MAnI PADME HuM. The texts are an important early source for many of Tibet's key legends: the activities of Srong btsan sgam po, including the founding of the JO KHANG temple, and the status of Avalokitesvara as the special protector of Tibet and the Tibetan people, incarnated in the person of Srong btsan sgam po himself. The Ma ni bka' 'bum also includes an account of a set of four statues (three or five according to some sources) in a form of AVALOKITEsVARA (called the "Four Brother Statues of Avalokitesvara") said to have spontaneously arisen by miraculous means from the trunk of single sandalwood tree. According to the Tibetan text, the Tibetan king Srong bstan sgam po dispatched a monk named Akarasīla to southern Nepal, where he discovered the four images in the midst of a large sandalwood grove. Akarasīla then "invited" the statues to reside in various locations in order to dispel misery and strife and serve as the basis for religious practice. These statues are considered some of the most sacred Buddhist images in Nepal and Tibet. In their most common reckoning, the four brothers are: (1) the white MATSYENDRANĀTH in Jana Bāhāl, Kathmandu, Nepal; (2) the red Matsyendranāth in nearby Patan; (3) the Ārya Lokesvara in the PO TA LA Palace, LHA SA; (4) and the 'PHAGS PA WA TI in SKYID GRONG, southern Tibet (a part of which is now in possession of the Dalai Lama in exile). Sometimes a fifth image is included: the Minanāth in Patan.
MaNjusrī. (T. 'Jam dpal; C. Wenshushili; J. Monjushiri; K. Munsusari 文殊師利). In Sanskrit, "Gentle Glory," also known as MANJUGHOsA, "Gentle Voice"; one of the two most important BODHISATTVAs in MAHĀYĀNA Buddhism (along with AVALOKITEsVARA). MaNjusrī seems to derive from a celestial musician (GANDHARVA) named PaNcasikha (Five Peaks), who dwelled on a five-peaked mountain (see WUTAISHAN), whence his toponym. MaNjusrī is the bodhisattva of wisdom and sometimes is said to be the embodiment of all the wisdom of all the buddhas. MaNjusrī, Avalokitesvara, and VAJRAPĀnI are together known as the "protectors of the three families" (TRIKULANĀTHA), representing wisdom, compassion, and power, respectively. Among his many epithets, the most common is KUMĀRABHuTA, "Ever Youthful." Among MaNjusrī's many forms, the most famous shows him seated in the lotus posture (PADMĀSANA), dressed in the raiments of a prince, his right hand holding a flaming sword above his head, his left hand holding the stem of a lotus that blossoms over his left shoulder, a volume of the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ atop the lotus. MaNjusrī plays a major role in many of the most renowned Mahāyāna sutras. MaNjusrī first comes to prominence in the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, which probably dates no later than the first century CE, where only MaNjusrī has the courage to visit and debate with the wise layman VIMALAKĪRTI and eventually becomes the interlocutor for Vimalakīrti's exposition of the dharma. In the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, only MaNjusrī understands that the Buddha is about to preach the "Lotus Sutra." In the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, it is MaNjusrī who sends SUDHANA out on his pilgrimage. In the Ajātasatrukaukṛtyavinodana, it is revealed that MaNjusrī inspired sĀKYAMUNI to set out on the bodhisattva path many eons ago, and that he had played this same role for all the buddhas of the past; indeed, the text tells us that MaNjusrī, in his guise as an ever-youthful prince, is the father of all the buddhas. He is equally important in tantric texts, including those in which his name figures in the title, such as the MANJUsRĪMuLAKALPA and the MANJUsRĪNĀMASAMGĪTI. The bull-headed deity YAMĀNTAKA is said to be the wrathful form of MaNjusrī. Buddhabhadra's early fifth-century translation of the AvataMsakasutra is the first text that seemed to connect MaNjusrī with Wutaishan (Five-Terrace Mountain) in China's Shaanxi province. Wutaishan became an important place of pilgrimage in East Asia beginning at least by the Northern Wei dynasty (424-532), and eventually drew monks in search of a vision of MaNjusrī from across the Asian continent, including Korea, Japan, India, and Tibet. The Svayambhupurāna of Nepal recounts that MaNjusrī came from China to worship the STuPA located in the middle of a great lake. So that humans would be able worship the stupa, he took his sword and cut a great gorge at the southern edge of the lake, draining the water and creating the Kathmandu Valley. As the bodhisattva of wisdom, MaNjusrī is propiated by those who wish to increase their knowledge and learning. It is considered efficacious to recite his mantra "oM arapacana dhīḥ" (see ARAPACANA); Arapacana is an alternate name for MaNjusrī.
Mar pa Chos kyi blo gros. (Marpa Chokyi Lodro) (1012-1097). A renowned Tibetan translator and lay Buddhist master who played an important role in the later transmission (PHYI DAR) of Buddhism from India to Tibet. He is regarded as the Tibetan founder of the BKA' BRGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which traces its lineage to India and the MAHĀSIDDHAs TILOPA and NĀROPA. In his traditional biographies, Mar pa is generally regarded as a reincarnation of the Indian mahāsiddha DOMBĪ HERUKA. Mar pa was born to wealthy landowners in the southern Tibetan region of LHO BRAG and quickly proved to be a gifted child. As an adult, Mar pa was characterized as having a volatile temper, although ultimately compassionate. His parents sent their son to study Sanskrit and Indian vernacular languages with the translator 'BROG MI SHĀKYA YE SHES in western Tibet. Because resources for studying Buddhism in Tibet were limited as the so-called dark period between the earlier dissemination (SNGA DAR) and later dissemination (phyi dar) came to an end, Mar pa decided to make the harrowing journey to India to seek instruction from Buddhist masters. He would make three journeys there over the course of his life. He first spent three years in Nepal, acclimating to the new environment and continuing his study of local languages. There he met two Nepalese teachers, Chitherpa and Paindapa, who offered many religious instructions but also encouraged Mar pa to seek out the master who would become his chief guru, the great SIDDHA NĀROPA. According to tradition, Mar pa studied under Nāropa at the forest retreat of Pullahari, receiving initiations and teachings of several important tantric lineages, especially those of the BKA' 'BABS BZHI (four transmissions) that Nāropa had received from his principal teacher TILOPA. Despite the fame of this encounter, contemporary Tibetan sources indicate that Mar pa himself never claimed to have studied directly with Nāropa, who had already passed away prior to Mar pa's trip to India. Mar pa's other great master was the Indian siddha MAITRĪPA, from whom he received instruction in MAHĀMUDRĀ and the tradition of DOHĀ, or spiritual song. Mar pa received other tantric transmissions from Indian masters such as JNānagarbha and Kukkurīpā. Upon his return to Tibet, Mar pa married several women, the most well known being BDAG ME MA, who figures prominently in the life story of MI LA RAS PA. He began his career as teacher and translator, while also occupying himself as landowner and farmer. He had intended to pass his dharma lineage to his son DARMA MDO SDE, for whom Mi la ras pa's famous tower was built, but the child was killed in an equestrian accident. Mar pa's accumulated instructions were later passed to four principal disciples: Ngog Chos sku rdo rje (Ngok Choku Dorje), Mes tshon po (Me Tsonpo), 'Tshur dbang nge (Tsur Wangnge), and the renowned YOGIN and poet Mi la ras pa. At least sixteen works translated from Sanskrit by Mar pa are preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon. He is also known as Mar pa LO TSĀ BA (Marpa the Translator) and Lho brag pa (Man from Lhodrak). Among the biographies of Mar pa, one of the most famous is that by GTSANG SMYON HERUKA.
masamarthyam) ::: compassion, sovereignty, capacity for action (see next).
Master of wisdom and compassion: See: Mahatma.
merciful ::: a. --> Full of mercy; having or exercising mercy; disposed to pity and spare offenders; unwilling to punish.
Unwilling to give pain; compassionate.
merciful ::: full of mercy; compassionate.
mercy ::: compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one"s power; compassion, pity, or benevolence.
mercy ::: n. --> Forbearance to inflict harm under circumstances of provocation, when one has the power to inflict it; compassionate treatment of an offender or adversary; clemency.
Compassionate treatment of the unfortunate and helpless; sometimes, favor, beneficence.
Disposition to exercise compassion or favor; pity; compassion; willingness to spare or to help.
A blessing regarded as a manifestation of compassion or
Messenger ::: In the theosophical sense, an individual who comes with a mandate from the Lodge of the Masters ofWisdom and Compassion to do a certain work in the world.Only real genius -- indeed something more than merely human genius -- only extraordinary spiritual andintellectual capacity, native to the constitution of some lofty human being, could explain the reason forthe choice of such messengers. But, indeed, this is not saying enough; because in addition to genius andto merely native spiritual and intellectual capacity such a messenger must possess through initiatorytraining the capacity of throwing at will the intermediate or psychological nature into a state of perfectquiescence or receptivity for the stream of divine-spiritual inspiration flowing forth from the messenger'sown inner divinity or monadic essence. It is obvious, therefore, that such a combination of rare andunusual qualities is not often found in human beings; and, when found, such a one is fit for the work tobe done by such a messenger of the Association of great ones.The Masters of Wisdom and Compassion and Peace send their envoys continuously into the world ofmen, one after the other, and in consequence these envoys are working in the world among men all thetime. Happy are they whose hearts recognize the footfalls of those crossing the mountaintops of theMystic East. The messengers do not always do public work before the world, but frequently work in thesilences and unknown of men, or relatively unknown. At certain times, however, they are commissionedand empowered and directed to do their work publicly and to make public announcement of theirmission. Such, for instance, was the case of H. P. Blavatsky.
Mind-born Born of imagination and will — through kriyasakti, the power of thought and mind — not begotten or produced by any physical mode of procreation. It sometimes refers to sons of will and yoga, sons of wisdom, spiritual dhyanis, sons of the prajapatis, mind-born sons of Brahma, etc. They were the ancestors of the self-conscious human races first appearing numerously during the fourth round, and otherwise known as solar lhas, solar spirits, angishvattas, manasaputras, dhyani-chohans. They had been self-conscious men in a former embodiment of the earth-chain, and it was their lot to awaken self-conscious mind in the mankind of this round. They entered the early third root-race and awakened the intellectual fire in them. The manasas rejected some earlier subraces as unfit vehicles for themselves, hence as refusing to “create,” i.e., emanate mind from themselves to inform these unready or unevolved human vehicles. The mind-born sons of the early third root-race were the first themselves to arouse the fire of mind in the unself-conscious human vehicles, and were the highest and therefore the least affected by such lower contact. Retaining their self-consciousness in full and therefore not falling into oblivion, these were the first founders as fully self-conscious humans of the earliest groups of god-inspired men, the forerunners of what later became the ancient Mysteries. A branch of these entities has continued from immemorial time as the Great Lodge of the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion.
misericorde ::: n. --> Compassion; pity; mercy.
Same as Misericordia, 2.
Moment of Choice The turning point in evolution, when the temporary balance between spirit and matter, or between upward and downward movements, has been reached. The evolving entity can then no longer remain neutral and undecided, but must choose definitely whether to continue upward or to enter upon a downward path. When the movement towards pralaya prevails, all the classes of evolving beings gravitate to their appropriate sphere: spirit to spirit, matter to matter, manas to mahat. But this dividing of the ways occurs for self-conscious entities at every step of the path, so that in this sense the moment of choice is continuous. Although this moment of choice is continuous for the individual, yet a point occurs in human evolution when the decision must definitely be made to follow the upward path or to follow the matter side of evolution. There is also the choice that must be made when the individual has reached the peak of human evolution on this globe, when the decision is finally to be made whether he will follow the path of the Buddhas of Compassion, or pursue the way of self and become a Pratyeka Buddha.
Mother, four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this Universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness. Another embo&es her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force. A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact per- fection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several attributes and it Is these powers that they bring with them into the world. To the four we give the four great names, Maheshvari, Mahakali, Mabalakshmi, Mahasarasvati.
muditā. (T. dga' ba; C. xi; J. ki; K. hŭi 喜). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "joy" or "sympathetic joy"; the third of the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) and four immeasurables (APRAMĀnA). Sympathetic joy is the attitude of taking delight in the happiness and good fortune of others and is the opposite of jealousy and envy. The other three divine abidings and immeasurables are MAITRĪ (loving-kindness), KARUnĀ (compassion), and UPEKsĀ (equanimity). The divine abidings are used for the cultivation of tranquillity or serenity meditation (sAMATHA). Of the four divine abidings, sympathetic joy, along with loving-kindness and compassion, is capable of producing the first three of four states of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). Equanimity alone is capable of producing the fourth dhyāna. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, sympathetic joy is listed as one among forty possible meditative topics (KAMMAttHĀNA). The text indicates that, along with the other three divine abidings, sympathetic joy is used only for the cultivation of tranquillity, not to cultivate insight (P. VIPASSANĀ; S. VIPAsYANĀ).
namu Amidabutsu. (C. namo Amituo fo; K. namu Amit'a pul 南無阿彌陀佛). In Japanese, "I take refuge in the buddha AMITĀBHA." Chanting of the name of the buddha Amitābha as a form of "buddha-recollection" (J. nenbutsu; see C. NIANFO) is often associated with the PURE LAND traditions. In Japan, nenbutsu practice was spread throughout the country largely through the efforts of itinerant holy men (HIJIRI), such as KuYA and IPPEN. With the publication of GENSHIN's oJo YoSHu, the practice of nenbutsu and the prospect of rebirth in Amitābha's pure land came to play an integral role as well in the TENDAI tradition. HoNEN, a learned monk of the Tendai sect, inspired in part by reading the writings of the Chinese exegete SHANDAO, became convinced that the nenbutsu was the most appropriate form of Buddhist practice for people in the degenerate age of the dharma (J. mappo; C. MOFA). Honen set forth his views in a work called Senchaku hongan nenbutsushu ("On the Nenbutsu Selected in the Primal Vow," see SENCHAKUSHu). The title refers to the vow made eons ago by the bodhisattva DHARMĀKARA that he would become the buddha Amitābha, create the pure land of bliss (SUKHĀVATĪ), and deliver to that realm anyone who called his name. To illustrate the power of the practice of nenbutsu, Honen contrasted "right practice" and the "practice of sundry good acts." "Right practice" refers to all forms of worship of Amitābha, the most important of which is the recitation of his name. "Practice of sundry good acts" refers to ordinary virtuous deeds performed by Buddhists, which are meritorious but lack the power of "right practice" that derives from the grace of Amitābha. Indeed, the power of Amitābha's vow is so great that those who sincerely recite his name, Honen suggests, do not necessarily need to dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the land of bliss because recitation will naturally result in rebirth there. Honen goes on to explain that each bodhisattva makes specific vows about the particular practice that will result in rebirth in their buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). Some buddha-fields are for those who practice charity (DĀNA), others for those who construct STuPAs, and others for those who honor their teachers. While Amitābha was still the bodhisattva Dharmākara, he compassionately selected a very simple practice that would lead to rebirth in his pure land of bliss: the mere recitation of his name. Honen recognized how controversial these teachings would be if they were widely espoused, so he instructed that the Senchakushu not be published until after his death and allowed only his closest disciples to read and copy it. His teachings gained popularity in a number of influential circles but were considered anathema by the existing sects of Buddhism in Japan because of his promotion of the sole practice of reciting the name. His critics charged him with denigrating sĀKYAMUNI Buddha, with neglecting virtuous deeds other than the recitation of the name, and with abandoning the meditation and visualization practices that should accompany the chanting of the name. Some years after Honen's death, the printing xylographs of the Senchakushu were confiscated and burned as works harmful to the dharma. However, by that time, the teachings of Honen had gained a wide following among both aristocrats and the common people. Honen's disciple SHINRAN came to hold even more radical views. Like Honen, he believed that any attempt to rely on one's own powers (JIRIKI) to achieve freedom from SAMSĀRA was futile; the only viable course of action was to rely on the power of Amitābha. But for Shinran, this power was pervasive. Even to make the effort to repeat silently "namu Amidabutsu" was a futile act of hubris. The very presence of the sounds of Amitābha's name in one's heart was due to Amitābha's compassionate grace. It was therefore redundant to repeat the name more than once in one's life. Instead, a single utterance (ICHINENGI) would assure rebirth in the pure land; all subsequent recitation should be regarded as a form of thanksgiving. This utterance need be neither audible nor even voluntary; instead, it is heard in the heart as a consequence of the "single thought-moment" of faith (shinjin, see XINXIN), received through Amitābha's grace. Shinran not only rejected the value of multiple recitations of the phrase namu Amidabutsu; he also regarded the deathbed practices advocated by Genshin to bring about rebirth in the pure land as inferior self-power (jiriki). Despite harsh persecution by rival Buddhist traditions and the government, the followers of Honen and Shinran came to form the largest Buddhist community in Japan, known as the JoDOSHu and JoDO SHINSHu.
Nirmanakaya(Sanskrit) ::: A compound of two words: nirmana, a participle meaning "forming," "creating"; kaya, a wordmeaning "body," "robe," "vehicle"; thus, nirmanakaya means "formed-body." A nirmanakaya, however,is really a state assumed by or entered into by a bodhisattva -- an individual man made semi-divine who,to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the nirvana of a less degree, remains on earthout of pity and compassion for inferior beings, clothing himself in a nirmanakayic vesture. When thatstate is ended the nirmanakaya ends.A nirmanakaya is a complete man possessing all the principles of his constitution except the linga-sariraand its accompanying physical body. He is one who lives on the plane of being next superior to thephysical plane, and his purpose in so doing is to save men from themselves by being with them, and bycontinuously instilling thoughts of self-sacrifice, of self-forgetfulness, of spiritual and moral beauty, ofmutual help, of compassion, and of pity.Nirmanakaya is the third or lowest, exoterically speaking, of what is called in Sanskrit trikaya or "threebodies." The highest is the dharmakaya, in which state are the nirvanis and full pratyeka buddhas, etc.;the second state is the sambhogakaya, intermediate between the former and, thirdly, the nirmanakaya.The nirmanakaya vesture or condition enables one entering it to live in touch and sympathy with theworld of men. The sambhogakaya enables one in that state to be conscious indeed to a certain extent ofthe world of men and its griefs and sorrows, but with little power or impulse to render aid. Thedharmakaya vesture is so pure and holy, and indeed so high, that the one possessing the dharmakaya orwho is in it, is virtually out of all touch with anything inferior to himself. It is, therefore, in thenirmanakaya vesture if not in physical form that live and work the Buddhas of Compassion, the greatestsages and seers, and all the superholy men who through striving through ages of evolution bring forthinto manifestation and power and function the divinity within. The doctrine of the nirmanakayas is one ofthe most suggestive, profound, and beautiful teachings of the esoteric philosophy. (See also Dharmakaya,Sambhogakaya)
Nirmanakaya (Sanskrit) Nirmāṇakāya [from nirmāṇa forming, creating + kāya body, robe, vehicle] Appearance body; the lowest of the trikaya, followed by sambhogakaya and dharmakaya. A state assumed by a bodhisattva who, instead of entering nirvana, remains on earth to help inferior beings. “A Nirmanakaya is a complete man possessing all the principles of his constitution except the Linga-sarira, and its accompanying physical body. He is one who lives on the plane of being next superior to the physical plane, and his purpose in so doing is to save men from themselves by being with them, and by continuously instilling thoughts of self-sacrifice, of self-forgetfulness, of spiritual and moral beauty, of mutual help, of compassion, and of pity” (OG 114). Beings in this state make a wall of protection around mankind, which shields humanity from evils.
Nirvana(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound: nir, "out," and vana, the past participle passive of the root va, "to blow,"literallly meaning "blown out." So badly has the significance of the ancient Indian thought (and even its language, the Sanskrit) been understood, that for many years erudite European scholars were discussingwhether being "blown out" meant actual entitative annihilation or not. But the being blown out refersonly to the lower principles in man.Nirvana is a very different thing from the "heavens." Nirvana is a state of utter bliss and complete,untrammeled consciousness, a state of absorption in pure kosmic Being, and is the wondrous destiny ofthose who have reached superhuman knowledge and purity and spiritual illumination. It really ispersonal-individual absorption into or rather identification with the Self -- the highest SELF. It is also thestate of the monadic entities in the period that intervenes between minor manvantaras or rounds of aplanetary chain; and more fully so between each seven-round period or Day of Brahma, and thesucceeding day or new kalpa of a planetary chain. At these last times, starting forth from the seventhsphere in the seventh round, the monadic entities will have progressed far beyond even the highest stateof devachan. Too pure and too far advanced even for such a condition as the devachanic felicity, they goto their appropriate sphere and condition, which latter is the nirvana following the end of the seventhround.Devachan and nirvana are not localities. They are states, states of the beings in those respective spiritualconditions. Devachan is the intermediate state; nirvana is the superspiritual state; and avichi, popularlycalled the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beingshaving habitat in the lokas or talas, in the worlds of the kosmic egg.So far as the individual human being is concerned, the nirvanic state or condition may be attained to bygreat spiritual seers and sages, such as Gautama the Buddha, and even by men less progressed than he;because in these cases of the attaining of the nirvana even during a man's life on earth, the meaning isthat one so attaining has through evolution progressed so far along the path that all the lower personalpart of him is become thoroughly impersonalized, the personal has put on the garment of impersonality,and such a man thereafter lives in the nirvanic condition of the spiritual monad.As a concluding thought, it must be pointed out that nirvana, while the ultima thule of the perfection tobe attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than thecondition of the bodhisattva. For the bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of nirvana andseeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness inthe worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. Thebuddhas in their higher parts enter the nirvana, in other words, assume the dharmakaya state or vesture,whereas the bodhisattva assumes the nirmanakaya vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active andcompassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The buddha indeed may be said to act indirectlyand by long distance control, thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but thebodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for theworld and for individuals.
“Nirvana, while the Ultima Thule of the perfection to be attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than the condition of the Bodhisattva. For the Bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of Nirvana and seeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness in the worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. The Buddhas in their higher parts enter the Nirvana, in other words, assume the Dharmakaya-state or vesture, whereas the Bodhisattva assumes the Nirmanakaya-vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active and compassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The Buddha indeed may be said to act indirectly and by ‘long distance control,’ thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but the Bodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for the world and for individuals” (OG 116-17).
niyāma. [alt. niyama] (T. nges par 'gyur ba; C. jueding; J. ketsujo; K. kyolchong 決定). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "constraint," "certainty," referring to the certainty of what is to come or the fixedness of things. Laws governing the universe are referred to as the five certainties (paNcaniyāma). According to the Pāli commentaries, these five certainties are (1) the certainty of the seasons (utuniyāma), which includes such aspects of the natural environment as the regular progression of the seasons, the rise and fall in temperature, etc.; (2) the certainty of seeds (bījaniyāma), which refers to botany, viz., that specific seeds produce specific plants, that certain fruits have certain flavors, and so on; (3) the certainty of action (kammaniyāma), which refers to the fact that virtuous actions lead to happiness in the future and nonvirtuous actions lead to suffering; (4) the certainty of mind (cittaniyāma), which includes the processes and constituents of consciousness; and (5) the certainty of the dharma (dhammaniyāma), which refers, among other things, to certain events that occur in the lives of all buddhas. ¶ In the MAHĀYĀNA, nyāma, a BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT word that is probably an alternate form of niyāma, has a different meaning, referring to the development of compassion that overcomes the faults of the HĪNAYĀNA and is unique to the bodhisattva path. It has been translated into English as "the fixed condition" of a bodhisattva or a bodhisattva's "distinctive way of salvation."
niyatagotra. (T. nges pa'i rigs; C. jueding zhongxing; J. ketsujo shusho; K. kyolchong chongsong 決定種性). In Sanskrit, "definite" or "fixed" "lineage," a term that appears in YOGĀCĀRA soteriological theories. According to some Yogācāra texts, sentient beings are endowed with a disposition that determines whether they will follow the path of a sRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, or BODHISATTVA and eventually achieve liberation from rebirth as an ARHAT or a buddha. This disposition, or lineage (GOTRA), according to some Yogācāra schools, is determined from time immemorial and cannot be altered. It is on the basis of this doctrine that the Yogācāra is said to assert the existence of three separate soteriological vehicles (TRIYĀNA). These Yogācāra schools do not therefore accept the famous declaration in SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") that all beings will eventually enter the MAHĀYĀNA and achieve buddhahood. In order to account for the possibility of beings who, prior to their entry into NIRVĀnA, move from a HĪNAYĀNA path to the Mahāyāna path (or vice versa), the Yogācāra asserts that some beings are endowed with an "indefinite lineage" (ANIYATAGOTRA), allowing them to change vehicles based on various circumstances, usually before reaching the aids to penetration (NIRVEDHABHĀGĪYA) that precede the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA). They also hold that some beings, called ICCHANTIKA (incorrigibles), belong to no spiritual lineage at all and thus are doomed never to achieve liberation. This doctrine of the presence and absence of particular lineages is associated with the Yogācāra exegete ASAnGA and is identified in East Asian Buddhism with the FAXIANG ZONG. The majority of Yogācāra texts, however, say that those fixed in a sRĀVAKA and PRATYEKABUDDHA lineage are only fixed in that lineage until they reach their goal; later, roused to enter the Mahāyāna by reflecting on the compassion of the Buddha, they then enter the bodhisattva lineage at the level of the MOKsABHĀGĪYA-KUsALAMuLA ("virtuous faculties that are aids to liberation") and achieve full awakening.
of compassion called Avalokiteshvara, who re¬
oM mani padme huM. (T. oM mani padme huM; C. an mani bami hong; J. on mani padomei un; K. om mani panme hum 唵嘛呢叭彌吽). In Sanskrit, "homage to the Jewel-Lotus One"; the most famous of all Buddhist MANTRAs and important especially in Tibetan Buddhism, where it is the mantra most commonly recited and most often placed in prayer wheels; indeed, the Tibetan term rendered in English as "prayer wheel" is MA nI 'KHOR LO, or "MAnI wheel." This phrase is the renowned mantra of the bodhisattva of compassion, AVALOKITEsVARA. The mantra seems to appear first in the KĀRAndAVYuHA, a MAHĀYĀNA SuTRA presumed to have been composed in KASHMIR sometime around the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century CE. The sutra exalts Avalokitesvara and praises the mantra at length, referring to it as the "six-syllable spell" (sAdAKsARĪVIDYĀ). Contrary to the widespread view, the mantra does not refer to "the jewel in the lotus." Instead, it is a call (in the vocative case in Sanskrit) to Avalokitesvara, using one of his epithets, Manipadma, "Jewel-Lotus One." The mantra receives extensive commentary in Tibetan Buddhism. For example, according to the MAnI BKA' 'BUM, the six syllables correspond to the six rebirth destinies (sAdGATI) of divinities, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell denizens, so that by reciting the mantra, one is closing the door for all sentient beings to any possibility of further rebirth. See also QIANSHOU JING.
One section of the Mahabharata is devoted to the attainment of svarga (heaven) by Yudhishthira. He set out on this pilgrimage with his dog, four brothers, and their wife Draupadi, who one by one fell by the way. Alone Yudhishthira and the dog ascended to svarga to be met by Dharma, who said the dog was not permitted to enter. Yudhishthira refused to enter without his dog and turned away from the goal, but Dharma explained that it was only a test of his compassion. Yudhishthira also descended into the underworld successfully, aiding his brothers and wife whom he found there, and they all ascended to svarga.
Orpheus may be regarded both as an ideal or as a man and teacher. In either case, whether cosmic or terrestrial, Orpheus corresponds to the unceasing attempts of the higher or spiritual ego to raise the lower ego out of the toils of matter, much as in the Gnostic story the Christos attempts to raises the Sophia, his own lower self or vehicle, out of the mire and toils of the inferior worlds. If the call of impersonal compassion be so strong that it become personal, in other words if Orpheus looks back to see and becomes attracted to the lower planes, he loses his Eurydice. Eurydice means “wide judgment,” the function of reason in the human constitution. Orpheus here would represent intuition, and Eurydice the reason: manas sunk in the earthly nature is raised to wisdom through buddhi.
Padmapāni. (T. Phyag na pad mo; C. Lianhuashou; J. Rengeshu; K. Yonhwasu 蓮華手). In Sanskrit, "He Who Holds a Lotus in His Hand," one of the common forms of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion. He is a two-armed form of the bodhisattva, holding a lotus blossom (PADMA) or the stem of a lotus flower in one hand, and is often depicted standing. One of the most famous images of Padmapāni is found at AJAntĀ.
Palaemon (Greek) palaimon. The wrestler; applied to Herakles and Melicertes, a name of Phoenician origin, taken from the Phoenician divinity Melcart. Ino, daughter of Cadmus and wife of Athamas, flying from her husband, sprang with her child Melicertes into the sea; the gods out of compassion made her a sea goddess and her son a god under the name of Palaemon.
parārtha. (T. gzhan don; C. lita; J. rita; K. it'a 利他). In Sanskrit, "welfare of others," "benefiting others." As part of his training, a BODHISATTVA, out of his concern for the welfare of others, willingly relinquishes motivations and deeds that would lead to his own personal benefit. For example, in the JĀTAKA stories, the bodhisattva repeatedly sacrifices his own welfare, and often his own life, for the benefit of others. This compassionate motivation is contrasted with the more selfish motivation of "benefiting oneself" (SVĀRTHA). However, it is said that through the practice of the bodhisattva path, one achieves buddhahood in which both of these two aims (ARTHA) are fulfilled. The welfare of others is fulfilled because the bodhisattva becomes a buddha who teaches the dharma to sentient beings. The welfare of oneself (that is, the bodhisattva himself) is fulfilled because, by achieving buddhahood, the bodhisattva achieves omniscience and liberation from rebirth.
Phra Malai. (P. Māleyya). A legendary arahant (S. ARHAT) and one of the most beloved figures in Thai Buddhist literature. According to legend, Phra Malai lived on the island of Sri Lanka and was known for his great compassion and supramundane abilities, including the power to fly to various realms of the Buddhist universe. On one of his visits to the hells, he alleviated the suffering of hell beings and then returned to the human realm to advise their relatives to make merit on their behalf. One day as he was on his alms round, he encountered a poor man who presented him with eight lotus blossoms. Phra Malai accepted the offering and then took the flowers to tāvatimsa (S. TRĀYASTRIMsA) heaven to present them at the Culāmani cetiya (S. caitya), where the hair relic of the Buddha is enshrined. Phra Malai then met the king of the gods, INDRA, and asked him various questions: why he had built the caitya, when the future buddha Metteya (S. MAITREYA) would come to pay respects to it, and how the other deities coming to worship had made sufficient merit to be reborn at such a high level. The conversation proceeded as one divinity after another arrived, with Indra's explanation of the importance of making merit by practicing DĀNA (generosity), observing the precepts and having faith. Eventually Metteya himself arrived and, after paying reverence to the chedi, asked Phra Malai about the people in the human realm. Phra Malai responded that there is great diversity in their living conditions, health, happiness, and spiritual faculties, but that they all hoped to meet Metteya in the future and hear him preach. Metteya in response told Phra Malai to tell those who wished to meet him to listen to the recitation of the entire VESSANTARA-JĀTAKA over the course of one day and one night, and to bring to the monastery offerings totaling a thousand flowers, candles, incense sticks, balls of rice, and other gifts. In the northern and northeastern parts of Thailand, this legend is recited in the local dialects (Lānnā Thai and Lao, respectively) as a preface to the performance or recitation of the Vessantara-Jātaka at an annual festival. In central and south Thailand, a variant of the legend emphasizing the suffering of the hell denizens was customarily recited at funeral wakes, a practice that is becoming less common in the twenty-first century.
piteous ::: a. --> Pious; devout.
Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender.
Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case.
Paltry; mean; pitiful.
pitiable ::: a. --> Deserving pity; wworthy of, or exciting, compassion; miserable; lamentable; piteous; as, pitiable persons; a pitiable condition; pitiable wretchedness.
pitiful ::: 1. Filled with pity or compassion. 2. Arousing pity, as through ineptitude or inadequacy.
pitiful ::: a. --> Full of pity; tender-hearted; compassionate; kind; merciful; sympathetic.
Piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion.
To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable.
pity, compassion, forgiveness; sympathy, understanding; divine mercy.
pity ::: n. --> Piety.
A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.
A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted. ::: v. t.
Planetary spirits parallel the Buddhist dhyani-chohans or dhyanis; with the exception that the Buddhist phrase has far larger application as it includes not merely planetary spirits but likewise spiritual beings of various grades in a solar system. The higher planetaries are those presiding over an entire chain of globes, and their influence extends over all the seven, ten, or twelve globes of a chain. There are also planetaries belonging to the same general planetary hierarchy who preside over a single globe of a chain, and again lower planetaries such as those in more or less immediate touch with mankind. There are planetaries of high spiritual status, and planetaries of far lower status who at times even may be spoken of as dark planetaries. Thus it is that the work of the higher planetaries is beautiful, compassionate, and indeed sublime; whereas the lowest or dark planetaries are frequently the agents of matter as contrasted with spirit.
Potalaka. (T. Po ta la; C. Butuoluoshan; J. Fudarakusen; K. Pot'araksan 補陀落山). According to the GAndAVYuHASuTRA, a mountain that is the abode of the bodhisattva of compassion, AVALOKITEsVARA. The precise location of the mountain is the subject of considerable speculation. According to XUANZANG, it is located in southern India to the east of the Malaya Mountains. He describes it as a perilous mountain with a lake and a heavenly stone palace at the summit. A river flows from the summit, encircling the mountain twenty times before flowing into the South Sea. Those who seek to meet the bodhisattva scale the mountain, but few succeed. Xuanzang says that the bodhisattva appears to his devotees at the base the mountain in the form of Mahesvara (siva) or an ascetic sadhu covered in ashes. Modern scholarship has speculated that Xuanzang was describing the mountain called Potikai or Potiyil in Tamil Nadu. Other sources place the mountain on an island in the Indian Ocean. In East Asian Buddhism, it is called PUTUOSHAN and is identified as a mountainous island in the Zhoushan Archipelago, about sixty-two miles off the eastern coast of Zhejiang province. When the fifth DALAI LAMA constructed his palace in LHA SA, he named it PO TA LA, after this mountain identified with Avalokitesvara, of whom he is considered the human incarnation.
Po ta la. The most famous building in Tibet and one of the great achievements of Tibetan architecture. Located in the Tibetan capital of LHA SA, it served as the winter residence of the DALAI LAMAs and seat of the Tibetan government from the seventeenth century until the fourteenth Dalai Lama's flight into exile in 1959. It takes its name from Mount POTALAKA, the abode of AVALOKITEsVARA, the bodhisattva of compassion, of whom the three Tibetan dharma kings (chos rgyal) and the Dalai Lamas are said to be human incarnations. The full name of the Potala is "Palace of Potala Peak" (Rtse po ta la'i pho brang), and it is commonly referred to by Tibetans simply as the Red Palace (Pho brang dmar po), because the edifice is located on Mar po ri (Red Hill) on the northwestern edge of Lha sa and because of the red palace at the summit of the white structure. In the early seventh century, the Tibetan king SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO is said to have meditated in a cave located on the hill; the cave is preserved within the present structure. The earliest structure to have been constructed there was an elevenstoried palace that he had built in 637 when he moved his capital to Lha sa. In 1645, three years after his installation as temporal ruler of Tibet, the fifth Dalai Lama NGAG DBANG BLO BZANG RGYA MTSHO began renovations of what remained of this original structure, with the new structure serving as his own residence, as well as the site of his government (known as the DGA' LDAN PHO BRANG), which he moved from the DGE LUGS PA monastery of 'BRAS SPUNGS, located some five miles outside the city. The exterior of the White Palace (Pho brang dkar po), which includes the apartments of the Dalai Lama, was completed in 1648 and the Dalai Lama took up residence in 1649. The portion of the Po ta la known as the Red Palace was added by the regent SANGS RGYAS RGYA MTSHO in honor of the fifth Dalai Lama after his death in 1682. Fearing that the project would cease if news of his death became known, Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho was able successfully to conceal the Dalai Lama's death for some twelve years (making use of a double who physically resembled the Dalai Lama to meet foreign dignitaries) until construction could be completed in 1694. The current structure is thirteen stories (approximately 384 feet) tall and is said to have over a thousand rooms, including the private apartments of the Dalai Lama, reception and assembly halls, temples, chapels containing the stupas of the fifth and seventh through thirteenth Dalai Lamas, the Rnam rgyal monastery that performed state rituals, and government offices. From the time of the eighth Dalai Lama, the Po ta la served as the winter residence for the Dalai Lamas, who moved each summer to the smaller NOR BU GLING KHA. The first Europeans to see the Po ta la were likely the Jesuit missionaries Albert Dorville and Johannes Grueber, who visited Lha sa in 1661 and made sketches of the palace, which was still under construction at the time. During the Tibetan uprising against the People's Liberation Army in March 1959, the Po ta la was shelled by Chinese artillery. It is said to have survived the Chinese Cultural Revolution through the intervention of the Chinese prime minister Zhou Enlai, although many of its texts and works of art were looted or destroyed. In old Lha sa, the Po ta la stood outside the central city, with the small village of Zhol located at its foot. This was the site of a prison, a printing house, and residences of some of the lovers of the sixth Dalai Lama. In modern Lha sa, the Po ta la is now encompassed by the city, and much of Zhol has been destroyed. The Po ta la still forms the northern boundary of the large circumambulation route around Lha sa, called the gling bskor (ling khor). Since the Chinese opened Tibet to foreign access in the 1980s, the Po ta la has been visited by millions of Tibetan pilgrims and foreign tourists. The stress of tourist traffic has required frequent restoration projects. In 1994, the Po ta la was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. See also PUTUOSHAN.
pratyātmādhigama. (T. so sor rang gis rig pa; C. neizheng; J. naisho; K. naejŭng 内證). In Sanskrit, "specific understanding" or "individual understanding," a term used to describe the personal realization of a buddha, which is entirely nonconceptual and inexpressible. It is this realization that a buddha then compassionately translates into concepts and words in order to teach the dharma to sentient beings.
pratyekabuddha. (P. paccekabuddha; T. rang sangs rgyas; C. yuanjue/dujue; J. engaku/dokukaku; K. yon'gak/tokkak 覺/獨覺). In Sanskrit, "individually enlightened one" or "solitary buddha"; an ARHAT who becomes enlightened through his own efforts without receiving instruction from a buddha in his final lifetime. Unlike the "perfectly enlightened buddhas" (SAMYAKSAMBUDDHA), the pratyekabuddha refrains from teaching others about his experience because he has neglected to develop the same degree of great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ) that motivates the samyaksaMbuddhas. Even though he does not teach others, he may still guide by example, or through the use of gestures. Pratyekabuddhas are also distinguished from those who achieve the goal of arhat via the sRĀVAKA ("disciple") path, because srāvakas are unable to achieve enlightenment on their own and must be instructed in the principles of Buddhism in order to succeed in their practice. A pratyekabuddha is also distinguished from the srāvaka by the duration of his path: the pratyekabuddha path is longer because he must accumulate the necessary amount of merit (PUnYA) to allow him to achieve liberation without relying on a teacher in his final lifetime. A pratyekabuddha is said to achieve liberation through contemplation of the principle of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA), which accounts for the Chinese translation of yuanjue ("awakening via conditionality"). Two types of pratyekabuddhas are commonly enumerated in the literature: those who wander alone "like a rhinoceros" (KHAdGAVIsĀnAKALPA) and the "congregators" (VARGACĀRIN). According to the MAHĀYĀNA, the path of the pratyekabuddha, together with the path of the srāvaka, constitutes the HĪNAYĀNA, or "lesser vehicle"; these two categories are also often referred to as the "two vehicles" (C. ER SHENG) and their followers as "two-vehicle adherents." These lesser "two vehicles" contrast with the third and highest vehicle, the BODHISATTVAYĀNA.
Pratyeka Buddha(Sanskrit) ::: Pratyeka is a compound of two words: prati, prepositional prefix meaning "towards" or "for";eka, the numeral "one"; thus we can translate the compound by the paraphrase "each one for himself."The Pratyeka Buddha, he who achieves buddhahood for himself, instead of feeling the call of almightylove to return and help those who have gone less far, goes ahead into the supernal light -- passes onwardsand enters the unspeakable bliss of nirvana -- and leaves mankind behind. Though exalted, neverthelesshe does not rank with the unutterable sublimity of the Buddha of Compassion.The Pratyeka Buddha concentrates his energies on the one objective -- spiritual self-advancement: heraises himself to the spiritual realm of his own inner being, enwraps himself therein and, so to speak,goes to sleep. The Buddha of Compassion raises himself, as does the Pratyeka Buddha, to the spiritualrealms of his own inner being, but does not stop there, because he expands continuously, becomes onewith All, or tries to, and in fact does so in time. When the Pratyeka Buddha in due course emerges fromthe nirvanic state in order to take up his evolutionary journey again, he will find himself far in the rear ofthe Buddha of Compassion.
Pratyeka-yana (Sanskrit) Pratyeka-yāna [from prati towards, for + eka one + yāna vehicle, path] The path of each one for himself, or the personal vehicle or ego, equivalent to the Pali pachcheka. Fully self-conscious being cannot ever be achieved by following the path for oneself, but solely by following the amrita-yana (immortal vehicle) or the path of self-consciousness in immortality, the spiritual path to a nirvana of high degree, the secret path as taught by the heart doctrine. The pratyeka-yana is the pathway of the personality, the vegetative or material path to a nirvana of a low degree, the open path, as taught by the eye doctrine. These two terms describe two kinds of advancement towards more spiritual things, and the two ultimate goals thereof: the amrita-yana of the Buddhas of Compassion, and the pratyeka-yana of the Pratyeka Buddhas.
Psychic Powers ::: The lowest powers of the intermediate or soul-nature in the human being, and we are exercising andusing them all the time -- yes, and we cannot even control them properly! Men's emotional thoughts arevagrant, wandering, uncertain, lacking precision, without positive direction, and feebly governed. Theaverage man cannot even keep his emotions and thoughts in the grip of his self-conscious will. Hisweakest passions lead him astray. It is this part of his nature whence flow his "psychic powers." It isman's work to transmute them and to turn them to employment which is good and useful and holy.Indeed, the average man cannot control the ordinary psycho-astral-physical powers that he commonlyuses; and when, forsooth, people talk about cultivating occult powers, by which they mean merelypsychic powers, it simply shows that through ignorance they know not to what they refer. Their mindsare clouded as regards the actual facts. Those who talk so glibly of cultivating occult powers are just thepeople who cannot be trusted as real guides, for before they themselves can crawl in these mysteriousregions of life, they seem to desire to teach other people how to run and to leap. What most people reallymean, apparently, when they speak of cultivating occult powers is "I want to get power over otherpeople." Such individuals are totally unfit to wield occult powers of any kind, for the motive is in mostcases purely selfish, and their minds are beclouded and darkened with ignorance.The so-called psychic powers have the same relation to genuine spiritual powers that baby-talk has to thediscourse of a wise philosopher. Before occult powers of any kind can be cultivated safely, man mustlearn the first lesson of the mystic knowledge, which is to control himself; and all powers that later hegains must be laid on the altar of impersonal service -- on the altar of service to mankind.Psychic powers will come to men as a natural development of their inner faculties, as evolution performsits wonderful work in future ages. New senses, and new organs corresponding to these new senses, bothinterior and exterior, will come into active functioning in the distant future. But it is perilous both tosanity and to health to attempt to force the development of these prematurely, and unless the training anddiscipline be done under the watchful and compassionate eye of a genuine occult teacher who knowswhat he is about. The world even today contains hundreds of thousands of "sensitives" who are the firstfeeble forerunners of what future evolution will make common in the human race; but these sensitivesare usually in a very unfortunate and trying situation, for they themselves misunderstand what is in them,and they are misunderstood by their fellows. (See also Occultism)
Pundarikaksha (Sanskrit) Puṇḍarīkākṣa The lotus-eyed; a title of Vishnu and Krishna, which implies that unity of divine compassion and divine intelligence which even in human beings has its faint reflection through the windows of the eyes.
punyakriyāvastu. (P. puNNakiriyāvatthu; T. bsod nams bya ba'i dngos po; C. fuye shi; J. fukugoji; K. pogopsa 福業事). In Sanskrit, "things that create merit," a term that appears in ABHIDHARMA materials to describe three practices: giving (DĀNA), moral behavior (sĪLA), and meditation (BHĀVANĀ). Among forms of moral behavior, the five precepts (PANCAsĪLA) of abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and using intoxicants are considered to be especially productive of merit. Among forms of meditation, meditation on the four BRAHMAVIHĀRA of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity are considered to be especially productive of merit.
punyaksetra. (P. puNNakkhetta; T. bsod nams kyi zhing; C. futian; J. fukuden; K. pokch'on 福田). In Sanskrit, "field of merit," referring specifically to a recipient (a "field") that has a substantial potential to provide karmic compensation to a benefactor who "plants the seeds of merit" there by performing wholesome actions (KUsALA-KARMAN), especially through acts of charity (DĀNA). Traditionally, the Buddha, the SAMGHA as an institution, or individual monks and nuns were described as the primary fields of merit for the laity, and in this context these provide an "unsurpassed" (anuttara) "field of merit." By providing material support (dāna) such as food and robes' cloth (see KAtHINA) to the monastic order and its members, the laity in return would reap spiritual rewards (i.e., receiving religious instructions from the renunciants) as well as karmic rewards (viz. good fortune in this life and better rebirth in the next). The use of the term eventually expanded, as in the Chinese SANJIE JIAO (School of the Third Stage), to include one's parents, the poor, the sick, the community of monks and nuns, and ultimately all sentient beings, since serving any of them involves acts of charity that would lead to the accumulation of merit. Several pairs of fields of merit are variously described in the literature. (1) The merit field of the trainee, or sAIKsA (xueren tian), and the merit field of the accomplished adept, or AsAIKsA (wuxue ren tian). By making offerings to and supporting the spiritually accomplished (in this case, he who is "beyond training"-viz. an ARHAT), it is said that the merit accrued therefrom is greater than if the offering and support are given to someone less spiritually worthy. (2) The merit field associated with compassion (beitian) and the merit field associated with reverence (jingtian). In the Sanjie jiao school, for example, the former is exemplified by the act of giving (dāna) when it is undertaken with compassion (KARUnĀ), such as in the case of helping the indigent; the latter is exemplified by the act of giving when it is undertaken with reverence, such as in the case of providing for the spiritually accomplished. (3) The merit field associated with anticipation (youzuo futian) and the merit field that is free from anticipation (wuzuo futian). The former refers to undertaking the act of giving with an active wish or anticipation of specific rewards; the latter is undertaken with no such wish or anticipation-and, since it is considered to stem from an unadulterated motive, will generate greater rewards. (4) The merit field associated with reverence (jingtian) and the merit field associated with (requiting) benefaction (en tian). The former is the act of giving directed toward the three jewels (RATNATRAYA); the latter, toward one's parents, teachers, and other benefactors.
pure ::: superl. --> Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; free from mixture or combination; clean; mere; simple; unmixed; as, pure water; pure clay; pure air; pure compassion.
Free from moral defilement or quilt; hence, innocent; guileless; chaste; -- applied to persons.
Free from that which harms, vitiates, weakens, or pollutes; genuine; real; perfect; -- applied to things and actions.
Ritually clean; fitted for holy services.
Pusa yingluo benye jing. (J. Bosatsu yoraku hongokyo; K. Posal yongnak ponop kyong 菩薩瓔珞本業經). In Chinese, "Book of the Original Acts that Adorn the Bodhisattva," in two rolls, translation attributed to ZHU FONIAN (fl. c. 390); a Chinese indigenous sutra (see APOCRYPHA) often known by its abbreviated title of Yingluo jing. The Yingluo jing was particularly influential in the writings of CHAN and TIANTAI exegetes, including such seminal scholastic figures as TIANTAI ZHIYI, who cited the sutra especially in conjunction with discussions of the BODHISATTVA MĀRGA and Mahāyāna VINAYA. The Yingluo jing is perhaps best known for its attempt to synthesize the variant schemata of the Buddhist path (mārga) into a comprehensive regimen of fifty-two BODHISATTVA stages: the ten faiths, the ten abidings, the ten practices, the ten transferences, and the ten grounds (see C. DAsABHuMI; BHuMI); these then culminate in the two stages of buddhahood, virtual or equal enlightenment (dengjue) and sublime enlightenment (miaojue), which the Yingluo jing calls respectively the immaculate stage (wugou di, S. *amalabhumi) and the sublime-training stage (miaoxue di). The Yingluo jing is one of the first texts formally to include the ten faiths in its prescribed mārga schema, as a preliminary level prior to the initiation onto the bodhisattva path proper, which is said to occur at the time of the first arousal of the thought of enlightenment (BODHICITTOTPĀDA) on the first level of the ten abidings. The text therefore adds an additional ten steps to the forty-two named stages of the path outlined in the AVATAMSAKASuTRA (C. Huayan jing), providing a complete fifty-two-stage path, one of the most comprehensive accounts of the mārga to be found in East Asian Buddhist literature. The Yingluo jing also offers one of the most widely cited descriptions of the threefold classification of Buddhist morality (C. sanju jingji; S. sĪLATRAYA), a categorization of precepts found typically in YOGĀCĀRA-oriented materials. The Yingluo jing describes these as (1) the moral code that maintains both the discipline and the deportments (= S. SAMVARAsĪLA) through the ten perfections (PĀRAMITĀ); (2) the moral code that accumulates wholesome dharmas (= S. kusaladharmasaMgrāhaka) through the eighty-four thousand teachings; and (3) the moral code that aids all sentient beings (= S. SATTVĀRTHAKRIYĀ), through exercising loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (viz. the four BRAHMAVIHĀRA). The Yingluo jing specifies that these three categories of precepts are the foundation of morality for all bodhisattvas. The provenance and authorship of the Pusa yingluo benye jing have long been matters of controversy. In the fifth-century Buddhist catalogue CHU SANZANG JI JI, the compiler Sengyou lists the Pusa yingluo benye jing among miscellaneous works by anonymous translators. In the 594 scriptural catalogue Zhongjing mulu, the scripture is ascribed to Zhu Fonian, while the LIDAI SANBAO JI instead claims that the text was translated by the dhyāna master Zhiyan in 427. Later cataloguers generally accept the attribution to Zhu Fonian, though some note that the translation style differs markedly from that found in other of his renderings. The attribution to Zhu Fonian is also suspect because it includes passages and doctrines that seem to derive from other indigenous Chinese sutras, such as the RENWANG JING, FANWANG JING, etc., as well as passages that appear in earlier Chinese translations of the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, PUSA BENYE JING, SHENGMAN JING, Pusa dichi jing, and DA ZHIDU LUN. Both internal and external evidence therefore suggests that the Yingluo jing is a Chinese apocryphon from the fifth century. ¶ The Pusa yingluo benye jing should be distinguished from the Pusa benye jing ("Basic Endeavors of the Bodhisattvas"), translated by ZHI QIAN (fl. c. 220-252), an authentic translation that offers one of the earliest accounts of the ten stages (S. dasavihāra, DAsABHuMI) translated into Chinese. (It is usually known by its abbreviated title of Benye jing.) This text seems to combine the accounts of the ten bodhisattva stages found in the GAndAVYuHA (viz., AvataMsakasutra) and the MAHĀVASTU and may have been the inspiration for the composition of this indigenous Chinese sutra. (Zhu Fonian also translated a Pusa yingluo jing, which may be how his name became associated with this apocryphal Pusa yingluo benye jing.)
Putuoshan. (J. Fudasen; K. Pot'asan 普陀山/補陀山). In Chinese, "Mount POTALAKA"; a mountainous island in the Zhoushan Archipelago, about sixty-two miles off the eastern coast of Zhejiang province; also known as Butuoshan, Butuoluojiashan, Xiaobaihuashan, etc. Putuoshan is considered one of the four Buddhist sacred mountains in China, along with WUTAISHAN in Shanxi, EMEISHAN in Sichuan, and JIUHUASHAN in Anhui. Each of the mountains is said to be the residence of a specific BODHISATTVA, and Putuoshan is regarded as the sacred mountain of AVALOKITEsVARA, known in Chinese as GUANYIN pusa, the revered "bodhisattva of compassion." There are many legends told about Putuoshan. During the Tang dynasty, an Indian monk is said to have come to Putuoshan and immolated his ten fingers, after which Avalokitesvara appeared and preached the dharma to him. As this legend spread, Putuoshan gained fame as the sacred site of Avalokitesvara. In 916 CE, a Japanese monk was bringing a statue of Avalokitesvara back to Japan from Wutaishan, but was delayed on Putuoshan by fierce storms. He built a monastery for Avalokitesvara on the island and named it Baotuo monastery, an abbreviated Chinese transcription for the Sanskrit word Potalaka, an Indian holy mountain that, according to the GAndAVYuHA of the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, is thought to be the abode of Avalokitesvara. Since that sutra said that Mt. Potalaka was an isolated mountainous island rising out of the ocean, the sacred geography seemed to match Putuoshan's physical geography. After the Southern Song dynasty, the scale of monasteries, nunneries, monks and nuns in Putuoshan increased significantly through donations from the imperial court and lay Buddhists. Many people came to Putuoshan, especially to pray for safe voyages. It was also popular for the emperor to perform religious rites on Putuoshan. In 1131, during the Southern Song dynasty, all Buddhist schools on Putuoshan were designated as CHAN monasteries. In 1214, Putuoshan was ordered to emphasize the worship of Avalokitesvara. At the height of its prestige, there were as many as 218 monasteries on the island, housing more than two thousand monks and nuns. There are now three major monasteries on Putuoshan-Pujisi, Fayusi, and Huijisi-all affiliated with either the LINJI ZONG or the CAODONG ZONG of CHAN Buddhism, and seventy-two smaller temples. Pious pilgrims come to Putuoshan from all over China to worship Avalokitesvara, and Putuoshan continues to be one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in China. See also POTALAKA; PO TA LA.
Qianshou jing. (S. Nīlakanthakasutra; T. Mgrin pa sngon po can [gyi mdo]; J. Senjukyo; K. Ch'onsu kyong 千手經). In Chinese, "Thousand Hands Sutra"; in Sanskrit, "Blue-Throated [Avalokitesvara] Sutra"; an abbreviated title commonly used for the text that provides the scriptural foundation for the popular cult of Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed AVALOKITEsVARA (SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA). There are several Chinese translations of the scripture, including Bhagavaddharma's (fl. c. seventh century) Qianshou Qianyan Guanshiyin pusa guangda yuanman wu'ai dabeixin tuoluoni jing ("Dhāranī-Sutra of Thousand-Eyed and Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Who Regards the World's Sounds and Feels Vast, Complete, Unimpeded Great Compassion"), translated between 650 and 661, and Zhitong's (fl. c. seventh century) Qianyan Qianbi Guanshiyin pusa tuoluoni shenzhou jing ("Dhāranī-Sutra of Thousand-Eyed and Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva Who Regards the World's Sounds"), translated between 627 and 649. (There are additional translations by BODHIRUCI, made in 709; VAJRABODHI, made between 731 and 736; and AMOGHAVAJRA, made during the eighth century.) Each version differs in its content and structure, but most include a spell dedicated to Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara (C. GUANYIN), which is commonly called the Qianshou (Thousand-Handed/Armed) or Dabei (Great Compassion) DHĀRAnĪ. There are at least eight different Chinese transcriptions of this dhāranī and two Tibetan transcriptions, suggesting that different Sanskrit recensions of the spell were in circulation. Bhagavaddharma's translation of the sutra has been the most popular in the East Asia and the title Qianshou jing typically refers to his recension. According to Bhagavaddharma's translation of the text, innumerable eons ago, Avalokitesvara received this dhāranī from a buddha named Qianguang Wangjing Zhu Rulai (Tathāgata Tranquil Abode who is King of the Thousandfold Radiance), and, after making ten vows to benefit all sentient beings, the bodhisattva came to be endowed with a thousand arms and a thousand eyes. The sutra then explains the various benefits of keeping and reciting the dhāranī. Keeping the dhāranī ensures, for example, fifteen kinds of salutary rebirths, such as being born in a good country, living during a peaceful time, meeting good friends, having sufficient money and food, and being protected by the divinities; it also ensures that the adept will avoid fifteen kinds of painful deaths, such as from hunger, madness, drowning, conflagration, poison, and suicide. These various sets of benefits are only included in Bhagavadharma's version, which may partly account for the greater popularity of his translation. His version also forgoes the complex instructions on ritual matters found in Zhitong's version, such as the detailed rules of creating an image of Guanyin, which were probably intended for ritual specialists. Bhagavaddharma's text introduced the dhāranī and the names of forty gestures (MUDRĀ) and their particular benefits; Amoghavajra's (705-774) later recension includes illustrations of these mudrā. Due to the great popularity of Bhagavaddharma's early translation, Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara became identified specifically with Avalokitesvara's manifestation as Great Compassion (C. Dabei; S. MAHĀKARUnIKA). Based on the same version, the Song TIANTAI master SIMING ZHILI (960-1028) composed a manual for a repentance ritual using this scripture: the Qianshou Qianyan Dabeixinzhou xingfa ("Rules for Performing the Great Compassion Heart Dhāranī of the Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed One"). A late-ninth-century abridgment of Bhagavaddharma's translation, the Dabei qiqing ("Great Compassion Invocation"), was also created, probably for use as a ritual manual. Bhagavaddharma's translation of the sutra also became popular in Japan and Korea as well. In Korea, where the text is known as the Ch'onsu kyong, another abridgment was made that included only the Thousand-Hands dhāranī and Avalokitesvara's vows; it was probably intended as a type of ritual procedure. This version also cites materials that derive from a variety of different traditions, including HWAoM (C. HUAYAN), SoN (C. CHAN), CH'oNT'AE (C. TIANTAI), and PURE LAND. Starting in the eighteenth century, several manuals were written with procedures for the ritual dedicated to Thousand-Armed Kwanŭm (Guanyin), all based on the dhāranī and vows. The current form of the rite is recited in the daily ritual of many Chinese and Korean monasteries. See also OM MAnI PADME HuM.
( qq.v .). The angel of compassion, symbolizing the
Rachamim ::: Mercy, compassion. ::: Racien hygiene ::: ("Racial hygiene") This word relates to the eugenics side of the Holocaust which the Nazis used to give a "scientific" backbone to their final solution.
Rainbow Body ::: Also "Jalü". A type of sheath attained through high levels of realization and meditative practice. The physical body is said to be consciously dissolved and replaced by a different sheath suiting the will and compassion of the one who cultivated this body.
Ratnakutasutra. (T. Dkon mchog brtsegs pa'i mdo; C. Dabaoji jing; J. Daihoshakukyo; K. Taebojok kyong 大寶積經). In Sanskrit, "The Jewel-Heap Sutra"; often known also as the Mahāratnakutasutra, or "The Great Jewel-Heap Sutra." Despite its title, this is actually not one SuTRA but rather an early collection of forty-nine independent MAHĀYĀNA sutras. The texts contained in this collection cover a broad range of important MAHĀYĀNA topics, including detailed discussions of emptiness (suNYATĀ), PURE LAND practices, skillful means (UPĀYA), the importance of cultivating both compassion (KARUnĀ) and wisdom (PRAJÑĀ), and other significant subjects. Many of the texts embedded in the collection are seminal to the Mahāyāna tradition. In this collection, we find treated such influential figures as the buddhas AMITĀBHA and AKsOBHYA, the BODHISATTVA MAÑJUsRĪ, and the ARHAT MAHĀKĀsYAPA. Its KĀsYAPAPARIVARTA chapter was widely cited in MADHYAMAKA treatises. The collections also contain pure land texts, including the longer SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA as well as the AKsOBHYATATHĀGATASYAVYuHA on the pure land of Aksobhya. The TrisaMvaranirdesaparivarta explains the bodhisattva VINAYA and how it differs from the vinaya of the sRĀVAKAs. Excerpts from the Ratnakutasutra were translated into Chinese as early as the second century CE. While the entire collection is available in Chinese and Tibetan, only portions of it survive in Sanskrit. The Ratnakutasutra occupies six volumes of the Tibetan canon (BKA' 'GYUR) (with fifty-two separate works in the SDE DGE edition, some with the same title but different content). In Chinese, the best-known recension of the Ratnakutasutra is a massive 120-roll translation made by BODHIRUCI between 703 and 716 during the Tang dynasty; it incorporates in the collection some earlier translations of individual texts by DHARMARAKsA, KUMĀRAJĪVA, sIKsĀNANDA, etc. There are also two shorter renderings of portions of the text, one attributed to AN SHIGAO in the latter half of the second century CE, the second to JNānagupta (523-600) in 595 CE, both in only one roll.
Rdo rje gling pa. (Dorje Lingpa) (1346-1405). A Tibetan Buddhist master, identified as the third of the five kingly treasure revealers (GTER STON RGYAL PO LNGA), and considered to be an emanation of the Tibetan king KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN. As a youth, he took monastic ordination and studied both the ancient (RNYING MA) and new (GSAR MA) traditions of the sutras and tantras. At age thirteen he discovered his first treasure text (GTER MA) behind a miracle-performing image of TĀRĀ in the KHRA 'BRUG temple. He considered himself to be the incarnation of the translator VAIROCANA and was guided by visions of him. When doubts were raised about the authenticity of his treasures, he began discovering texts and sacred objects in public settings. In addition to his discoveries, he was famous for his eccentric behavior and spontaneous songs. Rdo rje gling pa is said to have unearthed forty-three sets of treasure, foremost of which was the Bla rdzogs thugs gsum ("Trio of the Guru, Great Perfection, and Great Compassionate One").
Reiyukai. (霊友会/靈友會). In Japanese, lit. "Numinous Friends Society," or "Society of Friends of the Spirits"; a Japanese Buddhist lay organization, deriving from the teachings of the NICHIRENSHu. It was founded in 1925 by KUBO KAKUTARo (1892-1944) and KOTANI KIMI (1901-1971), the wife of Kubo's elder brother, who took over leadership of the organization and became president in 1944 upon Kubo's death. Kubo insisted that everyone keep a family death register and give posthumous names to venerated ancestors; these activities were formerly the domain of monks, who would be paid for their services. His other ideas included the classical directive to convert the world into a PURE LAND for Buddhism and the need to teach others the truth. He particularly emphasized the ability of each individual to improve him or herself. Kubo's ideas appealed to the poor and he began to attract converts quickly, including his brother Kotani Yasukichi and Kotani's wife, Kotani Kimi. In 1971 after Kotani Kimi died, Kubo's son Kubo Tsugunari took over as the leader of the group. For years he had prepared for this future, including studying Indian philosophy and Buddhism at Rissho University. Despite this preparation, Reiyukai was rocked by what some viewed as his personal failings and political maneuverings and Kubo Tsugunari eventually lost his leadership post. More recent leaders have been elected democratically. Some noted activities in recent years include opening the Lumbinī International Research Institute in Nepal and the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies in Tokyo. The organization reached its peak during the years surrounding the Second World War, when it claimed some three million members, and was the source of numerous Nichiren-related new religious movements, of which the RISSHo KoSEIKAI, founded in 1938, became the most prominent. Reiyukai continues to be an active lay organization in both Japan and abroad. The Reiyukai organization has no clergy and no formal affiliation with any other Buddhist school, but instead relies on volunteer lay teachers who lead informal group meetings and discussions. Reiyukai focuses on the human capacity for lifelong self-cultivation in order to become ever more wise and compassionate. All its adherents must have a personal sponsor in order to join the order. The school stresses ancestor worship, believing that personal and social ills are the result of inadequate veneration of ancestor spirits who have been unable to attain buddhahood and instead became guardian spirits until the proper rites are performed so they may be liberated. Its followers believe that reciting the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra") in abridged form during daily morning and evening services or a group meeting transfers merit to their ancestors.
relenting ::: becoming more lenient, compassionate, or forgiving.
relent ::: v. i. --> To become less rigid or hard; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce.
To become less severe or intense; to become less hard, harsh, cruel, or the like; to soften in temper; to become more mild and tender; to feel compassion. ::: v. t.
remordency ::: n. --> Remorse; compunction; compassion.
remorseful ::: a. --> Full of remorse.
Compassionate; feeling tenderly.
Exciting pity; pitiable.
remorse ::: n. --> The anguish, like gnawing pain, excited by a sense of guilt; compunction of conscience for a crime committed, or for the sins of one&
ruthless ::: having no compassion or pity; merciless.
ruth ::: v. --> Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness.
That which causes pity or compassion; misery; distress; a pitiful sight.
Ryokan. (良寛) (1758-1831). In Japanese, "Virtuous Liberality"; Edo-period ZEN monk in the SoToSHu, often known as Ryokan Taigu (lit. Ryokan, the Great Fool). Ryokan was associated with a reformist group within the contemporary Soto monastic community that sought to restore formal meditative practice and the study of the writings of DoGEN KIGEN. Ryokan grew up in Echigo province (present-day Niigata prefecture), the son of a SHINTo priest. He became a novice monk at age seventeen at the nearby Soto monastery of Koshoji and was ordained when he turned twenty-one under a Soto monk named Kokusen (d. 1791). He left for Kokusen's monastery in the Bitchu province (present-day Okayama prefecture) and subsequently inherited the temple after Kokusen died. Soon afterward, however, he departed from the monastery, choosing instead to follow an itinerant lifestyle for the next several years. In 1804, he settled down for twelve years in a hut on Mt. Kugami, situated near his hometown. In 1826 Ryokan met Teishin (d. 1872), a young nun who had been previously widowed, and the two remained close companions until Ryokan's death. Ryokan eventually chose for himself a radically simple existence, living much of his life as a hermit, owning few possessions and begging for alms. He was well regarded for his love of children and his compassion for people from all social strata, including prostitutes. His expression of compassion was so extreme that he is even said to have placed lice inside his robes so they would not get cold and to have exposed his legs to mosquitoes while he slept. Ryokan was a renowned calligrapher and poet (in both Chinese and vernacular Japanese). Most of his verses are written as thirty-one-syllable tanka, although he also wrote ninety choka (long poems) and at least twenty other verses in nonstandard form. Ryokan's poetry addressed his common everyday experiences in the world in direct, humble terms. Ryokan did not publish during his lifetime; rather, his verses were collected and published posthumously by his companion Teishin.
sadaksarī. [alt. sadaksarīvidyā] (T. yi ge drug pa'i rig sngags; C. liuzi daming/liuzi zhangju; J. rokujidaimyo/rokujishoku; K. yukcha taemyong/yukcha changgu 六字大明/六字章句). In Sanskrit, "six-syllable spell"; the renowned MANTRA associated with the BODHISATTVA of compassion, AVALOKITEsVARA: viz., "OM MAnI PADME HuM." The mantra has six syllables and is used to call upon the bodhisattva, using his epithet Manipadma or "Jewel Lotus," a four-armed form who holds both a rosary of jewels (RATNA) and a lotus flower (PADMA). Hence, the mantra means "OM, O Jewel-Lotus," not "jewel in the lotus," contrary to popular belief. The earliest textual source for this mantra is the KĀRAndAVYuHA [alt. Avalokitesvaraguna-Kārandavyuha]. See OM MAnI PADME HuM.
sādhana. (T. sgrub thabs; C. chengjiu fa; J. jojuho; K. songch'wi pop 成就法). In Sanskrit, "method" or "technique," used especially in reference to a tantric ritual designed to receive attainments (SIDDHI) from a deity. Tantric sādhanas generally take one of two forms. In the first, the deity (which may be a buddha, BODHISATTVA, or another deity) is requested to appear before the meditator and is then worshipped in the expectation of receiving blessings. In the other type of tantric sādhana, the meditator imagines himself or herself to be the deity at this very moment, that is, to have the exalted body, speech, and mind of an enlightened being. Tantric sādhanas tend to follow a fairly set sequence, whether they are simple or detailed. More elaborate sādhanas may include the recitation of a lineage of GURUs; the creation of a protection wheel guarded by wrathful deities to subjugate enemies; the creation of a body MAndALA, in which a pantheon of deities take residence at various parts of the meditator's body, etc. Although there are a great many variations of content and sequence, in many sādhanas, the meditator is instructed to imagine light radiating from the body, thus beckoning buddhas and bodhisattvas from throughout the universe. Visualizing these deities arrayed in the space, the meditator then performs a series of standard preliminary practices called the sevenfold service (SAPTĀnGAVIDHI), a standard component of sādhanas. The seven elements are (1) obeisance, (2) offering (often concluding with a gift of the entire physical universe with all its marvels), (3) confession of misdeeds, (4) admiration of the virtuous deeds of others, (5) entreaty to the buddhas not to pass into NIRVĀnA, (6) supplication of the buddhas and bodhisattvas to teach the dharma, and (7) dedication of the merit of performing the preceding toward the enlightenment of all beings. The meditator then goes for refuge to the three jewels (RATNATRAYA), creates the aspiration for enlightenment (BODHICITTA; BODHICITTOTPĀDA), the promise to achieve buddhahood in order to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering, and dedicates the merit from the foregoing and subsequent practices toward that end. The meditator next cultivates the four "boundless" attitudes (APRAMĀnA) of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnĀ), empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKsĀ), before meditating on emptiness (suNYATĀ) and reciting the purificatory mantra, oM svabhāvasuddhāḥ sarvadharmāḥ svabhāvasuddho 'haM ("OM, naturally pure are all phenomena, naturally pure am I"), understanding that emptiness is the primordial nature of everything, the unmoving world and the beings who move upon it. Out of this emptiness, the meditator next creates the mandala. The next step in the sādhana is for the meditator to animate the residents of the mandala by causing the actual buddhas and bodhisattvas, referred to as "wisdom beings" (JNĀNASATTVA), to descend and merge with their imagined doubles, the "pledge beings" (SAMAYASATTVA). Light radiates from the meditator's heart, drawing the wisdom beings to the mandala where, through offerings and the recitation of mantra, they are prompted to enter the residents of the mandala. With the preliminary visualization now complete, the stage is set for the central meditation of the sādhana, which varies depending upon the purpose of the sādhana. Generally, offerings and prayers are made to a sequence of deities and boons are requested from them, each time accompanied with the recitation of appropriate MANTRA. At the end of the session, the meditator makes mental offerings to the assembly before inviting them to leave, at which point the entire visualization, the palace and its residents, dissolve into emptiness. The sādhana ends with a dedication of the merit accrued to the welfare of all beings.
Sāhasrabhujasāhasranetrāvalokitesvara. [alt. Sahasrabhujasahasranetrāvalokitesvara] (T. Spyan ras gzigs phyag stong spyan stong; C. Qianshou Qianyan Guanyin; J. Senju Sengen Kannon; K. Ch'onsu Ch'onan Kwanŭm 千手千眼觀音). In Sanskrit, "Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed AVALOKITEsVARA"; one of the manifestations of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara (C. GUANYIN). The iconographical representations of this manifestation are usually depicted in abbreviated form with forty arms, each of which has an eye on its palm, indicating its ability compassionately to see and offer assistance to suffering sentient beings. Every arm also holds a different instrument, such as an axe, a sword, a bow, an arrow, a staff, a bell, or blue, white, and purple lotuses, each symbolizing one of the bodhisattva's various skills in saving sentient beings. The forty arms and eyes work on behalf of the sentient beings in the twenty-five realms of existence, giving the bodhisattva a total of a thousand arms and eyes. The images also typically are depicted with eleven or twenty-seven heads, although images with five hundred heads are also found. The origin of this manifestation is uncertain; the prototype may be such Indian deities as Visnu, INDRA, and siva, who are also sometimes depicted with multiple hands and eyes. Since no image of this form of the BODHISATTVA has been discovered in India proper, some scholars suggest that the form may have originated in Kashmir (See KASHMIR-GANDHĀRA) and thence spread north into Central and East Asia; this scenario is problematic, however, because the earliest such image found at DUNHUANG, the furthest Chinese outpost along the SILK ROAD, dates to 836, about two hundred years later than the first such image painted in China, which is said to have been made for the Tang emperor by an Indian monk sometime between 618 and 626. The Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin became popular in China through translations of the QIANSHOU JING ("Thousand Hands Sutra"; Nīlakanthakasutra) made between the mid-seventh and early-eighth centuries. Due to the great popularity of Bhagavaddharma's (fl. c. seventh century) early translation, which was rendered between 650 and 658, the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara became identified specifically with Avalokitesvara's manifestation as Great Compassion (C. Dabei; S. MAHĀKARUnIKA), although the epithet is used also to refer to Avalokitesvara more generally. The Guanyin cult was popular in Chang'an and Sichuan during the Tang period and became widespread throughout China by the Song period; this bodhisattva was subsequently worshipped widely in Korea, Japan, and Tibet, as well. The ritual of repentance offered to the bodhisattva was created by the TIANTAI monk ZHILI (960-1028); the ritual is still widely performed in Taiwan and China. By the twelfth century, the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin also came to be identified with the legendary princess MIAOSHAN, who was so filial that she offered her own eyes to save her father's life. In Tibet, this form of Avalokitesvara is called Sāhasrabhuja-ekādasamukha Avalokitesvara (Spyan ras gzigs phyag stong zhal bcu gcig), with one thousand arms (often depicted in a fan formation) and eleven heads. According to a well-known story, the bodhisattva of compassion had vowed that if he ever gave up his commitment to suffering sentient beings and sought instead his own welfare, his head would break into ten pieces and his body into a thousand. In a moment of despair at the myriad sufferings of the world, his head and body exploded. The buddha AMITĀBHA put his body back together, crafting one thousand arms and ten heads, placing a duplicate of his own head at the top. This form of Avalokitesvara is therefore known as, "one thousand arms and eleven heads" (phyag stong zhal bcu gcig).
Samantabhadra. (T. Kun tu bzang po; C. Puxian; J. Fugen; K. Pohyon 普賢). The Sanskrit name of both an important bodhisattva in Indian and East Asian Buddhism and of an important buddha in Tibetan Buddhism. As a bodhisattva, Samantabhadra is a principal bodhisattva of the MAHĀYĀNA pantheon, who is often portrayed as the personification of the perfection of myriad good works and spiritual practices. He is one of the AstAMAHOPAPUTRA, and an attendant of sĀKYAMUNI Buddha, standing opposite MANJUsRĪ at the Buddha's side. In the PANCATATHĀGATA configuration, he is associated with the buddha VAIROCANA. Samantabhadra figures prominently in the AVATAMSAKASuTRA. In a chapter named after him, he sets forth ten SAMĀDHIs. In the GAndAVYuHA (the final chapter of the AvataMsakasutra), the bodhisattva SUDHANA sets out in search of a teacher, encountering fifty-two beings (twenty of whom are female), including the Buddha's mother Mahāmāyā (MĀYĀ), the future buddha MAITREYA, as well as AVALOKITEsVARA and MANJUsRĪ. His final teacher is the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who sets forth the ten vows in his famous BHADRACARĪPRAnIDHĀNA. In China, the center of Samantabhadra's worship is EMEISHAN in Sichuan province, which began to develop in the early Tang. According to legend, Samantabhadra arrived at the mountain by flying there on his white elephant, his usual mount. As a buddha, Samantabhadra is the primordial buddha (ĀDIBUDDHA) according to the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He is depicted naked, blue, and in sexual union with his consort Samantabhadrī. He is embodiment of the original purity of all phenomena of SAMSĀRA and NIRVĀnA. Called the "primordial basis" (ye gzhi), he is regarded as the eternal union of awareness (RIG PA) and emptiness (suNYATĀ), of emptiness and appearance, and of the nature of the mind and compassion. As such he is the wellspring of the ATIYOGA teachings.
samatājNāna. (T. mnyam nyid ye shes; C. pingdengxing zhi; J. byodoshochi; K. p'yongdŭngsong chi 平等性智). In Sanskrit, "wisdom of equality" or "impartial wisdom"; one of the five wisdoms (PANCAJNĀNA) of a buddha. Through the samatājNāna, a buddha sees beyond all superficial distinctions and differentiations and perceives the fundamental nature of all things as emptiness (suNYATĀ). Thus, a buddha makes no distinction between one sentient being and another, and no distinction between self and other; in addition, no ultimate difference is perceived between SAMSĀRA and NIRVĀnA. Such undifferentiated perception gives rise to equality, impartiality, and compassion for all beings. In YOGĀCĀRA theory, samatājNāna is understood to arise through the cessation of attachment to conceptions of self and pride. In TANTRA, among the five buddhas (PANCATATHĀGATA), this type of wisdom is associated with RATNASAMBHAVA.
SaMkusumitarājendra. (T. [Rgyal dbang] Me tog cher rgyas; C. Kaifuhua wang [rulai]; J. Kaifukeo [nyorai]; K. Kaebuhwa wang [yorae] 開敷華王[如來]). In Sanskrit, "Flowering [viz., Fully-Manifested] King," the name of a TATHĀGATA who is mentioned in the MANJUsRĪMuLAKALPA, an influential tantric text from India composed around the seventh century; also known as SaMkusumitarājan. At one point in the MaNjusrīmulakalpa, the buddha sĀKYAMUNI enters into a deep state of concentration, and causes a ray of light to shoot from his head. The light travels to Kusumāvatī, where dwells the tathāgata SaMkusumitarājendra with a host of BODHISATTVAs. MANJUsRĪ sees the light and understands that it is a beacon from sākyamuni. SaMkusumitarājendra encourages MaNjusrī to visit sākyamuni, ostensibly to inquire about his well-being, which is a pretext for MaNjusrī to learn a MANTRA from him. SaMkusumitarājendra is one of the five buddhas who appears in the GARBHADHĀTUMAndALA; he usually sits to the right of VAIROCANA, the cosmic buddha at the center of the MAndALA. One interpretation of his name is that SaMkusumitarājendra spreads virtue and compassion through the universe as if they were flowers.
samudācāra. (T. kun tu spyod pa; C. xianxing; J. gengyo; K. hyonhaeng 現行). In Sanskrit, the term has two important denotations: "proper conduct," or "intention, purpose, habitual idea"; and "manifest action." Samudācāra designates religious action that is undertaken for the sake of attaining liberation for oneself and either liberation or an improved state of rebirth for others. Thus, the term can refer to a buddha's unceasing effort and the influence he exerts to help beings attain liberation. In its description of the first BHuMI, the MAHĀVASTU lists eight types of samudācāra for a BODHISATTVA. These are generosity (tyāga), compassion (KARUnĀ), relentlessness (aparikheda), humility (amāna), study of all the treatises (sarvasāstrādhyāyitā), courage (vikrama), social skills (lokānujNā), and resolve (dhṛti). Deriving from its denotation of volitional impulse, samudācāra also comes to be used in the YOGĀCĀRA school to indicate the emergence of conditioned factors (saMskṛtadharma) from the ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA, since, once they have arisen and are no longer dormant, they influence conscious action. In the context of Yogācāra thought, then, samudācāra is often translated as "manifest action." The term is also used in the sense of the special qualities of the practice of bodhisattvas, who are habituated to the ultimate nature of things (TATHATĀ, literally, "suchness"). The dependent origination of an action and the ultimate way in which that action occurs are inseparable; hence samudācāra, and in particular actions prompted by the aspiration for enlightenment, are "manifest actions." In tantric literature, the term is used for the four types of activities, also known as the CATURKARMAN.
Sanjie jiao. (J. Sangaikyo/Sankaikyo; K. Samgye kyo 三階教). In Chinese, often translated as the "Three Stages School," but more probably referring to the "School of the Third Stage." The Sanjie jiao was a Chinese religious movement that was inspired by the influential teachings of the Chinese monk XINXING (540-594). The community shared Xinxing's belief in the decline of the DHARMA (MOFA) and the concomitant decay of one's potential or capacity (genji) for attaining buddhahood. According to the Three Stages teachings, the capacities of sentient beings are roughly divided into the so-called three stages (sanjie). The first two stages, now past, are those of the one vehicle (YISHENG; cf. EKAYĀNA) or three vehicles (TRIYĀNA), during which correct views about Buddhism were still present in the world. The current "third stage" (i.e., the present) was characterized instead by the proliferation of false views and prejudices. Because people during this degenerate age of the dharma were inevitably mistaken in their perceptions of reality, it was impossible for them to make any correct distinctions, whether between right and wrong, good and evil, ordained and lay. To counter these inveterate tendencies toward discrimination, Sanjie jiao adherents were taught instead to treat all things as manifestations of the buddha-nature (FOXING), leading to a "universalist teaching" (pufa) of Buddhism that was presumed to have supplanted all the previous teachings of the religion. Xinxing advocated that almsgiving (DĀNA) was the epitome of Buddhist practice during the degenerate age of the dharma and that the true perfection of giving (DĀNAPĀRAMITĀ) meant that all people, monks and laypeople alike, should be making offerings to relieve the suffering to those most in need, including the poor, the orphaned, and the sick. In its radical reinterpretation of the practice of giving in Buddhism, even animals were considered to be a more appropriate object of charity than were buddhas, bodhisattvas, monks, or the three jewels (RATNATRAYA); members of the community were even said to bow down to dogs. As the only reliable practice during this degenerate third stage, the Sanjie jiao community institutionalized giving in the form of an "inexhaustible storehouse cloister" (WUJINZANG YUAN). Donations made to the inexhaustible storehouse established by the Three Stages community at the monastery Huadusi in Chang'an would be distributed again during times of famine. The offerings were also used to fund the restoration of monasteries and the performance of religious services (i.e., the reverence field of merit, C. jingtian), and to provide alms to the poor (i.e., the compassion field of merit, C. beitian; see PUnYAKsETRA). The inexhaustible storehouse also came to serve as a powerful money-lending institution. The Three Stages community was labeled a heresy during the persecution of Buddhism during the Tang dynasty and, in 713, the Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756) issued an edict closing the inexhaustible storehouse due to charges of embezzlement; its scriptures were eventually labeled spurious (see APOCRYPHA) and dropped out of circulation, only to be rediscovered in the DUNHUANG manuscript cache. Despite these persecutions, the school continued to be influential for several more centuries.
Sankaracharya, Krishna, Lao-tzu, and Jesus were avataras in differing degrees, of somewhat differing structure. There was a divine ray which came down at the cyclic time of each of these incarnations, and the connecting link or the flame of mind was provided in each case by a member of the Hierarchy of Compassion. Krishna says, “I incarnate in period after period in order to destroy wickedness and reestablish righteousness” (BG ch 4, sl 8). Krishna here represents the Logos or logoic ray which “on our plane would be utterly helpless, inactive, and have no possible means of communication with us and our sphere, because that logoic ray lacks an intermediate and fully conscious vehicle or carrier, i.e., it lacks the intermediate or highly ethereal mechanism, the spiritual-human in us, which in ordinary man is but slightly active. An avatara takes place when a direct ray from the Logos enters into, fully inspires, and illuminates, a human being, through the intermediary of a bodhisattva who has incarnated in that human being, thereby supplying the fit, ready, and fully conscious intermediate vehicle or carrier” (Fund 276).
Saundarananda. (T. Mdzes dga' bo). In Sanskrit, "Handsome Nanda," the Indian philosopher-poet AsVAGHOsA's verse recounting of NANDA's transformation from enamored husband, to ascetic, and finally to enlightened ARHAT, written c. second century CE. "Handsome Nanda" is the epithet of NANDA, the younger half brother of the Buddha. The first half of this ornate poem provides a elaborate retelling of Nanda's forced ordination into the Buddhist order, his humiliation due to his erotic attachments to both his wife Sundarī (a.k.a. JANAPADAKALYĀnĪ NANDĀ) and various heavenly nymphs (APSARAS), and finally his decision to abandon carnality and seek enlightenment. In the second half of the poem, the Buddha offers Nanda instruction in moral and sensory restraint, leading up to the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, and finally the achievement of the "deathless," a synonym for NIRVĀnA. The poem ends with the now-enlightened Nanda compassionately teaching to others the path to liberation. Asvaghosa's elaborate kāvya version of this well-known tale of conversion is a classic of early Indian Buddhist literature. There is some controversy over its influence and popularity, however, since unlike most of Asvaghosa's other works, there are no Indian commentaries, and the poem was never translated into either Chinese or Tibetan.
Schopenhauer, Arthur: (1738-1860) Brilliant, manysided philosopher, at times caustic, who attained posthumously even popular acclaim. His principal work, The World as Will and Idea starts with the thesis that the world is my idea, a primary fact of consciousness implying the inseparableness of subject and object (refutation of materialism and subjectivism). The object underlies the principle of sufficient reason whose fourfold root Schopenhauer had investigated previously in his doctoral dissertation as that of becoming (causality), knowing, being, and acting (motivation). But the world is also obstinate, blind, impetuous will (the word taken in a larger than the dictionary meaning) which objectifies itself in progressive stages in the world of ideas beginning with the forces of nature (gravity, etc.) and terminating in the will to live and the products of its urges. As thing-in-itself, the will is one, though many in its phenomenal forms, space and time serving as principia individuationis. The closer to archetypal forms the ideas (Platonic influence) and the less revealing the will, the greater the possibility of pure contemplation in art in which Schopenhauer found greatest personal satisfaction. Propounding a determinism and a consequential pessimism (q.v.), Schopenhauer concurs with Kant in the intelligible character of freedom, makes compassion (Mitleid; see Pity) the foundation of ethics, and upholds the Buddhist ideal of desirelessness as a means for allaying the will. Having produced intelligence, the will has created the possibility of its own negation in a calm, ascetic, abstinent life.
Sengmeng. (J. Somo; K. Sŭngmaeng 僧猛) (418-489). A Buddhist nun (BHIKsUnĪ) from Yanguan County in southeastern China during the Qi dynasty (479-502). As was common in the biographies collected in the BIQIUNI ZHUAN, she left secular life at a young age. Despite her family's long fealty to Daoism, Sengmeng alone rejected Daoism in favor of Buddhism, strictly adhering to the monastic precepts. Sengmeng demonstrated a penetrating grasp of scripture and was extremely diligent in her study. In addition, she could recite from memory extraordinary amounts of text, often after only a single reading. Sengmeng demonstrated her Buddhist compassion in many ways, including dramatic moments when she used her own body as a barricade to protects animals from predators, enduring pecks and bites as a result. Her exemplary deeds were cited as ideal models for Buddhist monastics and laity alike.
Sephiroth: A Hebrew term for “the mystical and organically related hierarchy of the ten creative powers emanating from God, constituting, according to the kabalistic system, the foundation of the existence of the world.” (M. Buber: Tales of the Hasidim.) The ten Sephiroth are: 1. The Divine Crown (Kether); 2. The Divine Wisdom (Hokhmah); 3. The Intelligence of God (Binah); 4. The Divine Love or Mercy (Hesed); 5. The Divine Power of judgment and retribution (Gevurah or Din); 6. The Divine Compassion (Rahamin) which mediates between God’s Power of judgment and His Mercy; 7. The Lasting Endurance or Firmness of God (Netsah); 8. God’s Majesty or Splendor (Hod); 9. The Foundation of all active forces in God (Yesod); 10. The Kingdom of God (Malkhuth), which the Zohar usually describes as the mystical archetype of Israel’s community. (The above terms are based on the interpretations given by G. G. Scholem in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Other authorities occasionally adopt different terminologies. Thus, the fourth of the Sephiroth is frequently called Tiphereth, Beauty.)
Sephiroth (Hebrew) Sĕfīrōth [plural of sĕfīrāh] Emanations; applicable to the ten powers or potencies which compose the Qabbalistic Tree of Life, named Kether (the Crown); Hochmah (wisdom); Binah (understanding); Hesed (compassion); Geburah (strength); Tiph’ereth (beauty); Netsah (triumph); Hod (majesty); Yesod (foundation); and Malchuth (kingdom). The higher ones of this series of cosmic emanations imbody functions in cosmogony which exactly parallel the functions and attributes of the lipika in theosophical thought.
Sgrol ma lha khang. (Drolma Lhakhang). In Tibetan, "Tārā Temple," a temple in the central Tibetan region of Snye thang (Nyetang) where the Bengali scholar ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNĀNA lived for much of his time in Tibet, where he made his principal seat, and later died. The primary image is a statue of TĀRĀ (T. Sgrol ma), the female bodhisattva of compassion who served as Atisa's personal protector, after which the temple takes its name. Constructed in the mid-eleventh century, it was spared major damage during the Chinese Cultural Revolution due to the intervention of officials from the Indian state of Bengal, which was ruled at the time by the Communist Left Front. Consequently, the temple still houses Atisa's relics and original artwork of great value and beauty.
Shang Tianzhusi. (上天竺寺). In Chinese, "Upper Tianzhu Monastery," located on Mt. Tianzhu in Hangzhou, along the southern coast of China. (TIANZHU is one of the common Sinographic transcriptions of Sindu, or India.) Founded by King Qian Liu (852-932 CE) of the Kingdom of Wuyue (907-978 CE) during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period following the demise of the Tang dynasty. According to certain sources, before he became king, Qian Liu dreamed of a woman dressed in white robes, who promised to protect him and his descendants if he was compassionate and did not kill living creatures. She then informed him that she could be found on Mt. Tianzhu in Hangzhou twenty years hence. When Qian Liu ascended the throne, he dreamed once more of this white-robed woman, whom he realized was BAIYI GUANYIN (White-Robed AVALOKITEsVARA). In this dream, she informed Qian Liu that she needed a residence, in return for which she would bestow her patronage on his kingdom. When the king discovered that, of all the monasteries on Mt. Tianzhu, only one housed a Baiyi Guanyin icon, he became its patron and named it the Tianzhu Kanjing Yuan (Tianzhu Center for Reading Scriptures). Later renamed Upper Tianzhu monastery, it became renowned as a GUANYIN pilgrimage site. The monastery is also known for its association with the Song-dynasty legend of Princess MIAOSHAN (first complete rendition 1100 CE) when Jiang Zhiqi (1031-1104 CE), prefect of Ruzhou in Henan province, was transferred to Hangzhou in 1104 CE. Upon his arrival, he had the Miaoshan legend inscribed on a stele to be enshrined in Upper Tianzhu monastery.
Silent Watcher ::: A term used in modern theosophical esoteric philosophy to signify a highly advanced spiritual entity whois, as it were, the summit or supreme chief of a spiritual-psychological hierarchy composed of beingsbeneath him and working under the Silent Watcher's direct inspiration and guidance. The SilentWatchers, therefore, are relatively numerous, because every hierarchy, large or small, high or low, has asits own particular hierarch or supreme head a Silent Watcher. There are human Silent Watchers, andthere is a Silent Watcher for every globe of our planetary chain. There is likewise a Silent Watcher of thesolar system of vastly loftier state or stage, etc."Silent Watcher" is a graphic phrase, and describes with fair accuracy the predominant trait orcharacteristic of such a spiritual being -- one who through evolution having practically gainedomniscience or perfect knowledge of all that he can learn in any one sphere of the kosmos, instead ofpursuing his evolutionary path forwards to still higher realms, remains in order to help the multitudes andhosts of less progressed entities trailing behind him. There he remains at his self-imposed task, waitingand watching and helping and inspiring, and so far as we humans are concerned, in the utter silences ofspiritual compassion. Thence the term Silent Watcher. He can learn nothing more from the particularsphere of life through which he has now passed, and the secrets of which he knows by heart. For the timebeing and for ages he has renounced all individual evolution for himself out of pure pity and highcompassion for those beneath him.
Silent Watcher, In theosophy, highly advanced spiritual entities, each the summit of a spiritual-psychological hierarchy composed of beings working under their direct inspiration and guidance. Every hierarchy, high or low, has a Silent Watcher as its own supreme head. “There are human ‘Silent Watchers,’ and there is a ‘Silent Watcher’ for every globe of our Planetary Chain. There is likewise a Silent Watcher of the solar system of vastly loftier state or stage . . .” He is “one who through evolution having practically gained omniscience or perfect knowledge of all that he can learn in any one sphere of the kosmos, instead of pursuing his evolutionary path forwards to still higher realms, remains in order to help the multitudes and hosts of less progressed entities trailing behind him. There he remains at his self-imposed task, waiting and watching and helping and inspiring, and so far as we humans are concerned, in the utter silences of spiritual compassion. . . . He can learn nothing more from the particular sphere of life through which he has now passed, and the secrets of which he knows by heart. For the time being and for ages he has renounced all individual evolution for himself out of pure pity and high compassion for those beneath him” (OG 156). See also WATCHER
Soulless Beings ::: "We elbow soulless men in the streets at every turn," wrote H. P. Blavatsky. This is an actual fact. Thestatement does not mean that those whom we thus elbow have no soul. The significance is that thespiritual part of these human beings is sleeping, not awake. They are animate humans with an animateworking brain-mind, an animal mind, but otherwise "soulless" in the sense that the soul is inactive,sleeping; and this is also just what Pythagoras meant when he spoke of the "living dead." They areeverywhere, these people. We elbow them, just as H. P. Blavatsky says, at every turn. The eyes may bephysically bright, and filled with the vital physical fire, but they lack soul; they lack tenderness, thefervid yet gentle warmth of the living flame of inspiration within. Sometimes impersonal love willawaken the soul in a man or in a woman; sometimes it will kill it if the love become selfish and gross.The streets are filled with such "soulless" people; but the phrase soulless people does not mean "lostsouls." The latter is again something else. The term soulless people therefore is a technical term. It meansmen and women who are still connected, but usually quite unconsciously, with the monad, the spiritualessence within them, but who are not self-consciously so connected. They live very largely in thebrain-mind and in the fields of sensuous consciousness. They turn with pleasure to the frivolities of life.They have the ordinary feelings of honor, etc., because it is conventional and good breeding so to havethem; but the deep inner fire of yearning, the living warmth that comes from being more or less at onewith the god within, they know not. Hence, they are "soulless," because the soul is not working with fieryenergy in and through them.A lost soul, on the other hand, means an entity who through various rebirths, it may be a dozen, or moreor less, has been slowly following the "easy descent to Avernus," and in whom the threads ofcommunication with the spirit within have been snapped one after the other. Vice will do this, continuousvice. Hate snaps these spiritual threads more quickly than anything else perhaps. Selfishness, the parentof hate, is the root of all human evil; and therefore a lost soul is one who is not merely soulless in theordinary theosophical usage of the word, but is one who has lost the last link, the last delicate thread ofconsciousness, connecting him with his inner god. He will continue "the easy descent," passing fromhuman birth to an inferior human birth, and then to one still more inferior, until finally the degenerateastral monad -- all that remains of the human being that once was -- may even enter the body of somebeast to which it feels attracted (and this is one side of the teaching of transmigration, which has been sobadly misunderstood in the Occident); some finally go even to plants perhaps, at the last, and willultimately vanish. The astral monad will then have faded out. Such lost souls are exceedingly rare,fortunately; but they are not what we call soulless people.If the student will remember the fact that when a human being is filled with the living spiritual andintellectual fiery energies flowing into his brain-mind from his inner god, he is then an insouled being, hewill readily understand that when these fiery energies can no longer reach the brain-mind and manifest ina man's life, there is thus produced what is called a soulless being. A good man, honorable, loyal,compassionate, aspiring, gentle, and true-hearted, and a student of wisdom, is an "insouled" man; abuddha is one who is fully, completely insouled; and there are all the intermediate grades between.
spiritual ::: The word “spiritual” has at least four major usages: 1. “Spiritual” refers to the highest levels in any developmental line (e.g., transrational cognition, transpersonal self-identity, etc.). 2. “Spiritual” is a separate developmental line itself (e.g., Fowler’s stages of faith). 3. “Spiritual” refers to a state or peak experience (e.g., nature mysticism). 4. “Spiritual” means a particular attitude or orientation, like openness, wisdom, or compassion, which can be present at virtually any state or stage.
Sri Aurobindo: "‘Violet" is the colour of benevolence or compassion, but also more vividly of the Divine Grace. . . .” *Letters on Yoga
srīvatsa. (T. dpal be'u; C. jixiang haiyun; J. kichijokaiun; K. kilsang haeun 吉祥海雲). In Sanskrit, literally, "beloved of srī," an epithet of Visnu but used to describe a triangular pattern on the chest of Visnu. The term is generally translated as "endless knot," and is considered to be one of the eight auspicious symbols (AstAMAnGALA) of Buddhism. Usually depicted as a closed design of intertwined lines at right angles, it is said to symbolize the endless wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. It is often listed as the last of the eighty secondary marks (ANUVYANJANA) of a superman (MAHĀPURUsA), and is said to adorn the soles of a buddha's feet.
Srong btsan sgam po. (Songtsen Gampo) (r. c. 605-650). The thirty-third Tibetan religious king (chos kyi rgyal po) who reigned during the period of the Yar klungs dynasty; credited with establishing Buddhism as the predominant religion in Tibet. He is considered the first of three great religious kings, along with KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN and RAL PA CAN. Although the historical facts of his life are somewhat murky, stories of Srong btsan sgam po's activities pervade Tibetan culture. His rule forged a cohesive national center and brought Tibet to the zenith of it military expansion, shaping an empire that rivaled any in Asia. During Srong btsan sgam po's reign, Tibet was surrounded by Buddhist currents to the south and west, which appear to have had a particularly profound effect on Tibetan civilization. According to traditional sources, the king and his two wives, the Nepalese BHṚKUTI and the Chinese WENCHENG, were instrumental in the early promulgation of Buddhist practice in his kingdom. An important Tibetan text, the MAnI BKA' 'BUM ("One Hundred Thousand Instructions on the Mani"), describes the monarch as an earthly manifestation of AVALOKITEsVARA, the BODHISATTVA of compassion, and his wives as forms of the female bodhisattva TĀRĀ. These accounts are at the heart of Tibet's Buddhist myth of origin and play a central role in how most Tibetans understand the history of their country and religion. After ascending the throne, Srong btsan sgam po moved his capital from the heartland of the Yar klungs Valley in the south to its modern location in LHA SA. With the support of their monarch, each queen established an important Buddhist temple to house a statue she had carried to Tibet: Bhṛkuti founding the JO KHANG temple for an image of sĀKYAMUNI called JO BO MI BSKYOD RDO RJE, Wencheng founding what is now the RA MO CHE temple for her statue of sākyamuni called JO BO SHĀKYAMUNI or Jo bo rin po che. These images were later switched, and today the Jo bo sākyamuni statue sits in the Jo khang, where it is venerated as Tibet's holiest Buddhist relic. According to legend, the Tang princess Wencheng also imported Chinese systems of geomancy and divination through which the Tibetan landscape was viewed as a supine demoness requiring subjugation in order for Buddhism to take root and flourish. Srong btsan sgam po purportedly constructed a series of "taming temples" that acted as nails pinning down the limbs of the demoness (T. srin mo), rendering her powerless. The Jo khang was constructed over the position of the demoness' heart. In addition to the Jo khang, traditional sources count twelve main taming (T. 'dul) temples spread across the Himalayan landscape, each pinning down a point on the demoness's body. These structures appear to be in concentric circles radiating out from her heart at Lha sa. Out from the heart are the "edge-pinning temples" (MTHA' 'DUL GTSUG LAG KHANG) of KHRA 'BRUG, 'GRUM, BKA' TSHAL, and GRUM PA RGYANG, said to pin down her right and left shoulders and right and left hips, respectively; and beyond that four "extra-pinning temples" (YANG 'DUL GTSUG LAG KHANG) BU CHU, MKHO MTHING, DGE GYES, and PRA DUM RTSE that pin down her right and left elbows and right and left knees, respectively. In 637, Srong btsan sgam po established an eleven-storied palace on the hill of northeast Lha sa called Mar po ri. While this structure was later destroyed by fire, it served as the foundation for the PO TA LA palace constructed in the seventeenth century under the direction of the fifth DALAI LAMA NGAG DBANG BLO BZANG RGYA MTSHO. The king is also said to have commissioned his minister Thon mi SaMbhota to create a new script (what is now known as Tibetan) in order to translate Buddhist texts from Sanskrit. He also established what is known as the "great legal code" (gtsug lag bka' khrims chen po). While contemporary scholars now question the portrait of Srong btsan sgam po as a pious convert to Buddhism (it is known, for example, that he maintained close ties to the early BON religion), many of Tibet's most important Buddhist institutions were established during his time.
Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra. (T. Bde ba can gyi bkod pa'i mdo; C. Wuliangshou jing; J. Muryojukyo; K. Muryangsu kyong 無量壽經). Literally, the "Sutra Displaying [the Land of] Bliss," the title of the two most important Mahāyāna sutras of the "PURE LAND" tradition. The two sutras differ in length, and thus are often referred to in English as the "larger" and "smaller" (or "longer" and "shorter") Sukhāvatīvyuhasutras; the shorter one is commonly called the AMITĀBHASuTRA. Both sutras are believed to date from the third century CE. The longer and shorter sutras, together with the GUAN WULIANGSHOU JING (*Amitāyurdhyānasutra), constitute the three main texts associated with the pure land tradition of East Asia (see JINGTU SANBUJING). There are multiple Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan versions of both the longer and shorter sutras, with significant differences among them. ¶ The longer Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra begins with ĀNANDA noticing that the Buddha is looking especially serene one day, and so asks him the reason. The Buddha responds that he was thinking back many millions of eons in the past to the time of the buddha LOKEsVARARĀJA. The Buddha then tells a story in the form of a flashback. In the audience of this buddha was a monk named DHARMĀKARA, who approached Lokesvararāja and proclaimed his aspiration to become a buddha. Dharmākara then requested the Buddha to describe all of the qualities of the buddha-fields (BUDDHAKsETRA). Lokesvararāja provided a discourse that lasted one million years, describing each of the qualities of the lands of trillions of buddhas. Dharmākara then retired to meditate for five eons, seeking to concentrate all of the marvelous qualities of the millions of buddha-fields that had been described to him into a single pure buddha-field. When he completed his meditation, he returned to describe this imagined land to Lokesvararāja, promising to create a place of birth for fortunate beings and vowing that he would follow the bodhisattva path and become the buddha of this new buddha-field. He described the land he would create in a series of vows, stating that if this or that marvel was not present in his pure land, may he not become a buddha: e.g., "If in my pure land there are animals, ghosts, or hell denizens, may I not become a buddha." He made forty-eight such vows. These included the vow that all the beings in his pure land will be the color of gold; that beings in his pure land will have no conception of private property; that no bodhisattva will have to wash, dry, or sew his own robes; that bodhisattvas in his pure land will be able to hear the dharma in whatever form they wish to hear it and whenever they wish to hear it; that any woman who hears his name, creates the aspiration to enlightenment (BODHICITTA), and feels disgust at the female form, will not be reborn as a woman again. Two of these vows would become the focus of particular attention. In the eighteenth vow (seventeenth in the East Asian versions), Dharmākara vows that when he has become a buddha, he will appear at the moment of death to anyone who creates the aspiration to enlightenment, hears his name, and remembers him with faith. In the nineteenth vow (eighteenth in the East Asian versions), he promises that anyone who hears his name, wishes to be reborn in his pure land, and dedicates their merit to that end, will be reborn there, even if they make such a resolution as few as ten times during the course of their life. Only those who have committed one of the five inexpiable transgressions bringing immediate retribution (ĀNANTARYAKARMAN, viz., patricide, matricide, killing an ARHAT, wounding a buddha, or causing schism in the SAMGHA) are excluded. The scene then returns to the present. Ānanda asks the Buddha whether Dharmākara was successful, whether he did in fact traverse the long path of the bodhisattva to become a buddha. The Buddha replies that he did indeed succeed and that he became the buddha Amitābha (Infinite Light). The pure land that he created is called sukhāvatī. Because Dharmākara became a buddha, all of the things that he promised to create in his pure land have come true, and the Buddha proceeds to describe sukhāvatī in great detail. It is carpeted with lotuses made of seven precious substances, some of which reach ten leagues (YOJANA) in diameter. Each lotus emits millions of rays of light and from each ray of light there emerge millions of buddhas who travel to world systems in all directions to teach the dharma. The pure land is level, like the palm of one's hand, without mountains or oceans. It has great rivers, the waters of which rise as high or sink as low as one pleases, from the shoulders to the ankles, and vary in temperature as one pleases. The sound of the river takes the form of whatever auspicious words one wishes to hear, such as "buddha," "emptiness," "cessation," and "great compassion." The words "hindrance," "misfortune," and "pain" are never heard, nor are the words "day" and "night" used, except as metaphors. The beings in the pure land do not need to consume food. When they are hungry, they simply visualize whatever food they wish and their hunger is satisfied without needing to eat. They dwell in bejeweled palaces of their own design. Some of the inhabitants sit cross-legged on lotus blossoms while others are enclosed within the calyx of a lotus. The latter do not feel imprisoned, because the calyx of the lotus is quite large, containing within it a palace similar to that inhabited by the gods. Those who dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the pure land yet who harbor doubts are reborn inside lotuses where they must remain for five hundred years, enjoying visions of the pure land but deprived of the opportunity to hear the dharma. Those who are free from doubt are reborn immediately on open lotuses, with unlimited access to the dharma. Such rebirth would become a common goal of Buddhist practice, for monks and laity alike, in India, Tibet, and throughout East Asia. ¶ The "shorter" Sukhāvatīvyuhasutra was translated into Chinese by such famous figures as KUMĀRAJĪVA and XUANZANG. It is devoted largely to describing this buddha's land and its many wonders, including the fact that even the names for the realms of animals and the realms of hell-denizens are not known; all of the beings born there will achieve enlightenment in their next lifetime. In order to be reborn there, one should dedicate one's merit to that goal and bear in mind the name of the buddha here known as AMITĀYUS (Infinite Life). Those who are successful in doing so will see Amitāyus and a host of bodhisattvas before them at the moment of death, ready to escort them to sukhāvatī, the land of bliss. In order to demonstrate the efficacy of this practice, the Buddha goes on to list the names of many other buddhas abiding in the four cardinal directions, the nadir, and the zenith, who also praise the buddha-field of Amitāyus. Furthermore, those who hear the names of the buddhas that he has just recited will be embraced by those buddhas. Perhaps to indicate how his own buddha-field (that is, our world) differs from that of Amitāyus, sākyamuni Buddha concludes by conceding that it has been difficult to teach the dharma in a world as degenerate as ours.
Sutrasamuccaya. (T. Mdo kun las btus pa; C. Dasheng baoyaoyi lun; J. Daijo hoyogiron; K. Taesŭng poyoŭi non 大乘寶要義論). In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Sutras," a work attributed to NĀGĀRJUNA, an anthology of passages from sixty-eight mainly MAHĀYĀNA sutras (or collections of sutras), organized under thirteen topics. These topics extol the bodhisattva and the Mahāyāna path, noting the rarity and hence precious nature of such things as faith in the Buddha, great compassion, and laymen who are able to follow the bodhisattva path. The text is of historical interest because it provides evidence of the Mahāyāna sutras that were extant at the time of Nāgārjuna. These include, in addition to various PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ sutras, such famous works as the LAnKĀVATĀRASuTRA, the DAsABHuMIKASuTRA, the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, and the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA. The Chinese translation was made by Dharmaraksa (c. 1018-1058) during the Northern Song dynasty and was among the last stratum of Indian materials to be entered into the Chinese Buddhist canon (C. DAZANGJING).
sympathy ::: 1. A relationship or an affinity between people or things in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other. 2. The sharing of another"s emotions, esp. of sorrow or anguish; pity; compassion. sympathies.
Tannisho. (歎異抄). In Japanese, "Record of Lamentations on Divergences"; a short collection of the sayings of the JoDO SHINSHu teacher SHINRAN (1173-1263), compiled by his disciple Yuien (1222-1289). The work consists of eighteen short sections: the first ten sections are direct quotations of Shinran's sayings as recalled by the author; the remaining eight are Yuien's responses to what he considers misinterpretations of Shinran's teachings that arose after his death. The first part of the text, in particular, describes such characteristic teachings of Shinran as "evil people have the right capacity" (AKUNIN SHoKI), i.e., that Amitābha's compassion is directed primarily to evildoers. The text was little known for centuries after its compilation, even to followers of Jodo Shinshu, until it was popularized during the Meiji era by the HIGASHI HONGANJI reformer KIYOZAWA MANSHI (1863-1903).
Tārā. (T. Sgrol ma; C. Duoluo; J. Tara; K. Tara 多羅). In Sanskrit, lit. "Savioress"; a female bodhisattva who has the miraculous power to be able to deliver her devotees from all forms of physical danger. Tārā is said to have arisen from either a ray of blue light from the eye of the buddha AMITĀBHA, or from a tear from the eye of the BODHISATTVA AVALOKITEsVARA as he surveyed the suffering universe. The tear fell into a valley and formed a lake, out of which grew the lotus from which Tārā appeared. She is thus said to be the physical manifestation of the compassion of Avalokitesvara, who is himself the quintessence of the compassion of the buddhas. Because buddhas are produced from wisdom and compassion, Tārā, like the goddess PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ ("Perfection of Wisdom"), is hailed as "the mother of all buddhas," despite the fact that she is most commonly represented as a beautiful sixteen-year-old maiden. She is often depicted together with BHṚKUTĪ (one of her forms) as one of two female bodhisattvas flanking Avalokitesvara. Tārā is the subject of much devotion in her own right, serving as the subject of many stories, prayers, and tantric SĀDHANAs. She can appear in peaceful or wrathful forms, depending on the circumstances, her powers extending beyond the subjugation of these worldly frights, into the heavens and into the hells. She has two major peaceful forms, however. The first is SITATĀRĀ, or White Tārā. Her right hand is in VARADAMUDRĀ, her left is at her chest in VITARKAMUDRĀ and holds a lotus and she sits in DHYĀNĀSANA. The other is sYĀMATĀRĀ, or Green Tārā. Her right hand is in varadamudrā, her left is at her chest in vitarkamudrā and holds an utpala, and she sits in LALITĀSANA. Her wrathful forms include KURUKULLĀ, a dancing naked YOGINĪ, red in color, who brandishes a bow and arrow in her four arms. In tantric MAndALAs, she appears as the consort of AMOGHASIDDHI, the buddha of the northern quarter; together they are lord and lady of the KARMAKULA. But she is herself also the sole deity in many tantric SĀDHANAs, in which the meditator, whether male or female, visualizes himself or herself in Tārā's feminine form. Tārā is best-known for her salvific powers, appearing the instant her devotee recites her MANTRA, oM tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. She is especially renowned as Astabhayatrānatārā, "Tārā Who Protects from the Eight Fears," because of her ability to deliver those who call upon her when facing the eight great fears (mahābhaya) of lions, elephants, fire, snakes, thieves, water, imprisonment, and demons. Many tales are told recounting her miraculous interventions. Apart from the recitation of her mantra, a particular prayer is the most common medium of invoking Tārā in Tibet. It is a prayer to twenty-one Tārās, derived from an Indian TANTRA devoted to Tārā, the Sarvatathāgatamātṛtārāvisvakarmabhavatantra ("Source of All Rites to Tārā, the Mother of All the Tathāgatas"). According to some commentarial traditions on the prayer, each of the verses refers to a different form of Tārā, totaling twenty-one. According to others, the forms of Tārā are iconographically almost indistinguishable. Tārā entered the Buddhist pantheon relatively late, around the sixth century, in northern India and Nepal, and her worship in Java is attested in inscriptions dating to the end of the eighth century. Like Avalokitesvara, she has played a crucial role in Tibet's history, in both divine and human forms. One version of the creation myth that has the Tibetan race originating from a dalliance between a monkey and an ogress says the monkey was a form of Avalokitesvara and the ogress a form of Tārā. Worship of Tārā in Tibet began in earnest with the second propagation and the arrival of ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNĀNA in the eleventh century; she appears repeatedly in accounts of his life and in his teachings. He had visions of the goddess at crucial points in his life, and she advised him to make his fateful journey to Tibet, despite the fact that his life span would be shortened as a result. His sādhanas for the propitiation of Sitatārā and syāmatārā played a key role in promoting the worship of Tārā in Tibet. He further was responsible for the translation of several important Indic texts relating to the goddess, including three by Vāgīsvarakīrti that make up the 'chi blu, or "cheating death" cycle, the foundation of all lineages of the worship of Sitatārā in Tibet. The famous Tārā chapel at Atisa's temple at SNYE THANG contains nearly identical statues of the twenty-one Tārās. The translator Darmadra brought to Tibet the important ANUYOGA tantra devoted to the worship of Tārā, entitled Bcom ldan 'das ma sgrol ma yang dag par rdzogs pa'i sangs rgyas bstod pa gsungs pa. Tārā is said to have taken human form earlier in Tibetan history as the Chinese princess WENCHENG and Nepalese princess Bhṛkutī, who married King SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO, bringing with them buddha images that would become the most revered in Tibet. Which Tārā they were remains unsettled; however, some sources identify Wencheng with syāmatārā and Bhṛkutī with the goddess of the same name, herself said to be a form of Tārā. Others argue that the Nepalese princess was Sitatārā, and Wencheng was syāmatārā. These identifications, however, like that of Srong btsan sgam po with Avalokitesvara, date only to the fourteenth century, when the cult of Tārā in Tibet was flourishing. In the next generation, Tārā appeared as the wife of King KHRI SRONG LDE BTSAN and the consort of PADMASAMBHAVA, YE SHES MTSHO RGYAL, who in addition to becoming a great tantric master herself, served as scribe when Padmasambhava dictated the treasure texts (GTER MA). Later, Tārā is said to have appeared as the great practitioner of the GCOD tradition, MA GCIG LAP SGRON (1055-1149). Indeed, when Tārā first vowed eons ago to achieve buddhahood in order to free all beings from SAMSĀRA, she swore she would always appear in female form.
Tathagata (Sanskrit) Tathāgata [from tathā thus + gata gone; or + agata arrived, come] Thus come or thus gone; a title given to the long serial line of the Buddhas of Compassion as they appear each after his predecessor among mankind; likewise a title of Gautama Buddha, the last of this line of buddhas to have appeared thus far. It is a beautifully exact expression illustrating the common spiritual character of the great ones who have gone before ourselves as well as of those destined to come in the future. As a title of the buddhas, it signifies also “one who has followed the inward way, the inner pathway, the still small path coming down, so to say, from the universal self, passing through the human constitution onward until it disappears again in the heart of being from which we came” (Fund 625).
tenderness ::: warm compassionate feelings
Tevijjasutta. (C. Sanming jing; J. Sanmyokyo; K. Sammyong kyong 三明經). In Pāli, "Discourse on the Three-fold Knowledge"; the thirteenth sutta of the DĪGHANIKĀYA (a DHARMAGUPTAKA recension appears as the twenty-sixth SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the DĪRGHĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to the two brāhmana youths, Vāsettha and Bhāradvāja, in a mango grove outside the village of Manasākata in Kosala. Vāsettha and Bhāradvāja request the Buddha to resolve their debate as to which path proposed by various brāhmana teachers learned in the three Vedas truly leads to union with the god BRAHMĀ. The Buddha responds that since none of the brāhmana teachers learned in the three Vedas themselves have attained union with Brahmā, none of the paths they teach can lead there. They are unable to attain this goal, he continues, because their minds are obstructed by the five hindrances (NĪVARAnA) of sensuous desire (KĀMACCHANDA), malice (VYĀPĀDA), sloth and torpor (P. thīnamiddha, S. STYĀNA-MIDDHA), restlessness and worry (P. uddhaccakukkucca, S. AUDDHATYA-KAUKṚTYA), and doubt (P. vicikicchā, S. VICIKITSĀ) about the efficacy of the path. The Buddha then describes the true path by means of which a disciple may attain union with Brahmā as follows: the disciple awakens to the teaching, abandons the household life, and enters the Buddhist order, trains in the restraint of action and speech, and observes even minor points of morality, guards the senses, practices mindfulness, is content with little, becomes freed from the five hindrances and attains joy and peace of mind. Then the disciple pervades the four quarters with loving-kindness (P. mettā; S. MAITRĪ), then compassion (KARUnĀ), sympathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and finally equanimity (P. upekkhā; S. UPEKsĀ). In this way one attains union with Brahmā. Vāsettha and Bhāradvāja are pleased with the discourse and become disciples of the Buddha. In adapting the term tevijja (S. TRIVIDYĀ), the Buddha is intentionally redefining the meaning of the three Vedas, contrasting his three knowledges with that of brāhmana priests who have merely memorized the three Vedas.
Thang stong rgyal po. (Tangtong Gyalpo) (1361-1485). A great adept famed throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world for his illustrious career as a YOGIN and teacher, as well as his many contributions to the fields of engineering, metallurgy, temple construction, and the performing arts. His biographies credit him with a life span of 124 years, during which he traveled widely throughout Tibet and the Himālayan regions, including India, Ladakh, Mongolia, China, and Bhutan. As a youth he studied under numerous masters and spent much of early life in meditation retreat. He received, and is said to have mastered, the corpus of teachings of the SHANG PA BKA' BRGYUD sect as well as the BYANG GTER (Northern Treasure) tradition of the RNYING MA. He is venerated as a treasure revealer (GTER STON) who extracted treasure teachings (GTER MA) from the CHIMS PHU retreat complex near BSAM YAS monastery, from STAG TSHANG in Bhutan, and the region of TSA RI in southern Tibet. His best known teachings include instructions on the system known as "severance" (GCOD) and a visionary meditation SĀDHANA based on the bodhisattva of compassion AVALOKITEsVARA called 'Gro don mkha' khyab ma ("The Benefit of Others, Vast as Space"), which continues to be practiced by Tibetan Buddhists of many sectarian affiliations. Thang stong rgyal po is also remembered for his construction of iron chain-link bridges throughout Tibet and Bhutan-an activity inspired directly by visions of Avalokitesvara. For this reason, he is often called Lcags zam pa, literally the "Iron Bridge Man," and his lineage the "Iron Bridge" (lcags zam) tradition. He is most commonly depicted as holding links of iron chains in one hand. Thang stong rgyal po founded numerous geomantically important religious structures, including the great STuPA of GCUNG RI BO CHE in western Tibet, which became an important seat of the master's tradition, and the ZLUM BRTSEGS temple in Bhutan. Thang stong rgyal po is also traditionally acknowledged as the father of the Tibetan performing arts, with his image commonly displayed prior to theatrical performances.
that feels, shows, or expresses no pity; uncompassionate.
The connection suggests the mystical ideas of spiritual individualities infilling the universe, of which Sol stands as the most prominent example in the solar system. By a slight extension of meaning solus could easily stand for a monad or spiritual individual, whether of cosmic or lesser magnitude, being an indirect reference to the class of monads which form the hierarchy of light or of compassion.
The idea conveyed is the unity of all who accept the doctrine of the Lord, i.e., Buddhists. More mystically applied by Buddhist initiates to signify likewise the unity or universal brotherhood of all human beings at any time or place, who through knowledge or natural intuition follow the law of the Buddhas, the law of right and compassion.
The idea familiarly connected in the West with the term of a compassionate, humanitarian person, as in the good Samaritan, is based upon the parable in the New Testament (Luke 10:30-37).
The lokas, in our present fourth planetary round, are dominant on the luminous arc, while the talas are recessive; whereas the talas are the dominant factors or worlds on the shadowy arc of descent, where the lokas are recessive or involving. Virtue, purity, kindness, compassion are signs that the entity possessing them is evolving the spirit within, and therefore is ascending along the lokas of the luminous arc and thus is a denizen of the lokas as the dominant factors in his evolution. Selfishness, impurity, unkindness, cruelty, and deception are the signs that the entity possessing them is then under the influence or dominance of the talas, and is for the time being on a shadowy arc — the particular and characteristic effect of the working of the influences of the talas.
“The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its BEING, the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become Compassion Absolute.
There are many types of karma, such as human, racial, national, family, individual, etc. A chain of causation, stretched out in time, will be intersected by any given present moment; so that in speaking of a person, we may say he sums up in himself both his past and his future, he is his own karma. Since the whole universe and all the beings which compose it are linked and blended together, it follows that no person can have exclusive interests and that the karma of all beings is linked and, in a profound sense, identical. Karma in its moral aspect is cosmic justice. It should not interfere in any way with helping others, nor does it render futile the exercise of compassion, for we incur as much responsibility by refraining from action as by acting. “Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin” (VS 31).
There are profound, highly mystical differences which distinguish the Maharajas from the lipikas. The Maharajas, who are both the protectors of mankind on earth and the agents of karma, are those highly evolved spiritual powers or individualized cosmic beings who belong to the light-side of universal nature, to the hierarchies of compassion representing beings of unfolded evolutionary development who by the very nature of their essence become almost the automatic guardians of light and cosmic order which the semi-intelligent and so-called unintelligent forces and energies of nature automatically obey.
The right-hand path is sometimes known as amrita-yana (the immortal vehicle or path of immortality) or as dakshina-marga (right path), and those who practice the rules of conduct and manner of life enjoined upon those who follow the right-hand path are known as dakshinacharins and their course of life is known as dakshinachara. It is a path leading to an ever wider consciousness, and those whose feet are firmly planted thereon are known as Masters of Wisdom and Compassion. See also LEFT-HAND PATH
These manasaputras are a mystery in the human constitution: they are both ourselves and a descent into us of our higher selves. They are entities from the buddhic hierarchy of compassion, from the luminous arc of evolving nature, and they are under the guidance of the Silent Watcher of the planetary chain, their supreme head.
The solstices and equinoxes mark the four corners of the esoteric year, each associated with particular psychospiritual events in the initiation cycle. The winter solstice is associated with the birth of the inner Christ or Buddha; the summer solstice with the great renunciation of personal progress made by those of the hierarchy of compassion.
The universal life principle which manifests everywhere in nature, and which under one of its forms is called kundalini-sakti, of necessity includes the two great forces of attraction and repulsion. Attraction and repulsion being of cosmic origin are therefore of necessity likewise manifest in the manifold conditions of human life; but this does not imply that the individual should passively or negatively accept disturbances caused by inharmony when it is within his power as an offspring of the higher divinities to restore it — insofar as his energies and knowledge permit — to the harmony or cosmic unity from which these cosmic energies themselves spring. Hence the teaching of the greatest sages and seers of history has been to rise above the elements of personal attraction or repulsion, and to blend the two into the compassionate mastery which the indomitable human will, when trained and practiced, can acquire over not merely moods but all conditions in life. Thus he becomes a friend to all, and an enemy to none, repelling evil and attracting good, until these by association may themselves blend or marry into that mystic unity which is the achievement or culmination of evolution, whether human or cosmic.
They achieve nirvana automatically as it were, and leave the world in its misery behind. Though exalted, nevertheless they do not rank with the unutterable sublimity, wisdom, and pity of the Buddhas of Compassion.
“They are called ‘Buddhas of Compassion’ because they feel their unity with all that is, and therefore feel intimate magnetic sympathy with all that is, and this is more and more the case as they evolve, until finally their consciousness blends with that of the universe and lives eternally and immortally, because it is at one with the universe. ‘The dewdrop slips into the shining sea’ — its origin. . . . The Buddhas of Compassion, existing in their various degrees of evolution, form a sublime hierarchy extending from the Silent Watcher on our planet downwards through these various degrees unto themselves, and even beyond themselves to their chelas or disciples” (OG 23-4).
“This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also called Dorjechang). As the Lord of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart — the ‘diamond heart,’ Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa)” (SD 1:571). Adi-buddha is the individualized monadic focus of adi-buddhi, primordial cosmic wisdom or intelligence, synonymous with mahabuddhi or mahat (universal mind). Otherwise expressed, adi-buddha is the supreme being heading the hierarchy of compassion and our solar universe; the fountain of light running through all subordinate hierarchies and thus the supreme lord and initiator of the wisdom side of our universe.
Tiferet ::: Sixth of the sefirot, Tiferet means “beauty.” It is the balance point between hesed and gevurah, and the seat of compassion. Tiferet is regarded as the center of the sefirot, and is sometimes depicted as the center of a wheel.
Titiksha (Sanskrit) Titikṣā [from the verbal root tij to urge, incite to action, be active in endurance or patience] Patience, resignation, endurance; not mere passive resignation, but an active attitude of patience in supporting the events of life. Mystically, the fifth state of raja yoga — “one of supreme indifference; submission, if necessary, to what is called ‘pleasures and pains for all,’ but deriving neither pleasure nor pain from such submission — in short, the becoming physically, mentally, and morally indifferent and insensible to either pleasure or pain” (VS 93). The meaning however is not of a cold, heartless, impassive attitude towards the sufferings of others, but an active positive attitude, so far as one’s individual pleasures or pains are considered, but likewise involving an active attitude of compassion for the tribulations and sufferings of others. The same thought is involved in the title Diamond-heart, given to adepts: as hard and indifferent to one’s own sorrows as the diamond is hard and enduring, yet like the diamond reflecting in its facets as in mirrors the sufferings and sorrows of all around.
trepitaka. (P. tipetaka/tepitaka; T. sde snod gsum pa; C. sanzang fashi; J. sanzo hosshi; K. samjang popsa 三藏法師). In Sanskrit, "a master of the canon"; an honorific title attached to the name of a renowned Buddhist teacher who is well versed in the three divisions of the Buddhist canon (TRIPItAKA), viz., the collection of monastic rules and regulations (VINAYAPItAKA; C. lü), the discourses collection (SuTRAPItAKA; C. jing), and the treatise collection (ABHIDHARMAPItAKA, or *sĀSTRAPItAKA; C. lun). The Pāli form of this term appears first in the MILINDAPANHA, which is presumed to have been compiled around the beginning of the Common Era. In the East Asian Buddhist traditions, this term has been used as an honorific title for monks who mastered the Buddhist canon and were involved in translating Indic Buddhist literature into Chinese. Thus, such monks are also called "trepitaka who translate the scriptures" (YIJING SANZANG), or simply sanzang. There are many great translator-monks who carried this title of sanzang or sanzang fashi, including KUMĀRAJĪVA (344-413), PARAMĀRTHA (499-569), XUANZANG (600/602-664), and AMOGHAVAJRA (705-774). Later, this term was often commonly used to refer specifically to Xuanzang, as in the "Biography of the Master of the Buddhist Canon at the Beneficence of Great Compassion Monastery" (DACI'ENSI sanzang fashi zhuan), which is a biography of Xuanzang written by Huili (615-?). The Sanskrit of trepitaka is sometimes (mistakenly) reconstructed from the Chinese as *tripitakācārya.
Trikaya: Sanskrit for triple body. That school in Buddhist mysticism which conceives of the Buddha as having three bodies, viz.: The Law-Body (Dharma-kaya) which is the soul of Buddha, the Enjoyment-Body (Sambhogakaya) which is the embodiment of Wisdom, and the Transformation-Body (Nirmana-kaya) which is the embodiment of compassion.
Trikaya (Sanskrit) Trikāya [from tri three + kāya vesture, body] The three glorious vestures or states in which the consciousness of an adept clothes itself: 1) the nirmanakaya (Tibetan pru-lpai-ku) in which the bodhisattva after entering the path to nirvana by the six paramitas appears to mankind in order to teach and which thus is associated with the Buddhas of Compassion; 2) the sambhogakaya (Tibetan dzog-pai-ku) the body of bliss impervious to all material sensations assumed by one who has fulfilled the three conditions of spiritual, intellectual, and moral perfection; and 3) the dharmakaya (Tibetan chos-ku) the nirvanic body or robe in which all nirvanis and full Pratyeka Buddhas exist.
uncaring ::: without care, compassion, or concern.
upeksā. (P. upekkhā; T. btang snyoms; C. she; J. sha; K. sa 捨). In Sanskrit, "equanimity," a term with at least four important denotations: (1) as a sensation of neutrality that is neither pleasurable nor painful; (2) as one of eleven virtuous mental concomitants (KUsALA-CAITTA), referring to a state of evenness of mind, without overt disturbance by sensuality, hatred, or ignorance; (3) as a state of mental balance during the course of developing concentration, which is free from lethargy and excitement; and (4) one of the four "divine abidings" (BRAHMAVIHĀRA), along with loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnĀ), and sympathetic joy (MUDITĀ). As a divine abiding, upeksā indicates an even-mindedness toward all beings, regarding them with neither attachment nor aversion, as neither intimate nor remote; in some descriptions of the four "divine abidings," there is the additional wish that all beings attain such equanimity. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, equanimity is listed as one of the meditative topics for the cultivation of tranquillity meditation (samathābhāvanā; see S. sAMATHA). Of the four divine abidings, equanimity is capable of producing all four levels of meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA), while the other divine abidings are capable of producing only the first three of four. The text indicates that, along with the other three divine abidings, equanimity is used only for the cultivation of tranquillity, not for insight training (P. vipassanābhāvanā; see S. VIPAsYANĀ).
Uttarā-Nandamātā. An eminent laywoman declared by the Buddha to be foremost in the attainment of meditative power. According to Pāli accounts, she was the daughter of Punnaka, a servant of the wealthy man Sumana of Rājagaha (S. RĀGAGṚHA). Uttarā's family was devoted to the Buddha and, on one occasion, while listening to a sermon he was preaching, Uttarā and her parents became stream-enterers (P. sotāpanna; S. SROTAĀPANNA). When Sumana requested that Uttarā be betrothed to his son, he was at first refused on the grounds that his family was not Buddhist. Agreement was reached when Sumana promised that Uttarā would be supplied with sufficient requisites to continue her daily devotions to the Buddha. Her new husband, however, reneged on the agreement and refused to allow her to observe the uposatha (S. UPOsADHA) retreat day because she would have to refrain from intercourse for the night. In order that she could observe the uposatha, Uttarā requested money from her father-in-law so she could hire a courtesan named Sirimā to service her husband. According to legend, there subsequently ensued an incident that led to the enlightenment of the courtesan, her husband, and her father-in-law. It so happened that one day while Uttarā busied herself preparing a magnificent offering for the Buddha and his disciples, her husband was strolling hand in hand with Sirimā. Seeing his wife toiling, he smiled at her foolishness for not using her riches for herself. Uttarā saw her husband and likewise smiled at his foolishness for wasting his life in self-indulgence. Sirimā, misunderstanding their smiles, flew into a jealous rage and threw boiling oil at Uttarā. But through the power of Uttarā's compassion for Sirimā, the oil did not burn her, and, witnessing this miracle, Sirimā understood her mistake and begged forgiveness. Uttarā brought Sirimā to the Buddha, who preached to her, whereupon she became a once-returner (P. sakadāgamī; S. SAKṚDĀGĀMIN). Uttarā's husband and father-in-law, who also heard the sermon, became stream-enterers.
Vajrapāni. (P. Vajirapāni; T. Phyag na rdo rje; C. Jingangshou pusa; J. Kongoshu bosatsu; K. Kŭmgangsu posal 金剛手菩薩). In Sanskrit, "Holder of the VAJRA"; an important bodhisattva in the MAHĀYĀNA and VAJRAYĀNA traditions, who appears in both peaceful and wrathful forms. In the Pāli suttas, he is a YAKsA (P. yakkha) guardian of the Buddha. It is said that whoever refuses three times to respond to a reasonable question from the Buddha would have his head split into pieces on the spot; carrying out this punishment was Vajrapāni's duty. In such circumstances, Vajrapāni, holding his cudgel, would be visible only to the Buddha and to the person who was refusing to answer the question; given the frightening vision, the person would inevitably then respond. Vajrapāni is sometimes said to be the wrathful form of sAKRA, who promised to offer the Buddha protection if the Buddha would teach the dharma; he thus accompanies the Buddha as a kind of bodyguard on his journeys to distant lands. Vajrapāni is commonly depicted in GANDHĀRA sculpture, flanking the Buddha and holding a cudgel. In the early Mahāyāna sutras, Vajrapāni is referred to as a yaksa servant of the bodhisattvas, as in the AstASĀHASRIKĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ. In the SUVARnAPRABHĀSOTTAMASuTRA, he is called the "general of the yaksas" (yaksasenādhipati), and is praised as a protector of followers of the Buddha. In the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, AVALOKITEsVARA explains that one of the forms that he assumes to convert sentient beings is as Vajrapāni. In later Mahāyāna and early tantric Buddhism, Vajrapāni becomes a primary speaker in important sutras and tantras, as well as a principal protagonist in them, and comes to be listed as one of the "eight close sons" (*UPAPUTRA), the principal bodhisattvas. In the MANJUsRĪMuLAKALPA, as leader of the vajra family (VAJRAKULA), he flanks sĀKYAMUNI in the MAndALA. In the SARVATATHĀGATATATTVASAMGRAHA, his transition from "general of the yaksas" to "the supreme lord of all tathāgatas" is played out through his subjugation of Mahesvara (siva). At the command of the buddha VAIROCANA, Vajrapāni suppresses all of the worldly divinities of the universe and brings them to the summit of Mount SUMERU, where they seek refuge in the three jewels (RATNATRAYA). Only Mahesvara refuses to submit to the uddha. Through Vajarpāni's recitation of a MANTRA, Mahesvara loses his life, only to be reincarnated in another world system, where he eventually achieves buddhahood. Vajrapāni's yaksa origins continue in his wrathful aspects, most common in Tibet, such as the three-eyed Canda Vajrapāni. It is in this form that he is part of a popular triad with Avalokitesvara and MANJUsRĪ known as the "protectors of the three families" (T. RIGS GSUM MGON PO). These three bodhisattvas are said to be the physical manifestation of the wisdom (MaNjusrī), compassion (Avalokitesvara), and power (Vajrapāni) of all the buddhas. Vajrapāni is also said to be the bodhisattva emanation of the buddha AKsOBHYA and the chief bodhisattva of the vajra family. He himself has numerous forms and emanations, including Mahābāla (who may have developed from his early attendant Vajrapurusa), Vajrasattva, Vajradhara, VajrahuMkāra, Ucchusma, Bhutadāmara, and Trailokyavijaya. Vajrapāni is closely related especially to VAJRADHARA, and indeed Vajradhara and Vajrapāni may have originally been two names for the same deity (the Chinese translations of the two deities' names are the same). Vajrapāni's MANTRA is oM vajrapāni huM phat. He is also known as Guhyakādhipati, or "Lord of the Secret." The secret (guhyaka) originally referred to a class of yaksas that he commanded, but expanded in meaning to include secret knowledge and mantras. Vajrapāni is the protector of mantras and those who recite them, and is sometimes identified as the bodhisattva responsible for the collection, recitation, and protection of the VIDYĀDHARAPItAKA.
Vajrasattva is often used for celestial beings, entities belonging to the hierarchy of light or compassion. The vajrasattva quality is likewise one which can be possessed in less degree by any human being, depending upon his degree of advancement.
Vajrasattva. (T. Rdo rje sems dpa'; C. Jingang saduo; J. Kongosatta; K. Kŭmgang sal'ta 金剛薩埵). In Sanskrit, lit. "VAJRA Being"; a tantric deity widely worshipped as both an ĀDIBUDDHA and a buddha of purification. Vajrasattva is sometimes identified as a sixth buddha in the PANCATATHĀGATA system, such as in the SARVATATHĀGATATATTVASAMGRAHA, where he is also identical to VAJRAPĀnI. Vajrasattva also occasionally replaces AKsOBHYA in the same system, and so has been considered an emanation of that buddha. As an ādibuddha, he is identical with VAJRADHARA. He is also one of the sixteen bodhisattvas of the vajradhātumandala. In the trikula system, an early tantric configuration, Vajrasattva is the buddha of the VAJRAKULA, with VAIROCANA the buddha of the TATHĀGATAKULA and Avalokitesvara the head of the PADMAKULA. East Asian esoteric Buddhism considers Vajrasattva to be the second patriarch of the esoteric teachings; VAIROCANA taught them directly to Vajrasattva, who passed them to NĀGĀRJUNA, who passed them to VAJRABODHI/VAJRAMATI, who taught them to AMOGHAVAJRA, who brought them to China in the eighth century. In Tibet, worship of Vajrasattva is connected to YOGATANTRA and ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, such as the twenty-fifth chapter of the Abhidhanottaratantra, in which he is known as the Heruka Vajrasattva. He is particularly famous in Tibet for his role in a practice of confession and purification in which one repeats a hundred thousand times the hundred-syllable MANTRA of Vajrasattva. These repetitions (with the attendant visualization) are a standard preliminary practice (T. SNGON 'GRO) required prior to receiving tantric instructions. The mantra is: oM vajrasattva samayam anupālaya vajrasattva tvenopatistha dṛdho me bhava sutosyo me bhava suposyo me bhava anurakto me bhava sarvasiddhiM me prayaccha sarvakarmasu ca me cittaM sreyaḥ kuru huM ha ha ha ha hoḥ bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra mā me muNca vajrī bhava mahāsamayasattva āḥ huM. Unlike many mantras that seem to have no semantic meaning, Vajrasattva's mantra may be translated as: "OM Vajrasattva, keep your pledge. Vajrasattva, reside in me. Make me firm. Make me satisfied. Fulfill me. Make me compassionate. Grant me all powers. Make my mind virtuous in all deeds. huM ha ha ha ha ho. All the blessed tathāgatas, do not abandon me, make me indivisible. Great pledge being. āḥ huM."
vastujNāna. (T. gzhi shes; C. yiqiexiang zhi; J. issaisochi; K. ilch'esang chi 一切相智). In Sanskrit, "knowledge of bases" (VASTU), in the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ literature, referring to knowledge that the bases (SKANDHA, ĀYATANA, DHĀTU, etc.) described in main-stream Buddhist sources lack any semblance of a personal self. It is one of the three knowledges (along with SARVĀKĀRAJNATĀ and MĀRGAJNATĀ) set forth in the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA, a commentary on the PANCAVIMsATISĀHASRIKĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀSuTRA that describe the MAHĀYĀNA path and result. In the AbhisamayālaMkāra, the vastujNāna is more commonly called just SARVAJNATĀ ("all-knowledge"). When it is not informed by skillful means (UPĀYA), that is, great compassion (MAHĀKARUnĀ), it is understood negatively as the practice of a sRĀVAKA or PRATYEKABUDDHA that leads to their inferior goal of NIRVĀnA and must be forsaken. When it is informed by skillful means, it is an essential component both of the practice of a bodhisattva (mārgajNatā), and of a buddha's knowledge (sarvākārajNatā). As an authentic knowledge of nonself gained through a direct understanding of the four noble truths, it is possessed by those who have reached the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA).
"Violet is the colour of the light of Divine Compassion, as also of Krishna"s Grace. It is also the radiance of Krishna"s protection.” Letters on Yoga
Violet light is that of the Divine Grace and Compassion, as also of Krishna’s Grace. It Is also the radiance of Krishna’s protection.
violet ::: “‘Violet’ is the colour of benevolence or compassion, but also more vividly of the Divine Grace….” Letters on Yoga
Watcher or Silent Watcher, Wondrous Being Generically the dominant self or overlord of any hierarchy. Throughout a human being’s complex nature dwells his own spiritual Wondrous Being, the fountain and fundamental law of his whole nature; there is the Silent Watcher of the Brotherhood of Compassion, who is identical with the Watcher for our globe; the Watcher for our planetary chain; for our solar system, its habitat being the solar chain; for the Milky Way; and for the home-universe. At the other extreme there is a Silent Watcher for every atom, as for every other entity, whether large or small. The Watcher for individual people is the monad, the divine prototype at the upper rung of the ladder of being; an individual dhyani-chohan, the spiritual individuality during the manvantara, and as best it can it works through its “shadows” or incarnations.
Wondrous Being Often equivalent to Silent Watcher, the supreme head of a hierarchy; and since hierarchies are innumerable, there are innumerable Wondrous Beings. Thus there is a Wondrous Being or Silent Watcher of cosmic magnitude for the Brotherhood of Compassion; a Wondrous Being for our globe, who is identical on a smaller scale; and a Wondrous Being for our planetary chain. In the other direction, there are Wondrous Beings for all less hierarchies even down to that of the atom: it is the highest egoic form of the divine spark everywhere. In The Secret Doctrine the Wondrous Being is made equivalent to the root-base or ever-living-human-banyan.
wujinzang yuan. (J. mujinzoin; K. mujinjang won 無盡藏院). In Chinese, "inexhaustible storehouse cloister"; the emblematic institution of the Third Stage Sect (SANJIE JIAO), a major school of Buddhism during the Tang dynasty. The wujinzang yuan was established at Huadusi (Propagation and Salvation Monastery) in the capital Chang'an early in the Tang dynasty, probably between 618 and 627. The institution was based on the concept of "merit-sharing," i.e., that one could enter into the universal inexhaustible storehouse of the dharma realm, as articulated by the sect's founder XINXING (540-594), by offering alms to the wujinzang yuan on behalf of all sentient beings. By 713, when the Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756) issued an edict closing it due to charges of embezzlement, the wujinzang yuan had served as a major agency for promoting the sect for almost a century. Drawing on the AVATAMSAKASuTRA and the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, the sect interpreted the Sinographs wujin (inexhaustible) to mean that both the field of reverence-viz., the three jewels (RATNATRAYA)-and the field of compassion-viz., sentient beings-were inexhaustible. The wujinzang yuan, therefore, was the place where the sect's sixteen kinds of almsgiving (DĀNA) were to be practiced, through offerings made to (1) the buddha, (2) the dharma, (3) the saMgha, and (4) all sentient beings; (5) works that serve to ward off evil; (6) works that serve to do good; and offerings of (7) incense, (8) lamps, (9) the monks' baths, (10) bells and chants, (11) clothing, (12) dwellings, (13) beds and seats, (14) receptacles for food, (15) coal and fire, and (16) food and drink. There were two kinds of offerings made to the wujinzang yuan: (1) regular offerings collected in the form of a daily levy and (2) offerings received at particular times of the year. A Sanjie jiao text discovered at DUNHUANG says that a person is expected to offer one fen (a hundredth of a tael) of cash or one ge (a tenth of a pint) of grain per day, or thirty-six qian (a tenth of a Chinese ounce) or 3.6 dou (pecks) of grain per annum. However, the offerings were mostly made at specific times of the year, such as on the fourth day of the first lunar month, the day commemorating Xinxing's death, and the ULLAMBANA festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. For those adherents who could not make offerings directly at Huadu monastery, the sect would temporarily open local branches, called "merit offices" (gongde chu), especially at the time of the Ullambana festival. The assets of the wujinzang yuan consisted for the most part of such tangible assets as money, cloth, gold and silver, and jade. The offerings were used, for example, to fund the restoration of monasteries and the performance of religious services (i.e., the reverence field of merit, jingtian), and to provide alms to the poor (i.e., the compassion field of merit, beitian; see PUnYAKsETRA). People could also receive loans from the wujinzang, a function comparable to today's microloans made to help raise people out of poverty. During the reign of Empress Wu, Fuxiansi in Luoyang was for a brief time also the site of a wujinzang yuan. See also XIANGFA JUEYI JING.
Xiangshansi. (香山寺). In Chinese, "Fragrant Mountain Monastery"; located on SONGSHAN in Ruzhou, Henan province. It is not known when the monastery was first established, but it is thought to have been built c. 516 CE during the Northern Wei dynasty (386-584). One source credits the founding of a Xiangshan monastery in Xiangzhou to a certain general named Liu Qingzhi, but no further mention is made of either the general or the monastery. The current Xiangshansi underwent a major renovation around 1068 during the Northern Song dynasty, and special attention was paid to restoring its Dabei ta (Great Compassion pagoda), which still stands today; housed in the pagoda is a thousand-armed and thousand-eyed form of GUANYIN (SĀHASRABHUJASĀHASRANETRĀVALOKITEsVARA). Xiangshansi, like SHANG TIANZHUSI, is known for being a major pilgrimage site for Guanyin (AVALOKITEsVARA) worship. It became associated with the Princess MIAOSHAN incarnation of Guanyin, whose legend is inscribed on a stele at the monastery. The stele was commissioned in 1100 by a minor civil servant, Jiang Zhiqi (1031-1104), who was the prefect of Ruzhou. Jiang had the legend reinscribed on another stele at the Shang Tianzhusi when he moved to Hangzhou four years later.
yab yum. A Tibetan term, literally meaning "father-mother," referring to the theme common in VAJRAYĀNA iconography, especially that of ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, viz., male and female deities in sexual union. The deities are depicted either standing face-to-face or sitting, with the male deity in the VAJRĀSANA and the female deity seated on the male deity's lap, with her legs wrapped around his back, their arms embracing each other. Although interpreted in numerous ways, the male figure is generally understood to represent compassion (KARUnĀ) and method (UPĀYA) and the female figure wisdom (PRAJNĀ). Their union represents the indivisibility of these two qualities in the state of buddhahood. Although often described in such symbolic terms, numerous SĀDHANAs associated with the anuttarayogatantras include the practice of sexual union.
Yama: Sanskrit for moral restraint or self control which is the first prerequisite to the study and practice of Yoga (q.v.); ten rules of conduct (yamas) are listed in the classic text, Hathayo-gapradipika, viz. non-injuring, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, forgiveness, endurance, compassion, sincerity, sparing diet, and cleanliness.
Yishan Yining. (J. Issan Ichinei; K. Ilsan Illyong 一山一寧) (1247-1317). Chinese CHAN master in the LINJI ZONG; a native of Taizhou prefecture in present-day Zhejiang province. At a young age, Yishan became a student of a certain Wudeng Rong (d.u.) at the monastery of Hongfusi on Mt. Fu near his hometown in Taizhou. He was later ordained at the monastery of Puguangsi in Siming in Zhejiang province and continued to study VINAYA at Yingzhensi and TIANTAI thought and practice at Yanqingsi. Yishan then began his training in Chan under several teachers. He eventually became a disciple of Wanji Xingmi (d.u.), a disciple of the Chan master CAOYUAN DAOSHENG. In 1299, the Yuan emperor Chengzong (r. 1294-1307) bestowed upon him the title Great Master Miaoci Hongji (Subtle Compassion, Universal Salvation) and an official post as the overseer of Buddhist matters in Zhejiang. That same year, he was sent to Japan as an envoy of the court, but was detained temporarily at the temple of Shuzenji in Izu by the Kamakura shogunate. When the Hojo rulers learned of Yishan's renown in China, Yishan was invited to reside as abbot of the powerful monasteries of KENCHoJI, ENGAKUJI, and Jochiji in Kamakura. In 1313, Yishan was invited by the retired Emperor Gouda (r. 1274-1287) to reside as the third abbot of the monastery NANZENJI in Kyoto. Yishan had many students in Japan including the eminent Japanese monk MUSo SOSEKI. Yishan became ill and passed away in the abbot's quarters (J. hojo; C. FANGZHANG) of Nanzenji in 1317. The emperor bestowed upon him the title state preceptor (J. kokushi; C. GUOSHI) Issan (One Mountain). Yishan is also remembered for his calligraphy and for introducing to Japan the new commentaries written by the great Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200) to Japan. He and his disciples, such as Shiliang Rengong (1266-1334), Mujaku Ryoen (d.u.), Monkei Ryoso (d. 1372), and Torin Yukyu (d. 1369), contributed much to the development of GOZAN culture in Japan.
yuzunenbutsu. (融通念佛). In Japanese, lit. "consummate-interfusion recitation of the Buddha's name"; a method of chanting Amida (S. AMITĀBHA) Buddha's name (J. nenbutsu; C. NIANFO), devised by the founder of the YuZuNENBUTSU school, RYoNIN (1072-1132). The principle of yuzunenbutsu is derived from Kegonshu (C. HUAYAN ZONG) and TENDAISHu (C. TIANTAI ZONG) philosophy, especially the Kegon teachings of "comsummate interfusion" ( J. yuzu, C. YUANRONG) and the unobstructed interpenetration of all phenomena ( J. jiji muge; see C. SHISHI WU'AI FAJIE) and the Tendai teaching of the mutual inclusion of the ten dharma-realms ( J. jikkai goku; C. shijie huju). The principle of yuzunenbutsu builds upon this sense that each and every phenomenon is perfectly interfused with all other phenomena to propose that the merit coming from one person's chanting of Amitābha's name is transferred to all other persons and vice versa. When more people chant the Buddha's name, more merit is thus transferred to all people, and the merit derived from these cooperative efforts reaches not only the dharma-realm (DHARMADHĀTU) in which it is created but also all other dharma-realms as well. Therefore, all things in all realms of existence receive benefit from any one individual's practice of chanting the Buddha's name. The practice of yuzunenbutsu thus has two major characteristics: (1) the individual's burden to practice is relieved because salvation is due not just to one's own merit but to everyone's merit; (2) the notion of "other power" (TARIKI) in this form of pure land means both the power of one's fellow beings and the power deriving from Amitābha Buddha's vow of compassion.
Zhongfeng Mingben. (J. Chuho Myohon; K. Chungbong Myongbon 中峰明本) (1263-1323). Chinese CHAN master in the LINJI ZONG and one of the most influential monks of the Yuan dynasty; also known by the toponym Huanzhu (Illusory Abode). Zhongfeng was a native of Qiantang in Hangzhou prefecture (present-day Zhejiang province). While still a youth, Zhongfeng left home to study under the Chan master GAOFENG YUANMIAO of Mt. Tianmu, from whom he eventually received his monastic precepts at age twenty-four. After he left Gaofeng, Zhongfeng maintained no fixed residence and would on some occasions dwell on a boat. As his reputation grew, he came to be known as the Old Buddha of the South (Jiangnan Gufo). Mingben was an especially eloquent advocate of "questioning meditation" (KANHUA CHAN); his descriptions of the meaning and significance of Chan cases (GONG'AN) and meditative topics (HUATOU) and the processes and experience of kanhua practice are widely cited in the literature. In 1318, he was given a golden robe and the title Chan master Foci Yuanzhao Guanghui (Buddha's Compassion, Perfect Illumination, Broad Wisdom) from Emperor Renzong (r. 1311-1320). Zhongfeng also served as teacher of the next emperor Yingzong (r. 1320-1323). Emperor Wenzong (r. 1329-1332) also bestowed upon him the posthumous title Chan master Zhijue (Wise Enlightenment). Five years later, Emperor Shundi (r. 1333-1367) entered Zhongfeng's discourse records (YULU), the Zhongfeng guanglu, into the Chinese Buddhist canon (DAZANGJING), a signal honor for an indigenous author (few of whom are represented in the official canon); Shundi also bestowed on him the title State Preceptor Puying (Universal Resonance). Zhongfeng also composed his own set of monastic rules (QINGGUI) titled the Huanzhu'an qinggui.
KEYS (10k)
7 Dalai Lama
6 Sri Aurobindo
4 Pema Chodron
4 Chamtrul Rinpoche
3 Robert Adams
3 Magghima Nikaya
3 Ken Wilber
3 Amaghanda Susta
3 Albert Einstein
3 The Mother
2 Jalaluddin Rumi
2 Asoka
2 Sri Ramakrishna
1 Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
1 Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
1 Simone de Beauvoir
1 Shogaku
1 Sehopenhauer
1 Saint Bonaventure
1 Ramakrishna
1 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
1 Pope St. Clement I
1 Mother Angelica
1 Milan Kundera
1 Ma Jaya Sati
1 Mahabharata
1 Leonard Jacobson
1 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
1 Joseph Campbell
1 John F. Kennedy
1 John Damascene
1 Je Tsongkhapa
1 Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro
1 Jack Kornfield
1 Guru Rinpoche
1 Gorampa Sonam Senge
1 Gampopo
1 Gampopa
1 Fo'shu-tsrn-king-
1 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
1 Doug Dillon
1 Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
1 Dhammapada
1 Daniel Goleman
1 Dalai Lama XIV
1 Clement of Rome
1 Carl Sagan
1 But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.
1 Buddhist Texts
1 Brian Weiss
1 Aryadeva
1 Anonymous
1 Amit Ray
1 Jalaluddin Rumi
1 Aleister Crowley
1 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
1 17th Karmapa
1 14th Dalai Lama
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52 Amit Ray
51 Dalai Lama XIV
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1:See through the eyes of compassion. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
2:The genuine priest always feels something higher than compassion. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #KEYS
3:Compassion is the key to the ultimate survival of our species." ~ Doug Dillon, American author, etc. See:, #KEYS
4:Compassion and love, behold the true religion! ~ Asoka, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
5:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
6:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #KEYS
7:Compassion to all creatures is the condition of sainthood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Swaraj, #KEYS
8:Unless the mind is trained to selflessness and compassion, one is apt to lead to the error of seeking liberation for self alone. ~ Gampopa, #KEYS
9:The boat of compassion is almost never rowed over pure water.
~ Shogaku, @BashoSociety#KEYS
10:One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.
~ Simone de Beauvoir,#KEYS
11:Divine compassion which strengthens the arm and clarifies the knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
12:Listen with ears of tolerance.
See through the eyes of compassion.
Speak with the language of love. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
13:Compassion springs from Sattva. Sattva leads to preservation, Rajas to creation, and Tamas to destruction. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
14:You know, when real trouble comes your humanity is awakened. The fundamental human experience is that of compassion. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey, #KEYS
15:They who torture living beings and feel no compassion towards them, them regard as impure. ~ Amaghanda Susta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
16:A wide Compassion leans to embrace earth's pain; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Universal Incarnation, #KEYS
17:Compassion is the religion of the heart." ~ Ma Jaya Sati, (died 2012) Her outlook has been influenced by Jesus Christ and the Hindu saint Bhagawan Nityananda, Wikipedia., #KEYS
18:True success is not measured by the amount of money that you have made. It is measured by the amount of wisdom and compassion that you have cultivated. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
19:Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
20:Compassion is not just about kind acts; actually it is about being aware of the suffering of other sentient beings from the view of the actual nature of things. ~ 17th Karmapa, #KEYS
21:Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
22:I am never far from those with faith, or even from those without it, though they do not see me. My children will always, always, be protected by my compassion. ~ Guru Rinpoche, [T5], #KEYS
23:Without stick or sword, filled with sympathy and benevolence, let the disciple show to all beings love and compassion. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
24:Compassion toward animals is essentially bound up with goodness of character. Whoever is cruel to them cannot be good to men ~ Sehopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
25:Have compassion, have pity for all beings that live. Let thy heart be benevolent and sympathetic towards all that lives. ~ Fo'shu-tsrn-king-, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
26:Three things are necessary to everyone: truth of faith which brings understanding, love of Christ which brings compassion, and endurance of hope which brings perseverance." ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
27:Trying to change yourself is a form of judgment. Awakening is not about fixing yourself. It is about revealing every aspect of yourself with love, acceptance and compassion. ~ Leonard Jacobson, #KEYS
28:Altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
29:Their false compassion is called compassion and their false understanding is called understanding, for this is their most potent spell. ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
30:A divine strength and courage and a divine compassion and helpfulness are the very stuff of that which he would be. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation #KEYS
31:Enlightenment is making friendship with the whole existence." ~ Amit Ray, (b.1960) Indian author, and spiritual master, known for his teachings on meditation, yoga, peace and compassion, Wikipedia., #KEYS
32:He poured forth his gifts on them all but most abundantly on us who have taken refuge in his compassion through our Lord Jesus Christ, to who be glory and majesty forever and ever. ~ Clement of Rome, #KEYS
33:GRIEF is a pain which makes one speechless; DISTRESS is one which oppresses; ENVY is one arising from another's good fortune; and COMPASSION is one arising from another's misfortune. ~ John Damascene, #KEYS
34:the Many returning to and embracing the One is Good, and is known as wisdom; the One returning to and embracing the Many is Goodness, and is known as compassion. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, #KEYS
35:That he may vanquish hate, let the disciple live with a soul delivered from all hate and show towards all beings love and compassion. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
36:There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weights so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes. ~ Milan Kundera, #KEYS
37:A man is not a master because he despotically subjects being living at his mercy. He can be called a master who has compassion for all that lives. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
38:Wherever we are, we can train as a warrior. Our tools are sitting meditation, tonglen, slogan practice, and cultivating the four limitless qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
39:If we shed tears for God, does He ever shed a tear for us?
Surely He has deep compassion for you, but His eyes are not of the kind that shed tears.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
40:Since we desire the true happiness that is brought about by a calm mind, and such peace of mind arises only from having a compassionate attitude, we need to make a concerted effort to develop compassion." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
41:If you want others to be happy practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." ~ Dalai Lama, (14th , b. 1935). Dalai Lamas are important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, Wikipedia., #KEYS
42:Bow down and adore where others bend the knee; for where so great a number of men pay the tribute of their adoration, the Impersonal must needs manifest Himself, for He is all compassion. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
43:The practice of Dharma is to cut off all that binds you to samsara, to cultivate gentle love and compassion for all beings of the six realms, and at all times, without distraction, to thoroughly master your own mind. ~ Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, #KEYS
44:I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. ~ John F. Kennedy, #KEYS
45:A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
46:It is not the eating of meat that makes a man impure; it is to be hard, calumnious, disloyal, without compassion, proud, avaricious, giving no part of one's possessions to another. ~ Amaghanda Susta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
47:Contentment, internal peace, dominion over oneself, purity, compassion, affectionate words and consideration for friends are seven sorts of fuel which keep alive the flame of happiness. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
48:Bow down and adore where others bend the knee; for where so great a number of men pay the tri bute of their adoration, the Impersonal must needs manifest Himself, for He is all compassion. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
49:Bhagavan, bodhisattvas should not learn many teachings. Bhagavan, if bodhisattvas grasp and know one teaching, they will have all of the Buddha's teachings in the palm of their hand. What is this one teaching? It is great compassion. ~ Je Tsongkhapa, Lamrim Chenmo, #KEYS
50:Unless the mind be trained to selflessness and infinite compassion, one is apt to fall into the error of seeking liberation for self alone." ~ Gampopo, (1079-1153), a Tibetan Buddhist teacher in the Kagyu lineage, as well as a doctor and tantric master, Wikipedia., #KEYS
51:Ask yourself: Do I want to continue being a great practitioner of ignorance, anger, and desire? Or do I want to become a great practitioner of wisdom and compassion instead?
Do not waste your precious human rebirth by making the wrong decision. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,#KEYS
52:If you can leave a relationship with love, empathy, and compassion, without any thoughts of revenge, hatred, or fear, that is how you let go." ~ Brian Weiss, (b. 1944) American psychiatrist, hypnotherapist, and author who specializes in past life regression, Wikipedia., #KEYS
53:Some people consider the practice of love and compassion is only related to religious practice and if they are not interested in religion they neglect these inner values. But love and compassion are qualities that human beings require just to live together. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
54:Love and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion." ~ 14th Dalai Lama, (b. 1935), Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, Lives as a refugee in India, Wikipedia., #KEYS
55:In what does religion consist? It consists in causing as little suffering as possible and in doing good in abundance. It consists in the practice of love, of compassion, of truth, of purity in all domains of life. ~ Asoka, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
56:To Him whose great wisdom, like a divine path, pervades all knowable things;
Whose compassion, like the moon, is the crowning ornament of living beings,
Whose divine activity, like a wish-fulfilling gem, is a treasure of all needs and wishes. ~ Gorampa Sonam Senge,#KEYS
57:"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Isaiah, 49:15-16, #KEYS
58:Discovering himself everywhere and in all things, the disciple embraces the entire world in a sentiment of peace, of compassion, of love-large, profound and without limits, delivered from all wrath and all hatred. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
59:We need to strengthen such inner values as contentment, patience and tolerance, as well as compassion for others. Keeping in mind that it is expressions of affection rather than money and power that attract real friends, compassion is the key to ensuring our own well-being. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
60:To be malevolent and violent, a slanderer and unfaithful, without compassion, arrogant and greedy to the point of not giving anything whatsoever to others, it is that and not the eating of meat that makes a man impure. ~ Amaghanda Susta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
61:If you can remember that all beings have buddha nature, it will help you cultivate equanimity, because it will feel like everybody is your family. The greater your equanimity, the greater your love and compassion towards them, no matter who they are, or what they have done. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
62:The passion of pity with its impure elements of physical repulsion and emotional inability to bear the suffering of others has to be rejected and replaced by the higher divine compassion. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
63:There is more spirituality in reason's denial of God than there is in myth's affirmation of God, precisely because there is more depth... even an "atheist" acting from rational-universal compassion is more spiritual than a fundamentalist acting to convert the universe in the name of a mythic-membership god. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, p. 250, #KEYS
64:Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action. ~ Daniel Goleman, #KEYS
65:The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, #KEYS
66:Praise be to God; whose compassion is all-embracing and Whose mercy is universal; Who rewards His servants for their remembrance [dhikr] [of Him] with His remembrance [of them] - verily God (Exalted is He!) has said, 'Remember Me, and I will remember you' - Opening lines from Kitab al-Adhkar wa'l Da'awat of the Ihya ulum ad-Din" ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
67:A compassionate community will not be achieved only through prayer; I pray myself, but I accept its limitations. We need to take action to develop compassion, to create inner peace within ourselves and to share that inner peace with our family and friends. Peace and warm-heartedness can then spread through the community just as ripples radiate out across the water when you drop a pebble into a pond. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
68:The guru is the equal of all the buddhas. To make any connection with him, whether through seeing him, hearing his voice, remembering him or being touched by his hand, will lead us toward liberation. To have full confidence in him is the sure way to progress toward enlightenment. The warmth of his wisdom and compassion will melt the ore of our being and release the gold of the buddha-nature within. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
69:But from time to time Thy sublime light shines in a being and radiates through him over the world, and then a little wisdom, a little knowledge, a little disinterested faith, heroism and compassion penetrates men's hearts, transforms their minds and sets free a few elements from that sorrowful and implacable wheel of existence to which their blind ignorance subjects them.
~ The Mother, Prayers And Meditations,#KEYS
70:The High-Subtle Self ::: "...cognitive style- actual intuition and literal inspiration, archetypal Form, audible illumination, revelations of light and sound affective elements- rapture, bliss, ecstatic release into superconsciousness motivational/conative factors-karuna, compassion, overwhelming love and gratefulness temporal mode- transtemporal, moving into eternity mode of self- archetypal-divine, overself, overmind." ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project pg.80, #KEYS
71:For arousing compassion, the nineteenth-century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggested imagining beings in torment - an animal about to be slaughtered, a person awaiting execution. To make it more immediate, he recommended imagining ourselves in their place. Particularly painful is his image of a mother with no arms watching as a raging river sweeps her child away. To contact the suffering of another being fully and directly is as painful as being in the woman's shoes. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
72:Please understand that all sentient beings, all our past parents, want nothing but happiness. Unfortunately, through their negative actions they only create the causes for further pain and suffering. Take this to heart and consider all our parents, wandering blindly and endlessly through painful samsaric states. When we truly take this to heart, out of compassion we feel motivated to achieve enlightenment to truly help all of them. This compassionate attitude is indispensable as a preparation for practice. ~ Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, #KEYS
73:For example, when practitioners transform into Shenlha Ökar (Shen Deity of White Light), they visualize their bodies as being adorned with the thirteen ornaments of peacefulness that in themselves evoke the enlightened quality of peacefulness.2 Shenlha Ökar himself embodies all six of the antidote qualities of love, generosity, wisdom, openness, peacefulness, and compassion; so as soon as you transform into Shenlha Ökar, you instantly embody these same qualities. ~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind, #KEYS
74:A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
75:In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion, lovingkindness, freshness - anything that encourages relaxation and openness. So you're training in softening, rather than tightening, your heart. In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your personal "stuckness" happens to be at that moment. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
76:A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe' -a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
77:The saintly disciple who applies himself in silence to right meditation, has surmounted covetousness, negligence, wrath, the inquietude of speculation and doubt; he contemplates and enlightens all beings friendly or hostile, with a limitless compassion, a limitless sympathy, a limitless serenity. He recognises that all internal phenomena are impermanent, subjected to sorrow and without substantial reality, and turning from these things he concentrates his mind on the permanent. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
78:Your Best Friend :::
...Indeed, you should choose as friends only those who are wiser than yourself, those whose company ennobles you and helps you to master yourself, to progress, to act in a better way and see more clearly. And finally, the best friend one can have - isn't he the Divine, to whom one can say everything, reveal everything? For there indeed is the source of all compassion, of all power to efface every error when it is not repeated, to open the road to true realisation; it is he who can understand all, heal all, and always help on the path, help you not to fail, not to falter, not to fall, but to walk straight to the goal. He is the true friend, the friend of good and bad days, the one who can understand, can heal, and who is always there when you need him. When you call him sincerely, he is always there to guide and uphold you - and to love you in the true way. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
79:Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth. Each of those worlds is as real as ours and every one of them is a succession of incidents, events, occurrences which influence its future. Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time. And our small planet at this moment, here we face a critical branch point in history, what we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants, it is well within our power to destroy our civilization and perhaps our species as well. If we capitulate to superstition or greed or stupidity we could plunge our world into a time of darkness deeper than the time between the collapse of classical civilisation and the Italian Renaissance. But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
80:Four Powers Of The Mother
In talking about the four powers of the Mother, it helps to know that in India, traditionally, the evolutionary principle of creation is approached, and adored, as the great Mother. Sri Aurobindo distinguishes four main powers and personalities through which this evolutionary force manifests.
Maheshwari - One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness.
Mahakali - Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force.
Mahalakshmi - A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace.
Mahasaraswati - The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all things.
~ ?, https://www.auroville.com/silver-ring-mother-s-symbol.html,#KEYS
81:You are living today in countries where the Dharma has only just begun to take root, like a fragile new shoot in the ground. Only your sustained diligence will bring it to fruition. Depending on the effort you put into study, reflection and meditation, and to integrating what you have understood into your spiritual practice, accomplishment may be days, months, or years away. It is essential to remember that all your endeavors on the path are for the sake of others. Remain humble, and aware that your efforts are like child's play compared to the ocean-like activity of the great bodhisattvas. Be like a parent providing for much-loved children, never thinking that you have done too much for others - or even that you have done enough. If you finally managed, through your own efforts alone, to establish all beings in buddhahood, you would simply think that all your wishes had been fulfilled. Never have even a trace of hope for something in return. ~ Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion, Instructions on Ngulchu Thogme's Thirty-Sevenfold Practice of a Bodhisattva – p 147, Padmakara Translation Group - Shechen Publications #KEYS
82:ཨོཾ། འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་སྐྱོབ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
OM, JIK PA GYÉ KYOB MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
"Om! Homage to you, who protects from the eight fears!
བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་འབར་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
TASHI PAL BAR MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
Homage to you, who shines as a beacon of goodness!
ངན་སོང་སྒོ་འགེགས་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
NGEN SONG GO GEK MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
Homage to you, who closes the gates to the lower realms!
མཐོ་རིས་ལམ་འདྲེན་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
TORI LAM DREN MA LA CHAK TSAL LO
Homage to you, who leads the way to the higher realms!
རྟག་ཏུ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་སྟོངས་པར་མཛད། །
TAK TU KYÉ KYI TONG PAR DZÉ
You are my constant companion.
ད་དུང་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བསྐྱབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། །
DA DUNG TUK JÉ KYAB TU SOL
Always protect me with compassion! ~ Prayer to Tara, H E Garchen Rinpoche?#KEYS
83:The Nirmanakaya manifestation of Amitabha, I,
the Indian Scholar, the Lotus Born,
From the self-blossoming center of a lotus,
Came to this realm of existence through miraculous powers
To be the prince of the king of Oddiyana.
Then, I sustained the kingdom in accordance with Dharma.
Wandering throughout all directions of India,
I severed all spiritual doubts without exception.
Engaging in fearless activity in the eight burial grounds,
I achieved all supreme and common siddhis.
Then, according to the wishes of King Trisong Detsen
And by the power of previous prayers, I journeyed to Tibet.
By subduing the cruel gods, nagas, yakshas, rakshas,
and all spirits who harm beings,
The light of the teachings of secret mantra has been illuminated.
Then, when the time came to depart for the continent of Lanka,
I did so to provide refuge from the fear of rakshas
For all the inhabitants of this world, including Tibet.
I blessed Nirmanakaya emanations to be representatives of my body.
I made sacred treasures as representatives of my holy speech.
I poured enlightened wisdom into the hearts of those with fortunate karma.
Until samsara is emptied, for the benefit of sentient beings,
I will manifest unceasingly in whatever ways are necessary.
Through profound kindness, I have brought great benefit for all.
If you who are fortunate have the mind of aspiration,
May you pray so that blessings will be received.
All followers, believe in me with determination.
Samaya. ~ The Wrathful Compassion of Guru Dorje Drollo, Vajra Master Dudjom Yeshe Dorje, translated by Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche,#KEYS
84:Response To A Logician :::
I bow at the feet of my teacher Marpa.
And sing this song in response to you.
Listen, pay heed to what I say,
forget your critique for a while.
The best seeing is the way of "nonseeing"
the radiance of the mind itself.
The best prize is what cannot be looked for
the priceless treasure of the mind itself.
The most nourishing food is "noneating"
the transcendent food of samadhi.
The most thirst-quenching drink is "nondrinking"
the nectar of heartfelt compassion.
Oh, this self-realizing awareness
is beyond words and description!
The mind is not the world of children,
nor is it that of logicians.
Attaining the truth of "nonattainment,"
you receive the highest initiation.
Perceiving the void of high and low,
you reach the sublime stage.
Approaching the truth of "nonmovement,"
you follow the supreme path.
Knowing the end of birth and death,
the ultimate purpose is fulfilled.
Seeing the emptiness of reason,
supreme logic is perfected.
When you know that great and small are groundless,
you have entered the highest gateway.
Comprehending beyond good and evil
opens the way to perfect skill.
Experiencing the dissolution of duality,
you embrace the highest view.
Observing the truth of "nonobservation"
opens the way to meditating.
Comprehending beyond "ought" and "oughtn't"
opens the way to perfect action.
When you realize the truth of "noneffort,"
you are approaching the highest fruition.
Ignorant are those who lack this truth:
arrogant teachers inflated by learning,
scholars bewitched by mere words,
and yogis seduced by prejudice.
For though they yearn for freedom,
they find only enslavement. ~ Jetsun Milarepa,#KEYS
85:And therefore, all of those for whom authentic transformation has deeply unseated their souls must, I believe, wrestle with the profound moral obligation to shout form the heart-perhaps quietly and gently, with tears of reluctance; perhaps with fierce fire and angry wisdom; perhaps with slow and careful analysis; perhaps by unshakable public example-but authentically always and absolutely carries a a demand and duty: you must speak out, to the best of your ability, and shake the spiritual tree, and shine your headlights into the eyes of the complacent. You must let that radical realization rumble through your veins and rattle those around you.
Alas, if you fail to do so, you are betraying your own authenticity. You are hiding your true estate. You don't want to upset others because you don't want to upset your self. You are acting in bad faith, the taste of a bad infinity.
Because, you see, the alarming fact is that any realization of depth carries a terrible burden: those who are allowed to see are simultaneously saddled with the obligation to communicate that vision in no uncertain terms: that is the bargain. You were allowed to see the truth under the agreement that you would communicate it to others (that is the ultimate meaning of the bodhisattva vow). And therefore, if you have seen, you simply must speak out. Speak out with compassion, or speak out with angry wisdom, or speak out with skillful means, but speak out you must.
And this is truly a terrible burden, a horrible burden, because in any case there is no room for timidity. The fact that you might be wrong is simply no excuse: You might be right in your communication, and you might be wrong, but that doesn't matter. What does matter, as Kierkegaard so rudely reminded us, is that only by investing and speaking your vision with passion, can the truth, one way or another, finally penetrate the reluctance of the world. If you are right, or if you are wrong, it is only your passion that will force either to be discovered. It is your duty to promote that discovery-either way-and therefore it is your duty to speak your truth with whatever passion and courage you can find in your heart. You must shout, in whatever way you can. ~ Ken Wilber, One Taste,#KEYS
86:Imperial Maheshwari is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them. For she is the mighty and wise One who opens us to supramental infinities and the cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the supreme Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mother's eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm for ever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. A strength is in her that meets everything and masters and none can prevail in the end against her vast intangible wisdom and high tranquil power. Equal, patient, unalterable in her will she deals with men according to their nature and with things and happenings according to their Force and truth that is in them. Partiality she has none, but she follows the decrees of the Supreme and some she raises up and some she casts down or puts away into the darkness. To the wise she gives a greater and more luminous wisdom; those that have vision she admits to her counsels; on the hostile she imposes the consequence of their hostility; the ignorant and foolish she leads them according to their blindness. In each man she answers and handles the different elements of his nature according to their need and their urge and the return they call for, puts on them the required pressure or leaves them to their cherished liberty to prosper in the ways of the Ignorance or to perish. For she is above all, bound by nothing, attached to nothing in the universe. Yet she has more than any other the heart of the universal Mother. For her compassion is endless and inexhaustible; all are to her eyes her children and portions of the One, even the Asura and Rakshasa and Pisacha and those that are revolted and hostile. Even her rejections are only a postponement, even her punishments are a grace. But her compassion does not blind her wisdom or turn her action from the course decreed; for the Truth of things is her one concern, knowledge her centre of power and to build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth her mission and her labour.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, [39],#KEYS
87:The Song Of Food And Dwelling :::
I bow down at the feet of the wish-fulfilling Guru.
Pray vouchsafe me your grace in bestowing beneficial food,
Pray make me realize my own body as the house of Buddha,
Pray grant me this knowledge.
I built the house through fear,
The house of Sunyata, the void nature of being;
Now I have no fear of its collapsing.
I, the Yogi with the wish-fulfilling gem,
Feel happiness and joy where'er I stay.
Because of the fear of cold, I sought for clothes;
The clothing I found is the Ah Shea Vital Heat.
Now I have no fear of coldness.
Because of the fear of poverty, I sought for riches;
The riches I found are the inexhaustible Seven Holy Jewels.
Now I have no fear of poverty.
Because of the fear of hunger, I sought for food;
The food I found is the Samadhi of Suchness.
Now I have no fear of hunger.
Because of the fear of thirst, I sought for drink;
The heavenly drink I found is the wine of mindfulness.
Now I have no fear of thirst.
Because of the fear of loneliness, I searched for a friend;
The friend I found is the bliss of perpetual Sunyata.
Now I have no fear of loneliness.
Because of the fear of going astray,
I sought for the right path to follow.
The wide path I found is the Path of Two-in-One.
Now I do not fear to lose my way.
I am a yogi with all desirable possessions,
A man always happy where'er he stays.
Here at Yolmo Tagpu Senge Tson,
The tigress howling with a pathetic, trembling cry,
Reminds me that her helpless cubs are innocently playing.
I cannot help but feel a great compassion for them,
I cannot help but practice more diligently,
I cannot help but augment thus my Bodhi-Mind.
The touching cry of the monkey,
So impressive and so moving,
Cannot help but raise in me deep pity.
The little monkey's chattering is amusing and pathetic;
As I hear it, I cannot but think of it with compassion.
The voice of the cuckoo is so moving,
And so tuneful is the lark's sweet singing,
That when I hear them I cannot help but listen
When I listen to them,
I cannot help but shed tears.
The varied cries and cawings of the crow,
Are a good and helpful friend unto the yogi.
Even without a single friend,
To remain here is a pleasure.
With joy flowing from my heart, I sing this happy song;
May the dark shadow of all men's sorrows
Be dispelled by my joyful singing. ~ Jetsun Milarepa,#KEYS
88:Apotheosis ::: One of the most powerful and beloved of the Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, China, and Japan is the Lotus Bearer, Avalokiteshvara, "The Lord Looking Down in Pity," so called because he regards with compassion all sentient creatures suffering the evils of existence. To him goes the millionfold repeated prayer of the prayer wheels and temple gongs of Tibet: Om mani padme hum, "The jewel is in the lotus." To him go perhaps more prayers per minute than to any single divinity known to man; for when, during his final life on earth as a human being, he shattered for himself the bounds of the last threshold (which moment opened to him the timelessness of the void beyond the frustrating mirage-enigmas of the named and bounded cosmos), he paused: he made a vow that before entering the void he would bring all creatures without exception to enlightenment; and since then he has permeated the whole texture of existence with the divine grace of his assisting presence, so that the least prayer addressed to him, throughout the vast spiritual empire of the Buddha, is graciously heard. Under differing forms he traverses the ten thousand worlds, and appears in the hour of need and prayer. He reveals himself in human form with two arms, in superhuman forms with four arms, or with six, or twelve, or a thousand, and he holds in one of his left hands the lotus of the world.
Like the Buddha himself, this godlike being is a pattern of the divine state to which the human hero attains who has gone beyond the last terrors of ignorance. "When the envelopment of consciousness has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all fear, beyond the reach of change." This is the release potential within us all, and which anyone can attain-through herohood; for, as we read: "All things are Buddha-things"; or again (and this is the other way of making the same statement) : "All beings are without self."
The world is filled and illumined by, but does not hold, the Bodhisattva ("he whose being is enlightenment"); rather, it is he who holds the world, the lotus. Pain and pleasure do not enclose him, he encloses them-and with profound repose. And since he is what all of us may be, his presence, his image, the mere naming of him, helps. "He wears a garland of eight thousand rays, in which is seen fully reflected a state of perfect beauty.
The color of his body is purple gold. His palms have the mixed color of five hundred lotuses, while each finger tip has eighty-four thousand signet-marks, and each mark eighty-four thousand colors; each color has eighty-four thousand rays which are soft and mild and shine over all things that exist. With these jewel hands he draws and embraces all beings. The halo surrounding his head is studded with five hundred Buddhas, miraculously transformed, each attended by five hundred Bodhisattvas, who are attended, in turn, by numberless gods. And when he puts his feet down to the ground, the flowers of diamonds and jewels that are scattered cover everything in all directions. The color of his face is gold. While in his towering crown of gems stands a Buddha, two hundred and fifty miles high." - Amitayur-Dhyana Sutra, 19; ibid., pp. 182-183. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Apotheosis,#KEYS
89:[The Gods and Their Worlds]
[...] According to traditions and occult schools, all these zones of realities, these planes of realities have got different names; they have been classified in a different way, but there is an essential analogy, and if you go back far enough into the traditions, you see only the words changing according to the country and the language. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists offer great similarities. All who set out on the discovery of these invisible worlds and make a report of what they saw, give a very similar description, whether they be from here or there; they use different words, but the experience is very similar and the handling of forces is the same.
This knowledge of the occult worlds is based on the existence of subtle bodies and of subtle worlds corresponding to those bodies. They are what the psychological method calls "states of consciousness", but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult procedure consists then in being aware of these various inner states of being or subtle bodies and in becoming sufficiently a master of them so as to be able to go out of them successively, one after another. There is indeed a whole scale of subtleties, increasing or decreasing according to the direction in which you go, and the occult procedure consists in going out of a denser body into a subtler body and so on again, up to the most ethereal regions. You go, by successive exteriorisations, into bodies or worlds more and more subtle. It is somewhat as if every time you passed into another dimension. The fourth dimension of the physicists is nothing but the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge. To give another image, one can say that the physical body is at the centre - it is the most material, the densest and also the smallest - and the inner bodies, more subtle, overflow more and more the central physical body; they pass through it, extending themselves farther and farther, like water evaporating from a porous vase and forming a kind of steam all around. And the greater the subtlety, the more the extension tends to unite with that of the universe: one ends by universalising oneself. And it is altogether a concrete process which gives an objective experience of invisible worlds and even enables one to act in these worlds.
There are, then, only a very small number of people in the West who know that these gods are not merely subjective and imaginary - more or less wildly imaginary - but that they correspond to a universal truth.
All these regions, all these domains are filled with beings who exist, each in its own domain, and if you are awake and conscious on a particular plane - for instance, if on going out of a more material body you awake on some higher plane, you have the same relation with the things and people of that plane as you had with the things and people of the material world. That is to say, there exists an entirely objective relation that has nothing to do with the idea you may have of these things. Naturally, the resemblance is greater and greater as you approach the physical world, the material world, and there even comes a time when the one region has a direct action upon the other. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the overmental worlds, you will find a concrete reality absolutely independent of your personal experience; you go back there and again find the same things, with the differences that have occurred during your absence. And you have relations with those beings that are identical with the relations you have with physical beings, with this difference that the relation is more plastic, supple and direct - for example, there is the capacity to change the external form, the visible form, according to the inner state you are in. But you can make an appointment with someone and be at the appointed place and find the same being again, with certain differences that have come about during your absence; it is entirely concrete with results entirely concrete.
One must have at least a little of this experience in order to understand these things. Otherwise, those who are convinced that all this is mere human imagination and mental formation, who believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have thought them to be like that, and that they have certain defects and certain qualities because men have thought them to be like that - all those who say that God is made in the image of man and that he exists only in human thought, all these will not understand; to them this will appear absolutely ridiculous, madness. One must have lived a little, touched the subject a little, to know how very concrete the thing is.
Naturally, children know a good deal if they have not been spoilt. There are so many children who return every night to the same place and continue to live the life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoilt with age, you can keep them with you. At a time when I was especially interested in dreams, I could return exactly to a place and continue a work that I had begun: supervise something, for example, set something in order, a work of organisation or of discovery, of exploration. You go until you reach a certain spot, as you would go in life, then you take a rest, then you return and begin again - you begin the work at the place where you left off and you continue it. And you perceive that there are things which are quite independent of you, in the sense that changes of which you are not at all the author, have taken place automatically during your absence.
But for this, you must live these experiences yourself, you must see them yourself, live them with sufficient sincerity and spontaneity in order to see that they are independent of any mental formation. For you can do the opposite also, and deepen the study of the action of mental formation upon events. This is very interesting, but it is another domain. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you become aware of how far you can delude yourself. So you must study both, the dream and the occult reality, in order to see what is the essential difference between the two. The one depends upon us; the other exists in itself; entirely independent of the thought that we have of it.
When you have worked in that domain, you recognise in fact that once a subject has been studied and something has been learnt mentally, it gives a special colour to the experience; the experience may be quite spontaneous and sincere, but the simple fact that the subject was known and studied lends a particular quality. Whereas if you had learnt nothing about the question, if you knew nothing at all, the transcription would be completely spontaneous and sincere when the experience came; it would be more or less adequate, but it would not be the outcome of a previous mental formation.
Naturally, this occult knowledge or this experience is not very frequent in the world, because in those who do not have a developed inner life, there are veritable gaps between the external consciousness and the inmost consciousness; the linking states of being are missing and they have to be constructed. So when people enter there for the first time, they are bewildered, they have the impression they have fallen into the night, into nothingness, into non-being!
I had a Danish friend, a painter, who was like that. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of the body; he used to have interesting dreams and thought that it would be worth the trouble to go there consciously. So I made him "go out" - but it was a frightful thing! When he was dreaming, a part of his mind still remained conscious, active, and a kind of link existed between this active part and his external being; then he remembered some of his dreams, but it was a very partial phenomenon. And to go out of one's body means to pass gradually through all the states of being, if one does the thing systematically. Well, already in the subtle physical, one is almost de-individualised, and when one goes farther, there remains nothing, for nothing is formed or individualised.
Thus, when people are asked to meditate or told to go within, to enter into themselves, they are in agony - naturally! They have the impression that they are vanishing. And with reason: there is nothing, no consciousness!
These things that appear to us quite natural and evident, are, for people who know nothing, wild imagination. If, for example, you transplant these experiences or this knowledge to the West, well, unless you have been frequenting the circles of occultists, they stare at you with open eyes. And when you have turned your back, they hasten to say, "These people are cranks!" Now to come back to the gods and conclude. It must be said that all those beings who have never had an earthly existence - gods or demons, invisible beings and powers - do not possess what the Divine has put into man: the psychic being. And this psychic being gives to man true love, charity, compassion, a deep kindness, which compensate for all his external defects.
In the gods there is no fault because they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint: as gods, it is their manner of being. But if you take a higher point of view, if you have a higher vision, a vision of the whole, you see that they lack certain qualities that are exclusively human. By his capacity of love and self-giving, man can have as much power as the gods and even more, when he is not egoistic, when he has surmounted his egoism.
If he fulfils the required condition, man is nearer to the Supreme than the gods are. He can be nearer. He is not so automatically, but he has the power to be so, the potentiality.
If human love manifested itself without mixture, it would be all-powerful. Unfortunately, in human love there is as much love of oneself as of the one loved; it is not a love that makes you forget yourself. - 4 November 1958
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 355
,#KEYS
90:The Supreme Discovery
IF WE want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a landmark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life.
Each individual should build up this mental synthesis according to his own tendencies and affinities and aspirations. But if we want it to be truly living and luminous, it must be centred on the idea that is the intellectual representation symbolising That which is at the centre of our being, That which is our life and our light.
This idea, expressed in sublime words, has been taught in various forms by all the great Instructors in all lands and all ages.
The Self of each one and the great universal Self are one. Since all that is exists from all eternity in its essence and principle, why make a distinction between the being and its origin, between ourselves and what we place at the beginning?
The ancient traditions rightly said:
"Our origin and ourselves, our God and ourselves are one."
And this oneness should not be understood merely as a more or less close and intimate relationship of union, but as a true identity.
Thus, when a man who seeks the Divine attempts to reascend by degrees towards the inaccessible, he forgets that all his knowledge and all his intuition cannot take him one step forward in this infinite; neither does he know that what he wants to attain, what he believes to be so far from him, is within him.
For how could he know anything of the origin until he becomes conscious of this origin in himself?
It is by understanding himself, by learning to know himself, that he can make the supreme discovery and cry out in wonder like the patriarch in the Bible, "The house of God is here and I knew it not."
That is why we must express that sublime thought, creatrix of the material worlds, and make known to all the word that fills the heavens and the earth, "I am in all things and all beings."When all shall know this, the promised day of great transfigurations will be at hand. When in each atom of Matter men shall recognise the indwelling thought of God, when in each living creature they shall perceive some hint of a gesture of God, when each man can see God in his brother, then dawn will break, dispelling the darkness, the falsehood, the ignorance, the error and suffering that weigh upon all Nature. For, "all Nature suffers and laments as she awaits the revelation of the Sons of God."
This indeed is the central thought epitomising all others, the thought which should be ever present to our remembrance as the sun that illumines all life.
That is why I remind you of it today. For if we follow our path bearing this thought in our hearts like the rarest jewel, the most precious treasure, if we allow it to do its work of illumination and transfiguration within us, we shall know that it lives in the centre of all beings and all things, and in it we shall feel the marvellous oneness of the universe.
Then we shall understand the vanity and childishness of our meagre satisfactions, our foolish quarrels, our petty passions, our blind indignations. We shall see the dissolution of our little faults, the crumbling of the last entrenchments of our limited personality and our obtuse egoism. We shall feel ourselves being swept along by this sublime current of true spirituality which will deliver us from our narrow limits and bounds.
The individual Self and the universal Self are one; in every world, in every being, in every thing, in every atom is the Divine Presence, and man's mission is to manifest it.
In order to do that, he must become conscious of this Divine Presence within him. Some individuals must undergo a real apprenticeship in order to achieve this: their egoistic being is too all-absorbing, too rigid, too conservative, and their struggles against it are long and painful. Others, on the contrary, who are more impersonal, more plastic, more spiritualised, come easily into contact with the inexhaustible divine source of their being.But let us not forget that they too should devote themselves daily, constantly, to a methodical effort of adaptation and transformation, so that nothing within them may ever again obscure the radiance of that pure light.
But how greatly the standpoint changes once we attain this deeper consciousness! How understanding widens, how compassion grows!
On this a sage has said:
"I would like each one of us to come to the point where he perceives the inner God who dwells even in the vilest of human beings; instead of condemning him we would say, 'Arise, O resplendent Being, thou who art ever pure, who knowest neither birth nor death; arise, Almighty One, and manifest thy nature.'"
Let us live by this beautiful utterance and we shall see everything around us transformed as if by miracle.
This is the attitude of true, conscious and discerning love, the love which knows how to see behind appearances, understand in spite of words, and which, amid all obstacles, is in constant communion with the depths.
What value have our impulses and our desires, our anguish and our violence, our sufferings and our struggles, all these inner vicissitudes unduly dramatised by our unruly imagination - what value do they have before this great, this sublime and divine love bending over us from the innermost depths of our being, bearing with our weaknesses, rectifying our errors, healing our wounds, bathing our whole being with its regenerating streams?
For the inner Godhead never imposes herself, she neither demands nor threatens; she offers and gives herself, conceals and forgets herself in the heart of all beings and things; she never accuses, she neither judges nor curses nor condemns, but works unceasingly to perfect without constraint, to mend without reproach, to encourage without impatience, to enrich each one with all the wealth he can receive; she is the mother whose love bears fruit and nourishes, guards and protects, counsels and consoles; because she understands everything, she can endure everything, excuse and pardon everything, hope and prepare for everything; bearing everything within herself, she owns nothing that does not belong to all, and because she reigns over all, she is the servant of all; that is why all, great and small, who want to be kings with her and gods in her, become, like her, not despots but servitors among their brethren.
How beautiful is this humble role of servant, the role of all who have been revealers and heralds of the God who is within all, of the Divine Love that animates all things....
And until we can follow their example and become true servants even as they, let us allow ourselves to be penetrated and transformed by this Divine Love; let us offer Him, without reserve, this marvellous instrument, our physical organism. He shall make it yield its utmost on every plane of activity.
To achieve this total self-consecration, all means are good, all methods have their value. The one thing needful is to persevere in our will to attain this goal. For then everything we study, every action we perform, every human being we meet, all come to bring us an indication, a help, a light to guide us on the path.
Before I close, I shall add a few pages for those who have already made apparently fruitless efforts, for those who have encountered the pitfalls on the way and seen the measure of their weakness, for those who are in danger of losing their self-confidence and courage. These pages, intended to rekindle hope in the hearts of those who suffer, were written by a spiritual worker at a time when ordeals of every kind were sweeping down on him like purifying flames.
You who are weary, downcast and bruised, you who fall, who think perhaps that you are defeated, hear the voice of a friend. He knows your sorrows, he has shared them, he has suffered like you from the ills of the earth; like you he has crossed many deserts under the burden of the day, he has known thirst and hunger, solitude and abandonment, and the cruellest of all wants, the destitution of the heart. Alas! he has known too the hours of doubt, the errors, the faults, the failings, every weakness.
But he tells you: Courage! Hearken to the lesson that the rising sun brings to the earth with its first rays each morning. It is a lesson of hope, a message of solace.
You who weep, who suffer and tremble, who dare not expect an end to your ills, an issue to your pangs, behold: there is no night without dawn and the day is about to break when darkness is thickest; there is no mist that the sun does not dispel, no cloud that it does not gild, no tear that it will not dry one day, no storm that is not followed by its shining triumphant bow; there is no snow that it does not melt, nor winter that it does not change into radiant spring.
And for you too, there is no affliction which does not bring its measure of glory, no distress which cannot be transformed into joy, nor defeat into victory, nor downfall into higher ascension, nor solitude into radiating centre of life, nor discord into harmony - sometimes it is a misunderstanding between two minds that compels two hearts to open to mutual communion; lastly, there is no infinite weakness that cannot be changed into strength. And it is even in supreme weakness that almightiness chooses to reveal itself!
Listen, my little child, you who today feel so broken, so fallen perhaps, who have nothing left, nothing to cover your misery and foster your pride: never before have you been so great! How close to the summits is he who awakens in the depths, for the deeper the abyss, the more the heights reveal themselves!
Do you not know this, that the most sublime forces of the vasts seek to array themselves in the most opaque veils of Matter? Oh, the sublime nuptials of sovereign love with the obscurest plasticities, of the shadow's yearning with the most royal light!
If ordeal or fault has cast you down, if you have sunk into the nether depths of suffering, do not grieve - for there indeed the divine love and the supreme blessing can reach you! Because you have passed through the crucible of purifying sorrows, the glorious ascents are yours.
You are in the wilderness: then listen to the voices of the silence. The clamour of flattering words and outer applause has gladdened your ears, but the voices of the silence will gladden your soul and awaken within you the echo of the depths, the chant of divine harmonies!
You are walking in the depths of night: then gather the priceless treasures of the night. In bright sunshine, the ways of intelligence are lit, but in the white luminosities of the night lie the hidden paths of perfection, the secret of spiritual riches.
You are being stripped of everything: that is the way towards plenitude. When you have nothing left, everything will be given to you. Because for those who are sincere and true, from the worst always comes the best.
Every grain that is sown in the earth produces a thousand. Every wing-beat of sorrow can be a soaring towards glory.
And when the adversary pursues man relentlessly, everything he does to destroy him only makes him greater.
Hear the story of the worlds, look: the great enemy seems to triumph. He casts the beings of light into the night, and the night is filled with stars. He rages against the cosmic working, he assails the integrity of the empire of the sphere, shatters its harmony, divides and subdivides it, scatters its dust to the four winds of infinity, and lo! the dust is changed into a golden seed, fertilising the infinite and peopling it with worlds which now gravitate around their eternal centre in the larger orbit of space - so that even division creates a richer and deeper unity, and by multiplying the surfaces of the material universe, enlarges the empire that it set out to destroy.
Beautiful indeed was the song of the primordial sphere cradled in the bosom of immensity, but how much more beautiful and triumphant is the symphony of the constellations, the music of the spheres, the immense choir that fills the heavens with an eternal hymn of victory!
Hear again: no state was ever more precarious than that of man when he was separated on earth from his divine origin. Above him stretched the hostile borders of the usurper, and at his horizon's gates watched jailers armed with flaming swords. Then, since he could climb no more to the source of life, the source arose within him; since he could no more receive the light from above, the light shone forth at the very centre of his being; since he could commune no more with the transcendent love, that love offered itself in a holocaust and chose each terrestrial being, each human self as its dwelling-place and sanctuary.
That is how, in this despised and desolate but fruitful and blessed Matter, each atom contains a divine thought, each being carries within him the Divine Inhabitant. And if no being in all the universe is as frail as man, neither is any as divine as he!
In truth, in truth, in humiliation lies the cradle of glory! 28 April 1912 ~ The Mother, Words Of Long Ago, The Supreme Discovery,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Compassion and love, that's all. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 2:The dew of compassion is a tear. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 3:Compassion is the ability to see how it all is. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 4:Compassion is the basis of morality. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove 5:You are joy, wisdom, peace, compassion, and love ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 6:Compassion, the fairest associate of the heart. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 7:The best leaders blend courage with compassion. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 8:Without suffering, there'd be no compassion. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 9:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 10:Compassion is the chief law of human existence. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 11:Compassion for our parents is the true sign of maturity. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 12:Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 13:There are many goals but one path - the path of compassion. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 14:As flower blooms in spring, compassion grows in mindfulness. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 15:If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 16:The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 17:Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 18:Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 19:Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 20:A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 21:If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 22:When your mind is liberated, your heart floods with compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 23:True compassion arises out of the plane of consciousness where I AM you. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 24:We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 25:We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 26:I should have no compassion on these witches; I should burn them all. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 27:Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 28:I live in between My heart's compassion-rain And my life's oneness-gain. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 29:Let’s get loose with Compassion. Let’s drown in the delicious ambience of Love. ~ hafez, @wisdomtrove 30:Confidence, clarity and compassion are essential qualities of a teacher. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 31:People with hearts filled with love, peace, and compassion live in heaven. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 32:The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 33:The ultimate solution to POVERTY is found in the COMPASSION of God's people. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 34:Forgiveness will not be possible until compassion is born in your heart. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 35:We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 36:I don't know the meaning of life, but I know compassion is the key. ~ jonathan-lockwood-huie, @wisdomtrove 37:Our compassion and acts of selflessness take us to the deeper truths. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 38:Compassion distinguishes human presence from all other presence on the earth. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 39:Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 40:I believe that animals are on the planet so that we can know love and compassion. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 41:Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 42:Look Back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion and up in gratitude. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 43:What value has compassion that does not take its object in its arms? ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 44:We can't practice compassion with other people if we can't treat ourselves kindly. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 45:When the energy of compassion and love touches us, healing establishes itself. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 46:Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 47:Perhaps fate isn't blind after all. Perhaps it's capable of fantasy, even compassion. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 48:It is better that a judge should lean on the side of compassion than severity. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 49:Not feeling compassion for a stranger is like not feeling when one's foot has caught fire ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 50:Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 51:Without cause or reason His compassion , His grace are pouring forth at every instant. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 52:Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. ~ susan-sontag, @wisdomtrove 53:Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 54:We can bring a heart of understanding and compassion to a world that needs it so much. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 55:We should fill the syllabuses of schools with lessons about love and compassion. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 56:I take the greatest lesson from compassion - it takes away all the conceit out of my life. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 57:Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 58:Human compassion is equal to human cruelty, and it is up to each of us to tip the balance. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 59:I've been accused of lacking compassion. But that just shows I'm not without compassion. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 60:When the Sun of compassion arises darkness evaporates and the singing birds come from nowhere. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 61:Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 62:Charity alone, or love and compassion, is what joins [the Lord and a person] together. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 63:Those who do not forgive history are assigned to repeat it until compassion replaces judgment. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 64:Compassion refers to the arising in the heart of the desire to relieve the suffering of all beings. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 65:Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 66:If compassion is the wish that someone not suffer, kindness is the wish that he or she be happy. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 67:The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 68:The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humor and style. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 69:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 70:Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 71:It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 72:Shallow understanding accompanies poor compassion; great understanding goes with great compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 73:The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 74:Real love means loving kindness and compassion, the kind of love that does not have any conditions. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 75:Doubt is an old disease. Faith is an old medicine. Compassion is an old doctor. Concern is an old nurse. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 76:God's Compassion - Eye gives us Not only one Chance But countless chances To change our wrong directions ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 77:I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 78:As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 79:I now see how gifts like courage, compassion, and connection only work when they are exercised. Every day. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 80:Let`s choose each day and every day to keep an attitude of faith and joy and belief and compassion. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 81:Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 82:I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 83:Unless and until you have developed a heart inundated with compassion, do not sit on the seat of judgement. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 84:Your honesty, Your love, Your compassion should come from your inner being, not from teachings and scriptures. ~ rajneesh, @wisdomtrove 85:Beautify your inner dialogue. Beautify your inner world with love light and compassion. Life will be beautiful. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 86:Compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering; love is wanting them to have happiness. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 87:The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 88:To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living things with the eyes of compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 89:Compassion can shoulder the suffering of the entire world without feeling the slightest bit of pain. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 90:In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 91:I think of compassion as the fundamental religious experience and, unless that is there, you have nothing. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 92:I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion& 93:Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 94:The sweets of pillage can be known To no one but the thief, Compassion for integrity Is his divinest grief. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 95:If God's people are to be living examples of one thing, that thing ought to be - it must be - compassion. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 96:Can you be compassionate even to those who have no compassion? If so, there is no finer karma that you can create. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 97:Don't be reluctant to give of yourself generously, it's the mark of caring and compassion and personal greatness. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 98:In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path - the path of compassion, courage, understanding and love. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 99:Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 100:Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 101:Compassion is the signature of Higher Consciousness. Non-violence is the tool to evolve into the Higher Consciousness. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 102:Light of compassion and the light of wisdom that arises from our deepest and truest nature surpasses all other lights. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 103:The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there? ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 104:Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 105:The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 106:All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 107:Compassion is one of the highest states of consciousness that you can choose to assist you in times of enormous pain. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 108:It is important we cultivate love and compassion to all the sentient beings which is the way to bring peace to all. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 109:When love and compassion fills your heart, you find newness in every moment, and life becomes a celebration. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 110:It's hard to practice compassion when we're struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 111:We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of men and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 112:May I be given the appropriate difficulties so that my heart can truly open with compassion. Imagine asking for that. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 113:Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 114:The compassion that you see in the kindhearted is God's compassion. He has given it to them to protect the helpless. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 115:In the depth of the soul is the atman, the oversoul. And that oversoul is really love and compassion, peace, joy, and wisdom. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 116:Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 117:The purpose of the journey is compassion. When you have come past the pairs of opposites, you have reached compassion. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 118:We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 119:All around you are people whose lives are filled with trouble and sorrow, and they need your compassion and encouragement. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 120:The essence of any religion is good heart. Sometimes I call love and compassion a universal religion. This is my religion. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 121:The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other... . The whole purpose of life is to live by love. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 122:The light of compassion opens the petals of the heart. When the petals of the heart unfold fragrance spreads across the valley. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 123:We try to live every moment like that, dwelling peacefully in the present moment, and respond to events with compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 124:Compassion and empathy are not the same as feeling sorry for oneself. They are emotions that extend our perceptual ranges. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 125:By taking a look at your anger it can be transformed into the kind of energy that you need - understanding and compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 126:Our country is great because it is built on principles of self-reliance, opportunity, innovation, and compassion for others. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 127:When we radiate the warmth of our love-energy, our compassion-energy on the planet, we shine the qualities of our Source! ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 128:Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 129:What would we have to hold in compassion to be at peace right now? What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now? ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 130:When love overflows and is expressed through every word and deed, we call it compassion. That is the goal of religion. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 131:When someone is full of Love and Compassion, he cannot draw a line between two countries, two faiths or two religions. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 132:If the extension of your compassion does not include all living beings, then you will be unable to find peace by yourself. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 133:Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 134:Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 135:If we know how to create the energy of love, understanding, compassion, and beauty, then we can contribute a lot to the world. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 136:Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 137:Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 138:I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 139:When we take time to quiet ourselves, we can all sense that our life could be lived with greater compassion and greater weakness. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 140:Compassion is the foundation of earnestness. Compassion for yourself and others, born of suffering, your own and others. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 141:In times of tragedies, our duty is to lend a helping hand to those in grief and thus light lamps of kindness and compassion. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 142:I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 143:Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 144:To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 145:Some things have eternal value, and compassion is one of them. I hope we never lose that. Compassion for humans as well as animals. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 146:Compassion is all inclusive. Compassion knows no boundaries. Compassion comes with awareness, and awareness breaks all narrow territories. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 147:I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail... because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 148:In all human sorrow nothing gives comfort but love and faith, and that in the sight of Christ's compassion for us no sorrow is trifiling. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 149:Anyone who is speaking of a greater compassion, a greater humanitarian concern, is a leader paving the path we all need to follow. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 150:Rather than saying & 151:The abundance of life is unlimited, it expands with the generosity, compassion, inventiveness, and service that you contribute. ~ jonathan-lockwood-huie, @wisdomtrove 152:Keep a constant awareness and a conscious effort to say good words, perform good actions, and to practice patience and compassion. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 153:The witness is not indifferent. He is the fullness of understanding and compassion. Only as the witness you can help another. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 154:True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 155:Compassion is not a virtue - it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have - it's something we choose to practice. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 156:But if we have the energy of compassion and loving kindness in us, the people around us will be influenced by our way of being and living. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 157:Q: Surely you feel at least compassion when you see a man steeped in sin. M: Yes, I feel I am that man and his sins are my sins. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 158:We must each lead a way of life with self-awareness and compassion, to do as much as we can. Then, whatever happens we will have no regrets. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 159:Give yourself entirely to those around you. Be generous with your blessings. A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 160:If you can leave a relationship with love, empathy, and compassion, without any thoughts of revenge, hatred, or fear, that is how you let go. ~ brian-l-weiss, @wisdomtrove 161:To love our enemy is impossible. The moment we understand our enemy, we feel compassion towards him/her, and he/she is no longer our enemy. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 162:Mother Teresa's numerical results were not her greatest contribution. Instead, she made the world-and especially India-conscious of compassion. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 163:If we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 164:If you are motivated by loving kindness and compassion, there are many ways to bring happiness to others right now, starting with kind speech. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 165:Each aspect within us needs understanding and compassion. If we are unwilling to give it to ourselves how can we expect the world to give it to us? ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 166:The greatest force of personal liberation is the decision to widen our circle of compassion, moving from focus on self to focus on service. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 167:Let the flower of compassion blossom in the rich soil of maître, and water it with the good water of equanimity in the cool, refreshing shade of joy. ~ longchenpa, @wisdomtrove 168:As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 169:The light around someone who speaks truth, who consistently acts with compassion for all, even in great difficulty, is visible to all around them. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 170:According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the "quivering of the pure heart" when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 171:The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter. ~ norman-cousins, @wisdomtrove 172:When one has love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives and friends. One retains only compassion for them. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 173:When one begins to really feel into the spiritual dimension of their beings, they bump into love. They bump into compassion. They bump into beauty. ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 174:Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 175:Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile. Smile five times a day at someone you don't really want to smile at at all. Do it for peace. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 176:Let go of who you think you should be in order to be who you are. Be imperfect and have compassion for yourself. Connection is the result of authenticity. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 177:Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 178:Authentic power is the energy that Is formed by the intentions of the Soul. It is the light shaped by the intentions of love and compassion guided by wisdom ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 179:There is no such thing as a simple act of compassion or an inconsequential act of service. Everything we do for another person has infinite consequences. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 180:When our hearts open, when we know that we are in fact the world, when we experience the pain of others in our own blood and muscle, we are feeling compassion. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 181:When we are motivated by compassion and wisdom, the results of our actions benefit everyone, not just our individual selves or some immediate convenience. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 182:Without an awareness of our feelings we cannot experience compassion. How can we share the sufferings and the joys of others if we cannot experience our own? ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 183:Compassion for ourselves gives rise to the power to transform resentment into forgiveness, hatred into friendliness, and fear into respect for all beings. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 184:There's always another level up. There's always another ascension. More grace, more light, more generosity, more compassion, more to shed, more to grow. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 185:Compassion allows us to accept everything. That's why there's always a tear in the eye of the Buddha that no one sees, for the pain and suffering of others. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 186:Are you trying to grasp the quality of intelligence, compassion, the immense sense of beauty, the perfume of love and that truth which has no path to it? ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 187:Love and compassion are the mother and father of a smile. We need to create more smiles in our world today. Smiles, after all, pave the way to a happy world. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 188:Respect for human rights is not social work; it is not merely an act of compassion. It is the first obligation of government and the source of its legitimacy. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 189:Compassion is like mother giving love to her children. Mother’s ways are higher than others, even when everyone rejects, mother accepts with her arms open and wide. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 190:Love isn't material. It's energy... We experience it as kindness, giving, mercy, compassion, peace, joy, acceptance, non-judgment, joining and intimacy. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 191:Self-compassion is key because when we're able to be gentle with ourselves in the midst of shame, we're more likely to reach out, connect, and experience empathy. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 192:There is no such thing as a simple act of compassion or an inconsequential act of service. Everything we do for another person has infinite consequences. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 193:In every one of us there are good seeds and bad. We have the seed of brotherhood, love, compassion, insight. But we have also the seed of anger, hate, dissent. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 194:A single God - touch From God's Compassion - Height Can transform man's unimaginable And countless weaknesses Into God's own infinite,Immortal and omnipotent Power. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 195:We can't fight darkness with darkness. We have to find compassion, and embrace the darkness inside of us in order to understand it and, ultimately, to transcend it. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 196:Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation's compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain love for one another. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 197:Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 198:Falling in love is the beginning of all wisdom, all sympathy, all compassion, all art, all religion; and in it's larger sense is the one thing in life worth doing. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 199:Religion has nothing to do with compassion; it is our love for God that is the main thing because we have all been created for the sole purpose to love and be loved. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 200:Self-compassion - being supportive and kind to yourself, especially in the face of stress and failure - is associated with more motivation and better self-control. ~ kelly-mcgonigal, @wisdomtrove 201:I believe that much of the secret of soul-winning lies in having bowels of compassion, in having spirits that can be touched with the feeling of human infirmities. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 202:Give freely to the world these gifts of love and compassion. Do not concern yourself with how much you receive in return, just know in your heart it will be returned. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 203:Let us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved nation to a higher destiny. To a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 204:Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 205:The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 206:Compassion is not religious business, it is human business. It is not luxury. It is essential for our own peace and mental stability. It is essential for human survival. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 207:It is only with true love and compassion that we can begin to mend what is broken in the world. It is these two blessed things that can begin to heal all broken hearts. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 208:The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 209:All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 210:Even in the midst of compassion we feel within I know not what tart sweet titillation of malicious pleasure in seeing others suffer; children have the same feeling. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 211:Anger is the energy that people use in order to act. But when you are angry, you are not lucid, and you might do wrong things. That is why compassion is a better energy. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 212:Unless the direction of science is guided by a consciously ethical motivation, especially compassion, its effects may fail to bring benefit. They may indeed cause great harm. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 213:As we grow in our consciousness.. there will be more compassion and more love. And then... the barriers between people.. between religions.. and between nations will begin to fall. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 214:Compassion gives us a common ground to stand on regardless of your faith background. It gives us a chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder rather than go fist-to-fist with somebody. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 215:Meditation is the process of transformation and beautification of soul from a leaf-eating caterpillar to a nectar-sipping butterfly. It grows with the wings of love and compassion. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 216:The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 217:... we cannot simply recommend love and compassion per se, for those unfold from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric, and do we really want an increase in ethnocentric love? ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 218:Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 219:The foundation of the Buddha's teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 220:The joy that compassion brings is one of the best-kept secrets of humanity. It is a secret known only to a very few people, a secret that has to be rediscovered over and over again. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 221:A bodhisattva is someone who has compassion within himself or herself and who is able to make another person smile or help someone suffer less. Every one of us is capable of this. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 222:Ambition, fueled by compassion, wisdom and integrity, is a powerful force for good that will turn the wheels of industry and open the doors of opportunity for you and countless others. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 223:When you love yourself, it doesn’t mean you are egoistical or arrogant. It simply means you accept yourself as you are and treat yourself with kindness, understanding and compassion. ~ aimee-davies, @wisdomtrove 224:If you look at all enduring philosophies, religions and thoughts, you will find principles such as integrity, compassion, trust, honesty, accountability and others at their core. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 225:To make your voice heard is difficult. Sometimes we have to burn ourselves in order to be heard. It is out of compassion that you do that. It is the act of love and not of despair. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 226:Beneath the sophistication of Buddhist psychology lies the simplicity of compassion. We can touch into this compassion whenever the mind is quiet, whenever we allow the heart to open. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 227:God, help me to see others not as enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion to offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 228:If you are leaving that sorrowful place with hate and anger against men, you are worthy of compassion; if you leave it with good will, gentleness and peace, you are better than any of us. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 229:The wounded surgeon plies the steel That questions the distempered part; Beneath the bleeding hands we feel The sharp compassion of the healer's art Resolving the enigma of the fever chart. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 230:I firmly believe kids don't want your understanding. They want your trust, your compassion, your blinding love and your car keys, but you try to understand them and you're in big trouble. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 231:The grief we carry is part of the grief of the world. Hold it gently. Let it be honored. You do not have to keep it in anymore. You can let go into the heart of compassion; you can weep. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 232:Every day, try to have compassion for five kinds of people: someone you’re grateful to (a benefactor), a loved one or friend, a neutral person, someone who is difficult for you—and yourself. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 233:If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 234:Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world... would do this, it would change the earth. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 235:We were sent into the world alive with beauty. As soon as we choose Beauty, unseen forces conspire to guide and encourage us towards unexpected forms of compassion, healing and creativity. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 236:As I see it, the greatest responsibility of motherhood is to make sure that our children know that there are principles of kindness, compassion, integrity, excellence, and discipline. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 237:Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you. They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn perfect patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 238:May we not succumb to thoughts of violence and revenge today, but rather to thoughts of mercy and compassion. We are to love our enemies that they might be returned to their right minds. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 239:Charity means love towards the neighbor and compassion, for anyone who loves his neighbor as himself also has as much compassion for him in his suffering as he does for himself in his own. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 240:Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 241:Compassion is an act of tolerance where kindness and forgiveness reign. When we make the compassionate choice, we enhance the dignity of each individual, which is the very essence of loving them. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 242:True compassion is more than throwing a coin to a beggar. It demands of our humanity that if we live in a society that produces beggars, we are morally commanded to restructure that society. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 243:Every day, try to have compassion for five kinds of people: someone you’re grateful to (a & 244:The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 245:Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 246:When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for them is there. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 247:People may excite in themselves a glow of compassion, not by toasting their feet at the fire, and saying: "Lord, teach me compassion," but by going and seeking an object that requires compassion. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 248:In all practices and traditions of freedom, we find the heart's task to be quite simple. Life offers us just what it offers, and our task is to bow to it, to meet it with understanding and compassion. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 249:Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 250:We can help many people suffer less and realize a lot of happiness without being rich or influential. If love and compassion are in out hearts, every thought, word, and deed can bring about a miracle. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 251:Wherever you are is the perfect place to awaken. This moment is the exact place to practice compassion and loving awareness. You have all the ingredients to breathe and find freedom just where you are. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 252:I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 253:I can sense and feel this wretched compassion that I don't want. But it's there. It's a very painful kind of compassion. It's not one you look for. You don't want this kind of compassion; it just happens. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 254:Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us, we must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish our positive qualities - those of compassion, understanding, and loving kindness. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 255:How does it feel to realise that we are not separate? How does it feel to be one with everyone and everything? For me it is an experience of communion and compassion. Being one with all, I am in love with all. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 256:I am proud to have been in a business that gives pleasure, creates beauty, and awakens our conscience, arouses compassion, and perhaps most importantly, gives millions a respite from our so violent world. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 257:If we live in our oneness-heart, we will feel the essence of all religions which is the love of God. Forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, brotherhood and the feeling of oneness are the signs of a true religion. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 258:These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness. ~ anthony-de-mello, @wisdomtrove 259:I can sense and feel this wretched compassion that I don't want. But it's there. It's a very painful kind of compassion. It's not one you look for. You don't want this kind of compassion; it just happens. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 260:Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 261:I feel that the essence of spiritual practice is your attitude toward others. When you have a pure, sincere motivation, then you have right attitude toward others based on kindness, compassion, love and respect. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 262:We will not just say, "I love him very much," but instead, "I will do something so that he will suffer less." The mind of compassion is truly present when it is effective in removing another person's suffering. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 263:No one reaches out to you for compassion or empathy so you can teach them how to behave better. They reach out to us because they believe in our capacity to know our darkness well enough to sit in the dark with them. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 264:The first step in spiritual life is to have compassion. A person who is kind and loving never needs to go searching for God. God rushes toward any heart that beats with compassion-it is God's favorite place. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 265:The energy of compassion is very strong. We suffer. That is real. But we have learned not to get angry and not to allow ourselves to be carried by anger. We realize right away that that is fear. That is corruption. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 266:Rage is a powerful energy that with diligent practice can be transformed into fierce compassion. However much we disagree with our enemies, our task is to identify with them. They too feel justified in their point of view. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 267:Are you with me? How does it feel to realise that we are not separate? How does it feel to be one with everyone and everything? For me it is an experience of communion and compassion. Being one with all, I am in love with all. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 268:Positive social emotions like compassion and empathy are generally good for us, and we want to encourage them. But do we know how to most reliably raise children to care about the suffering of other people? I'm not sure we do. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 269:When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 270:I see my parents as tiny children who need love. I have compassion for my parents’ childhoods. I now know that I chose them because they were perfect for what I had to learn. I forgive them and set them free, and I set myself free. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 271:When you have enough understanding and compassion in you, then that amount of understanding and compassion will try to express itself in action. And your practice should help you to cultivate more understanding and compassion. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 272:Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me thy servant, who humbly prostrate myself before thee. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 273:Equanimity is neither apathy nor indifference: you are warmly engaged with the world but not troubled by it. Through its nonreactivity, it creates a great space for compassion, loving-kindness, and joy at the good fortune of others. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 274:If once we admit, be it for a single hour or in a single instance, that there can be anything more important than compassion for a fellow human being, then there is no crime against man that we cannot commit with an easy conscience. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 275:I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 276:When God puts love and compassion in your heart toward someone, He’s offering you an opportunity to make a difference in that person’s life. You must learn to follow that love. Don’t ignore it. Act on it. Somebody needs what you have. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 277:For you all think God is one who rewards good and punishes evil, but I say to you that God is one who loves you and has compassion for everyone. You just have to pray to Him and believe in Him. He will always be your guiding light. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 278:Be a good human being, a warm-hearted affectionate person. That is my fundamental belief. Having a sense of caring, a feeling of compassion will bring happiness and peace of mind to oneself and automatically create a positive atmosphere. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 279:In any moment we can learn to let go of hatred and fear. We can rest in peace, love, and forgiveness. It is never too late. Yet to sustain love we need to develop practices that cultivate and strengthen the natural compassion within us. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 280:Strength of the Heart comes from knowing that the pain that we each must bear is part of the greater pain shared by all that lives. It is not just & 281:Even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 282:Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to [grow and] become successful. For that reason it makes sense to be grateful for adversities that help you grow, even if it is only in understanding and compassion for other's suffering. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 283:The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before... .our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 284:When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 285:There are thousands ready to die for their religion, but only are few willing to live by its principles. Because of their narrow vision and envy, they have missed the true essence and message of religion which is love and compassion. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 286:To me an Indian is one who has got a Vedantic brain which probes deep and soars high; an Islamic body that is vibrant and valiant; a Buddhistic heart overflowing with compassion and kindness and Christian limbs of service and sacrifice. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 287:It's suggested that enlightenment has some tremendous compassion, some driving necessity to help humanity. I don't think that's the case at all. I think humanity wishes it were the case since it's humanity that writes the various scriptures. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 288:Open to the sense that you are receiving compassion—deep down in your brain, the actual source of good feelings doesn’t matter much; whether the compassion is from you or from another person, let your sense of being soothed and cared for sink in. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 289:The perspective of Love doesn't leave anybody out. Until your vision and compassion is big enough to include those who oppose you, you are simply contributing to the continuation of destructiveness . The end of separation is the salvation for all. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 290:To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 291:With growing awareness, you can see where you're caught or where you suffer or where you create suffering. You can then turn toward the difficulties that arise in your life with compassion, bow, and say, these too are part of human incarnation. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 292:It's funny how, in this journey of life, even though we may begin at different times and places, our paths cross with others so that we may share our love, compassion, observations, and hope. This is a design of God that I appreciate and cherish. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 293:For years I thought my assignment or the Church's assignment was to articulate the Gospel and nothing more. Now I believe that if we don't support the verbal expression of the Gospel with physical demonstration of compassion, we are not imitating Jesus. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 294:Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 295:Be compassionate. This makes dealing with others much more effortless. It also makes you feel better about yourself. People like you more, and you improve the lives of others. Make every dealing with another human being one where you practice compassion. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 296:Compassion allows us to understand that, as citizens of the planet, we’re all in this together and that in order to ensure our survival we must hold and cultivate a new and larger vision of what’s possible for ourselves and for the human race as a whole. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 297:Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 298:For centuries the Bible's emphasis on compassion and love for our neighbor has inspired institutional and governmental expressions of benevolent outreach such as private charity, the establishment of schools and hospitals, and the abolition of slavery. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 299:There are two types of seeds in the mind: those that create anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, hatred and those that create love, compassion, equanimity and joy. Spirituality is germination and sprouting of the second group and transforming the first group. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 300:The principle of compassion is that which converts disillusionment into a participatory companionship. This is the basic love, the charity, that turns a critic into a living human being who has something to give to - as well as to demand of - the world. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 301:We are... capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet. To enhance enormously our understanding of the Universe, and to carry us to the stars. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 302:It is strange how little sharpsightedness women possess; they only notice whether they please, then whether they arouse pity, and finally, whether you look for compassion from them. That is all; come to think of it, it may even be enough, generally speaking. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 303:A true friend of mankind whose heart has but once quivered in compassion over the sufferings of the people, will understand and forgive all the impassable alluvial filth in which they are submerged, and will be able to discover the diamonds in the filth. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 304:In opening we can see how many times we have mistaken small identities and fearful beliefs for our true nature and how limiting this is. We can touch with great compassion the pain from the contracted identities that we and others have created in the world. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 305:Never be petty. Do not feed resentments against anyone. I prefer good-hearted sinners to so called good people who are intolerant and devoid of compassion. Being spiritual is to have an open mind, understand and forgive, and be friends with everyone. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 306:We can talk about courage and love and compassion until we sound like a greeting card store, but unless we're willing to have an honest conversation about what gets in the way of putting these into practice in our daily lives, we will never change. Never, ever. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 307:The teachings on love given by the Buddha are clear, scientific, and applicable... Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity are the very nature of an enlightened person. They are the four aspects of true love within ourselves and within everyone and everything. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 308:Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out his compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 309:The sooner one develops compassion in this journey, the better. Compassion lets us appreciate that each individual is doing what he or she must do, and that there is no reason to judge another person or oneself. You merely do what you can to further your own awakening. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 310:The God within is your Spiritual Heart. Your Soul. And in that individual Soul, rests God- rests the One. Go into your soul and your heart-space which can be Awareness, Love, Compassion, etc…and just BE your heart-space. BE your Soul so that you can LOVE unconditionally. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 311:Developing compassion for Congress and politicians is a good way to begin practicing the new social activism if you want to make effective changes in the world. Perhaps the most startling new insight of all is that there is no other way to effectively change the world. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 312:The more we see, the more we understand. The more we understand, the easier it is for us to have compassion and love. Understanding is the source of love. Understanding is love itself. Understanding is another name for love; love is another name for understanding. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 313:Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. All ethics and morality, and a sense of interconnectedness, come out of the act of paying attention. ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove 314:There are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 315:We must love one another as God loves each one of us. To be able to love, we need a clean heart. Prayer is what gives us a clean heart. The fruit of prayer is a deepening of faith and the fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 316:The universe does not judge us; it only provides consequences and lessons and opportunities to balance and learn through the law of cause and effect. Compassion is the recognition that we are each doing the best we can within the limits of our current beliefs and capacities. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 317:Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and pitying those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation - this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 318:If you want to understand your parents more, get them to talk about their own childhood; and if you listen with compassion, you will learn where their fears and rigid patterns come from. Those people who "did all that stuff to you" were just as frightened and scared as you are. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 319:I've got to love the souls of people. Because I can't love every incarnation. I have to identify with my own soul. And then I can have such compassion for that soul who has an incarnation like George Bush. I feel compassion. That's karma of the here. Compassion and love, that's all. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 320:To fight anger with anger only makes you see a deeper shade of red. To resist envy only makes it more green. To turn sadness away means it will come back tomorrow twice as blue. True self-compassion is to fully accept and allow what is. To allow it to be there and be fully felt. ~ aimee-davies, @wisdomtrove 321:When man learns to respect even the smallest being of creation... nobody has to teach him to love his fellow man. Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 322:A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 323:Mindfulness is a way to rebalance ourselves. Instead of being lost in thought, or caught up in emotional upheaval, we can tip the scale in the direction of greater equanimity, clarity, wisdom, and self-compassion by actually learning how to inhabit that other dimension of our being. ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove 324:Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no. If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion. You would not be reading this now. Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 325:Compassion and pity are very different. Whereas compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the involuntary reflex of fear. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 326:True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 327:When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 328:Do no harmful actions, do not become attached to the cycle of death and rebirth, show kindness, respect the old and have compassion for the young, do not have a heart that rejects or a heart that covets and have no worry or sadness in your heart. This is what is called enlightenment. Do not seek it elsewhere. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 329:I have been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and He is a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 330:Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves." "You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 331:Human beings are not our enemy. Our enemy is not the other person. Our enemy is the violence, ignorance, and injustice in us and in the other person. When we are armed with compassion and understanding, we fight not against other people, but against the tendency to invade, to dominate, and to exploit. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 332:Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people’s hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human & 333:Understanding and Love are not two separate things, but just one. To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living beings with the eyes of compassion. When you understand, you cannot help but love. And when you love, you naturally act in a way that can relieve the suffering of people. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 334:In order for us to be able to love, we need to have faith, because faith is love in action and love in action is service. In order for us to be able to love, we have to see and touch. Faith in action through prayer, faith in action through service: each is the same thing, the same love, the same compassion. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 335:Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 336:Surrender your own poverty and acknowledge your nothingness to the Lord. Whether you understand it or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you and offers you an understanding and compassion which are like nothing you have ever found in a book or heard in a sermon. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 337:A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies... True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look on uneasily upon the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 338:I used to think that to become free you had to practice like a samurai warrior, but now I understand that you have to practice like a devoted mother of a newborn child. It takes the same energy but has a completely different quality. It's compassion and presence rather than having to defeat the enemy in battle. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 339:Many people are unhappy and are not experiencing life to its fullest because they’ve closed their hearts to compassion, they are motivated by only what they want and what they think they need. They rarely do anything for anybody else unless they have an ulterior goal in mind. They are self-involved and self-centered. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 340:Children, don't waste a single second. Serve others, above all the poor, expecting nothing in return. Just as the person who offers God flowers is the first to enjoy their fragrance, the person who offers compassion is the first to receive its blessing. Wherever a heart beats with compassion: God is there. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 341:Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile-smile five times a day at someone you don't really want to smile at at all-do it for peace. So let us radiate peace... and extinguish in the world and in the hearts of all men all hatred and love for power. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 342:The problem is whether we are determined to go in the direction of compassion or not. If we are, then can we reduce the suffering to a minimum? If I lose my direction, I have to look for the North Star, and I go to the north. That does not mean I expect to arrive at the North Star. I just want to go in that direction. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 343:Perfection isn't human. Human beings are not perfect. What evokes our love& 344:Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 345:The root of compassion is not empathy; that is kindness. Kindness is great, but it is not the ultimate compassion. Ultimate compassion relieves the suffering that comes from separateness. The suffering that comes from separateness is relieved only when you are fully present with another person, not when you are separately present. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 346:He had a deep respect for life, a special compassion for animals, and great awe and reverence for nature’s complexity and abundance. While a brilliant inventor and designer himself, he always thought that nature’s ingenuity was vastly superior to human design. He felt that we would be wise to respect nature and learn from her. ~ fritjof-capra, @wisdomtrove 347:The wisdom that comes from having experienced heartbreak cannot be bequeathed; it can only be gained through experience. And having truly felt it, we are far more likely to have compassion for others. Anything that takes us close to true compassion takes us closer to what will one day be an experience of even greater joy. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 348:Grant that I have enough suffering that my heart really opens to the great compassion of this world, that I be given enough so that I don't wall myself off from the world, that it breaks down the heart and the separation and the ego and the fear, and it lets me touch the nectar, the milk of kindness itself, of something greater. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 349:My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and compassion for the sick, and also for servants; so much so, that he never could be persuaded to keep slaves, for he pitied them so much: and a slave belonging to one of his brothers being once in his house, was treated by him with as much tenderness as his own children. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 350:In Asian languages, the word for & 351:It goes against the evolutionary template to undo the causes of suffering, to feel one with all things, to flow with the changing moment, and to remain unmoved by pleasant and unpleasant alike.Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it! It just means we should understand what we’re up against and have some compassion for ourselves. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 352:Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationship: it means being present with love-for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 353:Have a great compassion for people. To be able to have a heart full of compassion, we need to pray. Especially be kind, be loving to the poor. We think we do so much for the poor, but it is they who make us rich. We are in debt to them. Do you want to do something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 354:Yet a romantic comedy with no bite becomes sentimental and sickly. Tragedy reminds us of the gravity of life, so that we can feel compassion and empathy. Yet a harrowing tragedy with no redemption becomes dark and bitter. We want the paralogical play of opposites in our stories. And that’s what we’ve got with the great tragicomedy of life. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 355:We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 356:... Individualistic material progress and the desire to gain prestige by coming out on top have taken over from the sense of fellowship, compassion and community. Now people live more or less on their own in a small house, jealously guarding their goods and planning to acquire more, with a notice on the gate that says, & 357:For animals that are overworked, underfed, and cruelly treated; for all wistful creatures in captivity that beat their wings against bars; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death... and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 358:Don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight; we are always on the threshold of a new dawn. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 359:I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 360:The nectar of compassion is so wonderful. If you are committed to keeping it alive, then you are protected. What the other person says will not touch off the anger and irritation in you, because compassion is the real antidote to anger. Nothing can heal anger except compassion. That is why the practice of compassion is a very wonderful practice. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 361:Children, not a grain of the food we eat is made purely by our own effort. What comes to us in the form of food is the work of others, the bounty of Nature and God's compassion. Even if we have millions of dollars, we still need food to satisfy our hunger. Can we eat dollars? Therefore, never eat anything without first praying with humility. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 362:If we take the time to look deeply, we see that understanding and compassion arise from suffering. Understanding is the understanding of suffering, and compassion is the kind of energy that can transform suffering. If suffering is not there, we have no means to cultivate our understanding and our compassion. This is something quite simple to see. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 363:I don't have a definition of God, because I've never really understood that word. People have different understandings of it and it's caused a great deal of conflict. If I had to say what would my definition of God be, if I were going to use that word, I would say that this universe has layers upon layers upon layers of compassion and wisdom beyond ours. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 364:Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 365:And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world? ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 366:To live without love, compassion, or any other spiritual value creates a state of such severe imbalance that every cell yearns to correct it. Ultimately, that is what lies behind the onset of disease; the body is sending a message that something lacking in the present—an imbalance existing somewhere—has given rise to highly visible, unarguable, physical symptoms. ~ deepak-chopra, @wisdomtrove 367:If you believe in love, do you manifest it or just talk a lot? If you believe in compassion, in non-harming, in kindness, in wisdom, in generosity, in calmness, in solitude, in non-doing, in being even-handed and clear, do you manifest these qualities in your daily life? This is the level of intentionality which is required to keep your meditation practice vital. ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove 368:Our illusions-the beliefs we hold on to-are the very doorways to our freedom. We simply have to enter through them without grasping or pushing away. We must not believe them, but we must not run away from them either. We need to see each moment of apparent bondage as an invitation to freedom. Then it becomes an act of love, an act of compassion, to stop running away. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 369:A real love letter is made of insight, understanding, and compassion. Otherwise it's not a love letter. A true love letter can produce a transformation in the other person, and therefore in the world. But before it produces a transformation in the other person, it has to produce a transformation within us. Some letters may take the whole of our lifetime to write. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 370:Christ came to be Father's compassion to the world. Be kind in your actions. Do not think that you are the only one who can do efficient work, work worth showing. This makes you harsh in your judgment of others who may not have the same talents. Do your best and trust that others do their best. And be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 371:Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 372:Scientists tell us that we have enough technology to save our planet. . . . Yet we don't take advantage of this new technology. . . . The technological has to work hand-in-hand with the spiritual. Our spiritual life is the element that can bring about the energies of peace, calm, brotherhood, understanding, and compassion. Without that, our planet doesn't stand a chance. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 373:He [the writer] must, teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed - love and honor and pity and compassion and sacrifice. See Poets & Writers ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 374:When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being& 375:He will long be remembered as one of the great Christian thinkers of our century, with a childlike faith and a profound compassion toward others. It can rarely be said of an individual that his life touched many others and affected them for the better; it will be said of Francis Schaeffer that his life touched millions of souls and brought them to the truth of their creator. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 376:When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being& 377:Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 378:In today's world, people experience two types of poverty: the poverty caused by lack of food, clothing and shelter, and the poverty caused by lack of love and compassion. Of these two, the second type needs to be considered first because if we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 379:Ours is not a culture that respects the sick, the old or the vulnerable. We strive for independence, competence, and mastery. In embracing such & 380:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion,'" she repeats, making sure of it. If she had paper and pencil, it wouldn't surprise me if she wrote it down. "So what does that really mean? In simple terms." I think it over. It takes me a while to gather my thoughts, but she waits patiently. "I think it means," I say, "that chance encounters are what keep us going. In simple terms. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 381:So, never be afraid. Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed. If you, not just you in this room tonight, but in all the thousands of other rooms like this one about the world today and tomorrow and next week, will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 382:We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and for justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 383:Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 384:By softening our attitudes, practicing mercy and compassion, we transform our lives by transforming other people's experience of us. Send love before you when you enter a room, and people will subconsciously feel it; they'll be prone to show greater kindness in return. That's how love makes things work better in our lives; it realigns the reactions of people and things around us. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 385:Compassion arises naturally as the quivering of the heart in the face of pain, ours and another's. True compassion is not limited by the separateness of pity, nor by the fear of being overwhelmed. When we come to rest in the great heart of compassion, we discover a capacity to bear witness to, suffer with, and hold dear with our own vulnerable heart the sorrows and beauties of the world. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 386:The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 387:A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practiced spiritual discipline. The mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 388:Is there some meaning to this life? What purpose lies behind the strife? Whence do we come, where are we bound? These cold questions echo and resound through each day, each lonely night. We long to find the splendid light that will cast a revelatory beam upon the meaning of the human dream. Courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy lift us above the simple beasts and define humanity. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 389:God has identified himself with the hungry, the sick, the naked, the homeless; hunger not only for bread, but for love, for care, to be somebody to someone; nakedness, not for clothing only, but nakedness of that compassion that very few people give to the unknown; homelessness, not only just for a shelter made from stone but for that homelessness that comes from having no one to call your own. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 390:I believe God loves the world through us - through you and through me. We use Mother Teresa's name; it is only a name, but we are real co-workers and carriers of His love. Today God loves the world through us. Especially in times like these when people are trying to make God "was," it is you and I, by our love, by the purity of our lives, by our compassion, who prove to the world that God "is." ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 391:All violence is injustice. Responding to violence with violence is injustice, not only to the other person but also to oneself. Responding to violence with violence resolves nothing; it only escalates violence, anger and hatred. It is only with compassion that we can embrace and disintegrate violence. This is true in relationships between individuals as well as in relationships between nations. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 392:The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit‚îfor gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 393:It is a wonderful day in a life when one is finally able to stand before the long, deep mirror of one’s own reflection and view oneself with appreciation, acceptance, and forgiveness. On that day one breaks through the falsity of images and expectations which have blinded one’s spirit. One can only learn to see who one is when one learns to view oneself with the most intimate and forgiving compassion. ~ john-odonohue, @wisdomtrove 394:Samadhi is the journey from individual to collective consciousness. The steps of Samadhi are the steps towards reaching the collective consciousness. In meditation, the more we radiate love, compassion, peace, harmony and tranquility, the more is our contribution towards the collective consciousness. The more we positively contribute towards the collective consciousness the more is our progress in Samadhi. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 395:It is utterly and irrevocably possible to empty all hurts and therefore to love, to have compassion. To have compassion means to have passion for all things, not just between two people, but for all human beings, for all things of the earth, the animals, the trees - everything the earth contains. When we have such compassion we will not despoil the earth as we are doing now and we will have no wars. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 396:Finding a way to extend forgiveness to ourselves is one of our most essential tasks. Just as others have been caught in suffering, so have we. If we look honestly at our life, we can see the sorrows and pain that have led to our own wrongdoing. In this we can finally extend forgiveness to ourselves; we can hold the pain we have caused in compassion. Without such mercy, we will live our own life in exile. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 397:When a caterpillar spins its cocoon, it goes through a transformative process and then emerges as a butterfly. Similarly, when we go through a practice of meditation and prayer, we loosen our egoic grip on a sense of self that is separate from the Whole and become vehicles of the emergent evolutionary paradigm of love, peace , compassion, wisdom, harmony and oneness that seeks expression on the planet. ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 398:Can you imagine if you really let it in that you are not a problem to be solved in any way? Imagine you knew that anything that would tell you otherwise is just a movement of thought in the mind that says "Whatever is, isn't the way it is supposed to be." So the biggest act of compassion starts within. And when the self is no longer seen as a problem, this is called "the peace that passes all understanding." ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 399:If compassion is the wish that beings not suffer, kindness is the wish that they be happy. Compassion responds primarily to suffering, but kindness comes into play all of the time, even when others are doing fine. Kindness is expressed mainly in small, everyday ways, such as leaving a big tip, reading one more story to a child even though you’re tired, or waving another driver to move ahead of you in traffic. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 400:I define wholehearted living as engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough. It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am brave and worthy of love and belonging. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 401:Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough. It's going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn't change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 402:Comedy relieves us from the burden of being too serious, so that we can play in the moment. Yet a romantic comedy with no bite becomes sentimental and sickly. Tragedy reminds us of the gravity of life, so that we can feel compassion and empathy. Yet a harrowing tragedy with no redemption becomes dark and bitter. We want the paralogical play of opposites in our stories. And that’s what we’ve got with the great tragicomedy of life. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 403:Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 404:Most people have come to prefer certain of lifes experiences and deny and reject others, unaware of the value of the hidden things that may come wrapped in plain and even ugly paper. In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs, we may be left without intimacy or compassion; in rejecting change and risk we often cheat ourselves of the quest; in denying our suffering we may never know our strength or our greatness ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 405:Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile. Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 406:Ecclesiastes names thee Almighty, the Maccabees name thee Creator, the Epistle to the Ephesians names thee Liberty, Baruch names thee Immensity, the Psalms name thee Wisdom and Truth, John names thee Light, the Book of Kings names thee Lord, Exodus names thee Providence, Leviticus Sanctity, Esdras Justice, creation names thee God, man names thee Father; but Solomon names thee Compassion, which is the most beautiful of all thy names. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 407:If you do not know how to take care of yourself, and the violence in you, then you will not be able to take care of others. You must have love and patience before you can truly listen to your partner or child. If you are irritated you cannot listen. You have to know how to breath mindfully, embrace your irritation and transform it. Offer ONLY understand and compassion to your partner or child - This is the true practice of love. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 408:Death is unimportant to a yogi; he does not mind when he is going to die. What happens after death is immaterial to him. He is only concerned with life-with how he can use his life for the betterment of humanity. Having undergone various types of pain in his life and having acquired a certain mastery over pain, he develops compassion to help society and maintains himself in purity and holiness. The yogi has no interest beyond that. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 409:I was supremely happy, for I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and pure waters and my thirst was appeased. ... I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself, but for the world. ... Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain of Joy and eternal Beauty. I am God-intoxicated. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 410:How can one be compassionate if you belong to any religion, follow any guru, believe in something, believe in your scriptures, and so on, attached to a conclusion? When you accept your guru, you have come to a conclusion, or when you strongly believe in god or in a saviour, this or that, can there be compassion? You may do social work, help the poor out of pity, out of sympathy, out of charity, but is all that love and compassion? ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 411:The revolution of ideas that will save us is a revolution of goodwill, of compassion, and of higher thinking. I believe that they outnumber the people who would choose fear. But they are not a particularly politicized force. If you look at the numbers of people buying books about revolutions from within and personal transformation as the key to global change, the numbers add up to a much greater audience than most people realize. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 412:Life is to be enjoyed and endured. That’s one of the great paradoxities the heroic lover must understand. When we enjoy life, it feels good to be alive. When we endure life, it deepens our wisdom and compassion. To ‘endure’ is to become ‘durable’… to become strong. When we endure it strengthens the soul. And life wants us to become strong, so we can withstand the storms as well as delight in the sunshine. So we can love, whatever the weather. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 413:Love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. Not a bandage for dirty sores. But they don't know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who've never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, contempt and general indifference, and they call it love. Once you've felt what it means to love as you and I know it - total passion for the total height - you're incapable of anything less. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 414:Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward people, but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 415:Be guided, only by the healer of the sick, the raiser of the dead, the friend of all who were afflicted and forlorn, the patient Master who shed tears of compassion for our infirmities. We cannot but be right if we put all the rest away, and do everything in remembrance of Him. There is no vengeance and no infliction of suffering in His life, I am sure. There can be no confusion in following Him, and seeking for no other footsteps, I am certain! ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 416:That love is reverence, and worship, and glory, and the upward glance. Not a bandage for dirty sores. But they don’t know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who’ve never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, contempt, and general indifference, and they call it love. Once you’ve felt what it means to love as you and I know it – the total passion for the total height – you’re incapable of anything less. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 417:Everyone alive has suffered. It is the wisdom gained from our wounds and from our own experiences of suffering that makes us able to heal. Becoming expert has turned out to be less important than remembering and trusting the wholeness in myself and everyone else. Expertise cures, but wounded people can best be healed by other wounded people. Only other wounded people can understand what is needed, for the healing of suffering is compassion, not expertise. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 418:Compassion- which means, literally, "to suffer with"- is the way to the truth that we are most ourselves, not when we differ from others, but when we are the same. Indeed the main spiritual question is not, "What difference do you make?" but "What do you have in common?" It is not "excelling" but "serving" that makes us most human. It is not proving ourselves to be better than others but confessing to be just like others that is the way to healing and reconciliation. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 419:The essence of motherhood is not restricted to women who have given birth; it is a principle inherent in both women and men. It is an attitude of the mind. It is love - and that love is the very breath of life. No one would say, & 420:We do not hear the term compassionate applied to business executives or entrepreneurs, certainly not when they are engaged in their normal work. Yet in terms of results in the measurable form of jobs created, lives enriched, communities built, living standards raised, and poverty healed, a handful of capitalists has done infinitely more for mankind than all the self-serving politicians, academics, social workers, and religionists who march under the banner of compassion. ~ nathaniel-branden, @wisdomtrove 421:You have two gardens: your own garden and that of your beloved. First, you have to take care of your own garden and master the art of gardening. In each one of us there are flowers and there is also garbage. The garbage is the anger, fear, discrimination, and jealousy within us. If you water the garbage, you will strengthen the negative seeds. If you water the flowers of compassion, understanding, and love, you will strengthen the positive seeds. What you grow is up to you. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 422:Children, we may go to the temple, reverently circumambulate the sanctum sanctorum and put our offering in the charity box, but on our way out if we kick the beggar at the door, where is our devotion? Compassion towards the poor is our duty to God. Mother is not saying that we should give money to every beggar that sits in front of a temple, but do not despise them. Pray for them as well. When we hate others, it is our own mind that becomes impure. Equality of vision is God. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 423:If a culture treats a particular illness with compassion and enlightened understanding, then sickness can be seen as a challenge, as a healing crisis and opportunity. Being sick is then not a condemnation or a moral judgement, but a movement in a larger process of healing and restoration. When sickness is viewed positively and in supportive terms, then illness has a much better chance to heal, with the concomitant result that the entire person may grown and be enriched in the process. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 424:Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise. Become a stranger to need of pity. Or if compassion be freely given out, take only enough. Stop short of the urge to plead, then purge away the need. Wish for nothing larger than your own small heart or greater than a star. Tame wild disappointment with caress, unmoved and cold. Make of it a parka for your soul. Discover the reason why so tiny human midget exists at all, so scared and so unwise. But expect nothing, live frugally on surprise. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 425:The ends do not justify the means. If our actions will bring harm to others, even in the service of some & 426:The pain of the world will sear and break our hearts because we can no longer keep them closed. We've seen too much now. To some degree or other, we have surrendered into service and are willing to pay the price of compassion. But with it comes the joy of a single, caring act. With it comes the honor of participating in a generous process in which one rises each day and does what one can. With it comes the simple, singular grace of being an instrument of Love, in whatever form, to whatever end. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 427:Why do we fail? Is it because we are unlucky? Is it because we have not worked very hard? I s it because we have not invoked God's Compassion and Blessings? Is it because God has accepted this failure as an experience He wanted to have in our life? Is it because God has granted this failure to us? Is it because God has willed that we should lose? No! not it is for a different reason that we experience failure. It is for the strengthening of our consciousness that, at times, God grants us defeat. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 428:I no longer become angry. I not only do not say angry words, I do not even think angry thoughts! If someone does an unkind thing to me I feel only compassion instead of resentment. Even upon those who cause suffering I look with deep compassion, knowing the harvest of sorrow that lies in store for them. If there were those who hated me, I would love them in return, knowing that hatred can only be overcome by love, and knowing that there is good in all human beings which can be reached by a loving approach. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 429:Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 430:Spirituality emerged as a fundamental guidepost in Wholeheartedness. Not religiosity but the deeply held belief that we are inextricably connected to one another by a force greater than ourselves& 431:A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 432:On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. "A Time to Break Silence," at Riverside Church ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 433:When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and never has been, one realizes that one is all things mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself. There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear there is nothing apart from oneself and therefore nothing to fear. Realizing this results in true compassion. Other people and things are not seen as apart from oneself but, on the contrary, as one's own body. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 434:Everyone had some defect, or body or of mind: he thought of all the people he had known (the whole world was like a sick house and there was no rhyme or reason in it), he saw a long procession, deformed in body, warped in mind, some with illness of the flesh, weak hearts or weak lungs, and some with illness of the spirit, languor of will, or craving for liquor. At that moment he felt a holy compassion for them all. ¶The words of the dying God crossed his memory: Forgive them, for they know not what they do. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 435:It is my belief that in our mad world where there is so much pain, rivalry, hatred, violence, inequality, and oppression, it is people who are weak, rejected, marginalized, counted as useless, who can become a source of life and of salvation for us as individuals as well as for our world. And it is my hope that each one of you may experience the incredible gift of the friendship of people who are poor and weak, that you too, may receive life from them. For they call us to love, to communion, to compassion and to community. ~ jean-vanier, @wisdomtrove 436:When we start helping the weak and the poor to rise everyone will begin to change. Those who have power and riches will start to become more humble, and those who are rising up will leave behind their need to be victims, their need to be angry or depressed... .This is the spirituality of life, that helps people to rise up and take their place. It is not a spirituality of death. Jesus wants those who have been crushed to rise up and those who have power to discover that there is another road, a road of sharing and compassion. ~ jean-vanier, @wisdomtrove 437:You are only as powerful as that for which you stand. Do you stand for more money in the bank and a bigger house? Do you stand for an attractive mate? Do you stand for imposing your way of thinking upon others? These are the stands of the personality seeking to satisfy its wants. Do you stand for perfection, for the beauty and compassion of each soul? Do you stand for forgiveness and humbleness? These are the stands of the personality that has aligned itself with its soul. This is the position of a truly powerful Personality. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 438:Through compassion it is possible to recognize that the craving for love that people feel resides also in our own hearts, that the cruelty the world knows all too well is also rooted in our own impulses. Through compassion we also sense our hope for forgiveness in our friends' eyes and our hatred in their bitter mouths. When they kill, we know that we could have done it; when they give life, we know that we can do the same. For a compassionate person nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 439:Jesus' whole life and mission involve accepting powerlessness and revealing in this powerlessness the limitlessness of God's love. Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 440:America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 441:Each person suffers sometimes, and many people suffer a lot. Compassion is a natural response to suffering, including your own. Self-compassion isn’t selfpity, but is simply warmth, concern, and good wishes—just like compassion for another person. Because self-compassion is more emotional than self-esteem, it’s actually more powerful for reducing the impact of difficult conditions,preserving self-worth, and building resilience. It also opens your heart, since when you’re closed to your own suffering, it’s hard to be receptive to suffering in others. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 442:Anger is like a storm rising up from the bottom of your consciousness. When you feel it coming, turn your focus to your breath. Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: with mindfulness, you can see that they are unhappy and suffering. You can see their wrong perceptions. You'll feel motivated by a desire to say or do something to help the other person suffer less. This means compassionate energy has been born in your heart. And when compassion appears, anger is deleted. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 443:The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves "inside the skin" of the other. We "go inside" their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, "to suffer with." ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 444:I'm still a researcher. The best way to explain it is that I trusted myself deeply as a professional, but I did not have a lot of self-trust personally. When I started learning all of these things about the value and the importance of belonging, vulnerability, connection, self-kindness and self-compassion, I trusted what I was learning - again, I know I'm a good researcher. When those things and wholeheartedness started to emerge with all these different properties, I knew I had to listen. I'd heard these messages before personally but I didn't trust myself there. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 445:After one arrives at the summit, after going through the total transformation of being... there is yet one more step to the completion of that journey: the return to the valley below, to the everyday world. Who it is that returns is not who began the climb in the first place. The being that comes back is quietness itself, is compassion and wisdom, is the truth of the ages. Whatever humble or elevated position that being holds within the community, he or she becomes a light for others on the way a statement of the freedom that comes from having touched the top of the mountain. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 446:I'm sure everyone feels sorry for the individual who has fallen by the wayside or who can't keep up in our competitive society, but my own compassion goes beyond that to those millions of unsung men and women, who get up every morning, send the kids to school, go to work, try to keep up the payments on their house, pay exorbitant taxes to make possible compassion for the less fortunate, and as a result have to sacrifice many of their own desires and dreams and hopes. Government owes them something better than always finding a new way to make them share the fruit of their toils with others. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 447:In the 300 years of the crucifixion of Christ to the conversion of Emperor Constantine, polytheistic Roman emperors initiated no more than four general persecutions of Christians. Local administrators and governors incited some anti-Christian violence of their own. Still, if we combine all the victims of all these persecutions, it turns out that in these three centuries the polytheistic Romans killed no more than a few thousand Christians. In contrast, over the course, of the next 1,500 years, Christians slaughtered Christians by the millions, to defend slightly different interpretations of the religion of love and compassion. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove 448:We need to be gentle with ourselves, it is true; but we also need to be firm. Treat yourself with real compassion, not idiot compassion, and therefore begin to challenge yourself, engage yourself, push yourself: begin to practice. . . . The point is simple: If you are interested in genuine transformative spirituality, find an authentic spiritual teacher and begin practice. Without practice, you will never move beyond the phases of belief, faith, and random peak experiences. You will never evolve into plateau experiences, nor from there into permanent adaptation. You will remain, at best, a brief visitor in the territory of your own higher estate, a tourist in your own true Self. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 449:Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it Compassionate Listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less. If you want to help him to correct his perception, you wait for another time. For now, you don't interrupt. You don't argue. If you do, he loses his chance. You just listen with compassion and help him to suffer less. One hour like that can bring transformation and healing. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 450:TEN GUIDEPOSTS FOR WHOLEHEARTED LIVING 1. Cultivating authenticity: letting go of what people think 2. Cultivating self-compassion: letting go of perfectionism 3. Cultivating a resilient spirit: letting go of numbing and powerlessness 4. Cultivating gratitude and joy: letting go of scarcity and fear of the dark 5. Cultivating intuition and trusting faith: letting go of the need for certainty 6. Cultivating creativity: letting go of comparison 7. Cultivating play and rest: letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth 8. Cultivating calm and stillness: letting go of anxiety as a lifestyle 9. Cultivating meaningful work: letting go of self-doubt and supposed to 10. Cultivating laughter, song, and dance: letting go of being cool and always in control ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 451:Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely. The only sense to make of tragedies like this is that terrible things can happen to perfectly innocent people. This understanding inspires compassion. Religious faith, on the other hand, erodes compassion. Thoughts like, & 452:Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are. Choosing authenticity means cultivating the courage to be imperfect, to set boundaries, and to allow ourselves to be vulnerable; exercising the compassion that comes from knowing that we are all made of strength and struggle; and nurturing the connection and sense of belonging that can only happen when we believe that we are enough. Authenticity demands Wholehearted living and loving—even when it’s hard, even when we’re wrestling with the shame and fear of not being good enough, and especially when the joy is so intense that we’re afraid to let ourselves feel it. Mindfully practicing authenticity during our most soul-searching struggles is how we invite grace, joy, and gratitude into our lives. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 453:You can give so much in this life, and that offers you many opportunities to release the self. For example, you can give time, helpfulness, donations, restraint, patience, noncontention, and forgiveness. Any path of service—including raising a family, caring for others, and many kinds of work—incorporates generosity. Envy—and its close cousin, jealousy—is a major impediment to generosity. So notice the suffering in envy, how it is an affliction upon you. Envy actually activates some of the same neural networks involved with physical pain (Takahashi et al. 2009). In a compassionate and kind way, remind yourself that you will be all right even if other people have fame, money, or a great partner—and you don’t. To free yourself from the clutches of envy, send compassion and loving-kindness to people you envy. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 454:MANIFESTO OF THE BRAVE AND BROKENHEARTED There is no greater threat to the critics and cynics and fearmongers Than those of us who are willing to fall Because we have learned how to rise With skinned knees and bruised hearts; We choose owning our stories of struggle, Over hiding, over hustling, over pretending. When we deny our stories, they define us. When we run from struggle, we are never free. So we turn toward truth and look it in the eye. We will not be characters in our stories. Not villains, not victims, not even heroes. We are the authors of our lives. We write our own daring endings. We craft love from heartbreak, Compassion from shame, Grace from disappointment, Courage from failure. Showing up is our power. Story is our way home. Truth is our song. We are the brave and brokenhearted. We are rising strong. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 455:Even in the context of suffering—poverty, violence, human rights violations—not belonging in our families is still one of the most dangerous hurts. That’s because it has the power to break our heart, our spirit, and our sense of self-worth. It broke all three for me. And when those things break, there are only three outcomes, something I’ve borne witness to in my life and in my work: 1. You live in constant pain and seek relief by numbing it and/or inflicting it on others; 2. You deny your pain, and your denial ensures that you pass it on to those around you and down to your children; or 3. You find the courage to own the pain and develop a level of empathy and compassion for yourself and others that allows you to spot hurt in the world in a unique way. I certainly tried the first two. Only through sheer grace did I make my way to the third. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 456:The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove 457:And therefore, all of those for whom authentic transformation has deeply unseated their souls must, I believe, wrestle with the profound moral obligation to shout form the heart—perhaps quietly and gently, with tears of reluctance; perhaps with fierce fire and angry wisdom; perhaps with slow and careful analysis; perhaps by unshakable public example—but authentically always and absolutely carries a a demand and duty: you must speak out, to the best of your ability, and shake the spiritual tree, and shine your headlights into the eyes of the complacent. You must let that radical realization rumble through your veins and rattle those around you. Alas, if you fail to do so, you are betraying your own authenticity. You are hiding your true estate. You don’t want to upset others because you don’t want to upset your self. You are acting in bad faith, the taste of a bad infinity. Because, you see, the alarming fact is that any realization of depth carries a terrible burden: those who are allowed to see are simultaneously saddled with the obligation to communicate that vision in no uncertain terms: that is the bargain. You were allowed to see the truth under the agreement that you would communicate it to others (that is the ultimate meaning of the bodhisattva vow). And therefore, if you have seen, you simply must speak out. Speak out with compassion, or speak out with angry wisdom, or speak out with skillful means, but speak out you must. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Compassion is a verb. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
2:compassion, that ~ Brian D McLaren, #NFDB
3:By compassion one can be brave. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
4:Compassion is a verb. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
5:What about compassion? ~ F Paul Wilson, #NFDB
6:Simplicity, patience, compassion. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
7:Be the compassion you seek. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
8:Compassion and love, that's all. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
9:Compassion- it has its limits ~ Zoe Whittall, #NFDB
10:I would say I have compassion. ~ Kim Delaney, #NFDB
11:Compassion doesn't take sides— ~ Oliver North, #NFDB
12:Compassion is a two way street. ~ Frank Capra, #NFDB
13:Cruelty is foiled by compassion. ~ Hugh Howey, #NFDB
14:Everyone deserves compassion. ~ Michael Sheen, #NFDB
15:The dew of compassion is a tear. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
16:Compassion takes imagination. ~ Jennifer Beals, #NFDB
17:Fill your mind with compassion. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
18:May I hold myself in compassion. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
19:Reconnecting with Compassion ~ John Philip Newell, #NFDB
20:Compassion begins with attention. ~ Daniel Goleman, #NFDB
21:Truth without compassion is Cruelty. ~ Antero Alli, #NFDB
22:Compassion ~ Thrangu Rinpochejustdharma.com/s/pw7dr, #NFDB
23:All we have is compassion and stories. ~ Barry Lopez, #NFDB
24:Compassion is not a popular virtue ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
25:Compassion limits even the power of God. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
26:Online we have a compassion deficit ~ Monica Lewinsky, #NFDB
27:Remember to show yourself compassion, ~ Judith Orloff, #NFDB
28:Compassion and love, behold the true religion! ~ Asoka, #NFDB
29:Compassion is a spiritual technology. ~ Krista Tippett, #NFDB
30:Compassion is nothing to be ashamed of ~ Laila Ibrahim, #NFDB
31:Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
32:Compassion is the litmus test. ~ Judith Hanson Lasater, #NFDB
33:Compassion is the radicalism of our time. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
34:Heaven aids and protects Through compassion. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
35:Compassion seems to be the greatest power. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
36:Why does God endow us with compassion? ~ Franz Schubert, #NFDB
37:Compassion is no substitute for justice. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
38:a condescending smile of compassion, ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
39:Compassion directed to oneself is humility. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
40:Compassion is an action word with no boundaries. ~ Prince, #NFDB
41:Compassion is concern of others' well being. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
42:compassion is the basis of all morality. ~ Laura Moriarty, #NFDB
43:Compassion is weakness. I am not weak. ~ Kathryn Le Veque, #NFDB
44:Let all find COMPASSION in YOU. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #NFDB
45:Compassion arises spontaneously from wisdom. ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
46:Compassion has no place on the battlefield... ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
47:Compassion is the ability to see how it all is. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
48:Compassion is the basis of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
49:Compassion is the radicalism of our time. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
50:Disagreements don’t mean a loss of compassion. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
51:Give me passion -- and compassion -- any day. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
52:...love is deep attention, deep compassion... ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
53:Nothing can heal anger except compassion. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
54:Shift from judgment to compassion to love. ~ Thomas Leonard, #NFDB
55:You are joy, wisdom, peace, compassion, and love ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
56:"Compassion is the radicalism of our time." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
57:I was beginning to feel compassion for myself. ~ Aspen Matis, #NFDB
58:principle, per-sis tence, and compassion—three ~ John Wooden, #NFDB
59:The measure of a society is its compassion. ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
60:Truth is on the side of compassion. ~ Christina Hoff Sommers, #NFDB
61:What I want in my life is compassion ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
62:Compassion is the basis of all morality ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
63:Journalists love to show their compassion. ~ Bernard Goldberg, #NFDB
64:May you find the eye of compassion within you! ~ Haemin Sunim, #NFDB
65:Bereavement can give its dupes great compassion. ~ Sue Klebold, #NFDB
66:Compassion bled away, as did his insight. ~ Luke E T Hindmarsh, #NFDB
67:Compassion is an alternate perception ~ Mary Caroline Richards, #NFDB
68:Compassion, the fairest associate of the heart. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
69:Genuine happiness and compassion go hand in hand. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
70:He had the compassion of a vivisectionist. ~ Storm Constantine, #NFDB
71:In compassion lies the world's true strength. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
72:Love and compassion are the only balm ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
73:others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
74:sorrow is the mother of a general compassion, ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
75:The best leaders blend courage with compassion. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
76:Without suffering, there'd be no compassion. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
77:Because compassion must be louder than pride. ~ Victoria Schwab, #NFDB
78:Compassion crowns the soul with its truest victory. ~ Aberjhani, #NFDB
79:I have less compassion than the average human. ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
80:It is compassion, the most gracious of virtues, ~ Thiruvalluvar, #NFDB
81:Meditation is a flower, and compassion is its fragrance. ~ Osho, #NFDB
82:The measure of civilized behavior is compassion. ~ Paul Theroux, #NFDB
83:Without love and compassion, nothing is sacred. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
84:He did not confuse compassion with passivity. ~ Sylvia Boorstein, #NFDB
85:Love and compassion are the pillars of world peace. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
86:Make no judgments where you have no compassion. ~ Anne McCaffrey, #NFDB
87:The god of compassion is NOT the god of justice. ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
88:By compassion we heal our life and the life of others. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
89:Compassion is the thread to connect with the Universe. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
90:Compassion without love felt suspiciously like pity. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
91:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion, ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
92:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
93:I own I really felt a loathing compassion for him. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
94:The feeling of compassion is the beginning of humanity. ~ Mencius, #NFDB
95:The heart with compassion is the temple of God. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
96:The root of compassion, is compassion for oneself. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
97:To grow old is to move from passion to compassion. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
98:To grow old is to pass from passion to compassion. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
99:True patience is grounded in wisdom and compassion. ~ Allan Lokos, #NFDB
100:Wonder Woman: strength of character, compassion, Steve ~ Lisa Yee, #NFDB
101:Compassion, along with love, is the face of altruism. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
102:Compassion directed toward oneself is true humility. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
103:Compassion is a college education. It's a doctorate. ~ Krishna Das, #NFDB
104:Compassion is the currency that leads to true wealth. ~ Jim Carrey, #NFDB
105:Compassion is the use of public funds to buy votes ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
106:Human it is to have compassion on the unhappy ~ Giovanni Boccaccio, #NFDB
107:If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” The ~ Crista McHugh, #NFDB
108:In service, there is clarity and compassion. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher, #NFDB
109:Le désarmement, c’est de la compassion appliquée. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
110:"Love and compassion are the pillars of world peace." ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
111:Meditation is a flower and compassion is its fragrance. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
112:30Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
113:Compassion begins with kindness to yourself. ~ Bert and John Jacobs, #NFDB
114:Compassion is the chief law of human existence. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
115:Have compassion towards each other, including animals. ~ Matt Sorum, #NFDB
116:Human it is to have compassion on the unhappy. ~ Giovanni Boccaccio, #NFDB
117:, ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#river,#sun,#earth,#sea,#compassion, #tolerance, #NFDB
118:True patience is grounded in wisdom & compassion. ~ Allan Lokos, #NFDB
119:All hate is hurt, all compassion is understanding ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
120:Compassion for our parents is the true sign of maturity. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
121:Compassion for our parents is the true sign of maturity. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
122:Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
123:Compassion is the chief law of human existence. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
124:Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
125:empathy would spread, an invasive weed of compassion. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
126:, ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#river,#sun,#earth,#sea,#compassion, #tolerance, #NFDB
127:And all because of a mistaken concept of compassion! ~ Oliver P tzsch, #NFDB
128:I believe in sympathy, compassion and forgiveness. ~ Pervez Musharraf, #NFDB
129:Justice without compassion isn't justice; it's an abattoir. ~ Amos Oz, #NFDB
130:Mercy and compassion are all the grace left to us. ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
131:No one can force compassion. But it can be extinguished. ~ Kim Echlin, #NFDB
132:Relaxation is the doorway to both wisdom and compassion. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
133:There is no such thing as a simple act of compassion ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
134:Compassion is the fellow-feeling of the unsound. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #NFDB
135:Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer. ~ Rachel, #NFDB
136:Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
137:Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
138:lead from a place of compassion and forgiveness. ~ Gabrielle Bernstein, #NFDB
139:"Love and compassion are the pillars of world peace." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
140:Spiritual energy brings compassion into the world. ~ Christina Baldwin, #NFDB
141:There are many goals but one path - the path of compassion. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
142:We are compassion, whether we know it or not. ~ Shambhala Publications, #NFDB
143:When people hear needs, it provokes compassion. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
144:As flower blooms in spring, compassion grows in mindfulness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
145:Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
146:Happiness, love and compassion are the aroma of your soul. ~ Banani Ray, #NFDB
147:I know what real courage is, and I understand true compassion. ~ Mo Yan, #NFDB
148:I sometimes feel tremendous compassion and helplessness. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
149:On every level of human life, compassion is the key thing. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
150:Religions don't own compassion; it is a human virtue. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
151:Time is the alchemy that turns compassion into love... ~ Seanan McGuire, #NFDB
152:Compassion is definitely a more liberating emotion than love. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
153:Compassion is not complete if it does not include oneself. ~ Allan Lokos, #NFDB
154:Wishing kindness and compassion to all living creatures. ~ Brian Blessed, #NFDB
155:Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share. ~ Liam Neeson, #NFDB
156:Compassion is a Shepherd, Always tending his herd. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #NFDB
157:I think I've advanced my views with compassion and tolerance. ~ Jack Kemp, #NFDB
158:My message is the practice of compassion, love and kindness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
159:The fundamental human experience is that of compassion. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
160:Tolerance and compassion are qualities of fearless people. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
161:Welfare is ... the victim of national compassion fatigue. ~ Ellen Goodman, #NFDB
162:All that is holding us together [is] stories and compassion. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
163:Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
164:If ministry is not about compassion and passion, let it die. ~ Heidi Baker, #NFDB
165:It is hard to draw any line between compassion and love. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
166:Liberate rage. Forgiveness is overrated. Compassion is dead. ~ Adam Nevill, #NFDB
167:Though our Savior's passion is over, his compassion is not. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
168:We don't have to surrender our souls or our compassion. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
169:As the flower blooms in spring, compassion grows in mindfulness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
170:Compassion doesn't weaken leadership, it makes it stronger. ~ Rudy Giuliani, #NFDB
171:compassion, skepticism, and uncertainty rather than on dogma, ~ Adam Gopnik, #NFDB
172:Compassion without discipline is egregious self-sabotage. ~ Stefan Molyneux, #NFDB
173:If you don't have compassion you won't be compelled to help. ~ Mark Helprin, #NFDB
174:People in this arena weren't crowned for their compassion ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
175:When your mind is liberated, your heart floods with compassion. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
176:All life stinks and you must embrace that with compassion. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
177:Compassion is a coat of fur I find particularly ill-fitting. ~ Ron Currie Jr, #NFDB
178:Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
179:Compassion is the spontaneous wisdom of the heart. ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, #NFDB
180:"Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
181:He knows the most important language of all. Human compassion. ~ Ann Rinaldi, #NFDB
182:Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion. ~ Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, #NFDB
183:Sex is the seed, love is the flower, compassion is the fragrance. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
184:The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
185:Turn anger into compassion, and fear into faith. ~ Kimberly Williams Paisley, #NFDB
186:And power without compassion is the worst kind of evil there is. ~ E J Patten, #NFDB
187:Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
188:Few things are so deadly as a misguided sense of compassion. ~ Charles Colson, #NFDB
189:Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
190:I felt sorry for her, and I felt betrayed by my own compassion. ~ V C Andrews, #NFDB
191:Moments of compassion are the most holy moments of life. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
192:My true religion, my simple faith is in love and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
193:universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
194:Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
195:compassion and humanity are the first casualties of any war. ~ Scott Nicholson, #NFDB
196:Compassion is fearless and unthinking, or it isn't compassion. ~ Bonnie Nadzam, #NFDB
197:Compassion is subtler than Vitamin C, but both are real needs. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
198:Compassion is to share the pain without sharing the suffering. ~ Shinzen Young, #NFDB
199:Have compassion for people as long as you are one of them too. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
200:Hope persists, and its voice is compassion, and honest doubt. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
201:Both my wife and I have a lot of compassion for animals in general. ~ Biz Stone, #NFDB
202:Compassion and kindness it turned out, was good for your health. ~ James R Doty, #NFDB
203:Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
204:Don’t mistake optimism for foolishness or compassion for weakness. ~ David Mack, #NFDB
205:Duty; friendship; compassion. Which moved him to die for you? ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
206:Healing comes when we meet our wounded places with compassion. ~ Stephen Levine, #NFDB
207:His is a loving, tender hand, full of sympathy and compassion. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
208:I feel compassion for you, not pity. Never mistake the two. ~ Kelly Eileen Hake, #NFDB
209:I knew I could hold myself with that absolute love and compassion. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
210:industry, compassion, humility, patience, honesty and courage. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
211:Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will. ~ William Cowper, #NFDB
212:Minerva save us from the cloying syrup of coercive compassion! ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
213:No one is more worthy of your kindness and compassion than you are. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
214:Power without compassion is like a giant that blocks the sunlight. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
215:Such sorrow— The cry of true compassion Sinks into my hard ego. ~ Taitetsu Unno, #NFDB
216:A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
217:Compassion has no place on any battlefield... magical or otherwise. ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
218:Fear, hatred, and suspicion narrow your mind - compassion opens it. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
219:If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
220:ONE MUST BE COMPASSIONATE TO ONE'S SELF BEFORE EXTERNAL COMPASSION. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
221:"Simplicity, patience, compassion. These are your greatest treasures." ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
222:When in doubt, favor compassion
over certainty or tradition. ~ Ivan M Granger,#NFDB
223:All beings wish for happiness, so extend your compassion to all. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
224:Don't ever think compassion is weak. Compassion is about strength. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
225:Everything boils down to love and compassion - or its absence. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
226:Hate weakens but compassion strengthens and expands our consciousness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
227:I hope I would leave a legacy of joy -a legacy of real compassion. ~ Rich Mullins, #NFDB
228:In a situation of potential conflict, let compassion guide you. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
229:In the evangelical world, prying can be an indicator of compassion. ~ Kevin Roose, #NFDB
230:Replace a complaint thought with one of gratitude or compassion. ~ James Altucher, #NFDB
231:"To be healed, we need to be seen through the eyes of compassion." ~ Haemin Sunim, #NFDB
232:Worse than idle is compassion if it ends in tears and sighs. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
233:"Breathing in, I offer joy.Breathing out, I offer compassion." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh ｡, #NFDB
234:By practicing compassion and forgiveness, one can control hatred. ~ Shri Radhe Maa, #NFDB
235:Compassion is not something you have; it is something you share. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
236:I truly believe that compassion provides the basis of human survival. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
237:Politics come from man. Mercy, compassion, and justice come from God. ~ John Terry, #NFDB
238:True compassion comes from free will by drawing empathy from within. ~ Shane Barbi, #NFDB
239:We do it, Jackson, because compassion must be louder than pride. ~ Victoria Schwab, #NFDB
240:COMPASSION IS INHERENT in our very nature as human beings. ~ Shambhala Publications, #NFDB
241:...human progress has depended on enlarging the circle of compassion. ~ Carl Safina, #NFDB
242:It's not about your greatness as an architect, but your compassion ~ Samuel Mockbee, #NFDB
243:Let your heart go out in spontaneous and immeasurable compassion. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
244:Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
245:O, ah! The awareness of emptiness brings forth a heart of compassion! ~ Gary Snyder, #NFDB
246:The heavens are not humane, but I’d forgotten compassion and love. ~ Bohumil Hrabal, #NFDB
247:True compassion arises out of the plane of consciousness where I AM you. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
248:We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
249:We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
250:Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
251:Anger and hatred are the greatest obstacles to compassion and love. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
252:Be Generous with your Kindness, Compassion & Forgiveness. ~ Dashama Konah Gordon, #NFDB
253:Even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose to our lives. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
254:Forgiveness will not be possible until compassion is born in your heart. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
255:In good training, we generate light (wisdom) and heat (compassion) ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
256:I think compassion is an important quality in people in general. ~ Shannon Elizabeth, #NFDB
257:It is no little thing to make / Mine eyes to sweat compassion. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
258:Jurors want courtroom lawyers to have some compassion and be nice. ~ Johnnie Cochran, #NFDB
259:Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
260:The fundamental question is how to develop and maintain compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
261:We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
262:Avoid the man without compassion, because he ain’t a man surely! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
263:Compassion isn't a sign of weakness, but a mark of civilization. ~ Nicholas D Kristof, #NFDB
264:Compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis of all ministry. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
265:Compassion stands on the pillars of trust, love, awareness and detachment. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
266:Everything I do as a mother builds on a foundation of love and compassion. ~ Amy Chua, #NFDB
267:Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it. ~ Lucinda Williams, #NFDB
268:I should have no compassion on these witches; I should burn them all. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
269:Nobody can feel more compassion for a fibber than another fibber. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
270:Only love and compassion can bring true and lasting transformation ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
271:The most potent thing we can do is to bring more compassion online. ~ Monica Lewinsky, #NFDB
272:When I was young I looked like Al Capone, but I lacked his compassion. ~ Oscar Levant, #NFDB
273:a family is too disciplined an army to offer compassion to its deserters. ~ Pat Conroy, #NFDB
274:Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
275:Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” ~ Dalai LamaRt/Via @VegyPower @mysticpoetry, #NFDB
276:I live in between My heart's compassion-rain And my life's oneness-gain. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
277:Let the world feel your compassion: Help save kidnapped Yazidi females! ~ Widad Akreyi, #NFDB
278:My compassion was not dissimilar to gliding sandpaper over your ass. ~ Santino Hassell, #NFDB
279:Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
280:self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. ~ Daniel Goleman, #NFDB
281:To mourn is to touch directly the substance of divine compassion. ~ Cynthia Bourgeault, #NFDB
282:We have to make mistakes, it's how we learn compassion for others. ~ Curtis Sittenfeld, #NFDB
283:You can feel compassion for others without feeling victimized yourself. ~ Bette Midler, #NFDB
284:Compassion encompasses everything that eliminates the sufferings of humanity ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
285:Compassion has certain vibration – vibration that resonates with the cosmos. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
286:Compassion is to look beyond your own pain, to see the pain of others. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
287:It is a feeble compassion that pulls up short where self-interest begins. ~ Norm Phelps, #NFDB
288:Let's get loose with Compassion. Let's drown in the delicious ambience of Love. ~ Hafez, #NFDB
289:Man without compassion is the coldest thing ever in this universe! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
290:Those who unlock your compassion are those to whom you've been assigned. ~ Mike Murdock, #NFDB
291:When we practice loving kindness and compassion we are the first ones to profit. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
292:Wisdom without Christ brings bitterness; with Christ it brings compassion. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
293:You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
294:A seed cannot grow in stone. Compassion is the fertile soil where life grows. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
295:Believe not the existence of an emotion nobler than the compassion! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
296:Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
297:Compassion means removal of suffering – suffering of the self and the others. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
298:Compassion needs new approach and new outlook with the way you see the world. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
299:Compassion without a commitment to justice is not compassion at all. ~ Jamie Arpin Ricci, #NFDB
300:Confidence, clarity and compassion are essential qualities of a teacher. ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
301:"Even small acts of compassion bring meaning and purpose to our lives." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
302:Generosity, love, compassion, or devotion do not depend on a high IQ. ~ Joseph Goldstein, #NFDB
303:Having Christian convictions can’t ever negate having Christ’s compassion. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
304:It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked. ~ Haile Selassie, #NFDB
305:It's great to be strong but strength is nothing without having compassion. ~ Terry Crews, #NFDB
306:Our greatest happiness comes from the experience of love & compassion. ~ Allan Lokos, #NFDB
307:People with hearts filled with love, peace, and compassion live in heaven. ~ Debbie Ford, #NFDB
308:The life of Jesus suggests that to be like Abba is to show compassion. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
309:There are men who dig for gold; [Monseigneur Bienvenu] dug for compassion. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
310:The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
311:True compassion is about not bruising the other person's self-respect. ~ Naoki Higashida, #NFDB
312:True compassion is about not bruising the other person’s self-respect. ~ Naoki Higashida, #NFDB
313:AIDS is a horrible disease, and the people who catch it deserve compassion. ~ Sam Kinison, #NFDB
314:Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
315:Compassion for the friend should conceal itself under a hard shell. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
316:Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
317:Compassion is not having any hesitation to reflect your light on things ~ Chogyam Trungpa, #NFDB
318:Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion. ~ Suzan Lori Parks, #NFDB
319:It is compassion, the most gracious of virtues,
Which moves the world. ~ Thiruvalluvar,#NFDB
320:Love is defined by difficult acts of human compassion & generosity. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
321:Needing compassion from others gives them the opportunity to share it. ~ Kiera Van Gelder, #NFDB
322:The gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
323:The ultimate solution to POVERTY is found in the COMPASSION of God's people. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
324:You can't have any compassion for anyone if you can't see past their insanity ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
325:I'm passionate about stories that have humanity, compassion and humor. ~ Matthew Bonifacio, #NFDB
326:lived with as men was I able to find, hold, and see them with compassion. ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
327:May love fill your heart, compassion guide your mind, faith rule your soul. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
328:Poverty doesn’t allow of honourable feeling, any more than of compassion. ~ George Gissing, #NFDB
329:The most important use of NVC may be in developing self-compassion. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
330:The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion. ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
331:We can bring heaven on the earth when we have compassion for all living beings. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
332:We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
333:We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
334:When the energy of compassion and love touches us, healing establishes itself. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
335:And Sir, it is no little thing to make mine eyes to sweat compassion. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
336:Do not deceive yourself; do not be run away with by gratitude and compassion. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
337:If you conduct yourself with peace love and compassion, then you are God. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
338:In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice but compassion. ~ Joko Beck, #NFDB
339:It’s not just about being against cruelty. It’s about being for compassion. ~ Nathan Runkle, #NFDB
340:KNEE: Forgiveness, tolerance, compassion. I move forward without hesitation. ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
341:Mama is the greatest teacher, teacher of love, fearlessness and compassion. ~ Stevie Wonder, #NFDB
342:Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
343:the art of maintaining good relationships and cultivating self-compassion. I ~ Haemin Sunim, #NFDB
344:The female biologically [has] more potential to show affection and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
345:The path of compassion is cultivated one step and one moment at a time. ~ Christina Feldman, #NFDB
346:We are nothing without compassion for others and for all other beings! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
347:Without love, we would not comprehend compassion.
- Govinda Shauri ~ Krishna Udayasankar,#NFDB
348:Beneath the bleeding hands we feel / The sharp compassion of the healer’s art. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
349:Compassion and love give meaning to our activities and makes them constructive. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
350:Compassion doesn't have to be weak or enabling; it can also be quite bold. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
351:May I see my own limits with compassion, just as I view the limits of others. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
352:Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
353:Our compassion and acts of selflessness take us to the deeper truths. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
354:There is nothing, my boy, to spark compassion like a sojourn in hell. ~ Jennifer Lee Carrell, #NFDB
355:Try to develop some genuine love and compassion, some real caring for others. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
356:We enjoy observing kindness and compassion in others; while we act as evils. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
357:Acceptance, tolerance, bravery, compassion. These are the things my mom taught me ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
358:A religious man is a person... whose greatest passion is compassion. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
359:Because sometimes tragedy brings about compassion that another person needs. ~ Tony Bertauski, #NFDB
360:Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
361:compassion is a wonderful virtue but don’t waste it on those undeserving. ~ Bruce Springsteen, #NFDB
362:Grief is a conduit -- for love, for compassion, for healing, and for grace. ~ Lisa Scottoline, #NFDB
363:I pick the hair from her eyes and watch her misery with compassion. ~ William Carlos Williams, #NFDB
364:Look every creature from the window of compassion with the eyes of love! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
365:Love without compassion is possessive, controlling, rejecting, and dangerous. ~ Steven Stosny, #NFDB
366:Oh God, Master of the Universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us … ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
367:Part of me felt deep compassion. And another part felt like, You fucker. ~ Augusten Burroughs, #NFDB
368:When it comes to love, compassion, and other feelings of the heart, I am rich. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
369:Without passion, nothing happens; without compassion, the wrong things happen. ~ Jan Eliasson, #NFDB
370:...writers, like priests, should have compassion...and a sensitivity to pain... ~ John Geddes, #NFDB
371:you can’t have compassion unless you have a certain loyalty to the human race. ~ Fannie Flagg, #NFDB
372:Acceptance, tolerance, bravery, compassion. These are the things my mom taught me! ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
373:Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
374:From the sea of effortlessness, let your great uncaused compassion shine forth. ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #NFDB
375:How can one, who eats the flesh of others to swell his flesh, show compassion? ~ Thiruvalluvar, #NFDB
376:I believe that animals are on the planet so that we can know love and compassion. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
377:Indulgent compassion and bending to the will of another had nearly destroyed her. ~ Jamie Beck, #NFDB
378:Service broadens your vision widens your awareness. Deepens your compassion. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
379:there is an overwhelming power in boundless compassion and unconditional love. ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
380:The sturdiest pillars of human morality are compassion and a sense of justice. ~ Frans de Waal, #NFDB
381:Humanity's collective mission in the cosmos lies in the practice of compassion. ~ Daisaku Ikeda, #NFDB
382:Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
383:The depth of our compassion is proportional to the depth of our living. (65) ~ Jean Yves Leloup, #NFDB
384:The law has no compassion. And justice is administered without compassion. ~ Christopher Darden, #NFDB
385:What value has compassion that does not take its object in its arms? ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
386:When you feel compassion, you dethrone yourself from the centre of the world. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
387:Words matter, but what matters more than words is forgiveness and compassion. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
388:After all I've seen, if I hadn't learned compassion, I wouldn't be worth much. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
389:A small vine of sadness appeared beneath her ribs and blossomed into compassion ~ Kerrigan Byrne, #NFDB
390:Compassion was the most important, perhaps the sole law of human existence. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
391:In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
392:Look at every creature from the window of compassion with the eyes of love! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
393:Sarcasm and compassion are two of the qualities that make life on Earth tolerable. ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
394:SHOW THE WORLD YOUR STRONG COMPASSION: GIVE YOUR VOICE TO VOICELESS YAZIDI GIRLS! ~ Widad Akreyi, #NFDB
395:Sometimes, in difficult circumstances, one can confuse compassion with love. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
396:Sometimes, in difficult circumstances, one can confuse compassion with love. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, #NFDB
397:There’s no wisdom or compassion in a selfish heart; it beats only for itself. ~ Bette Lee Crosby, #NFDB
398:We can’t practice compassion with other people if we can’t treat ourselves kindly. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
399:We should only affect compassion, and carefully avoid having any. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
400:41Moved with compassion,* Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
401:Attachment masquerades as Love, Pity as Compassion and Indifference as Equanimity. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
402:A woman should always challenge our respect, and never move our compassion. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
403:Compassion is good but politicians have turned compassion into the welfare state. ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
404:Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism. ~ Hubert H Humphrey, #NFDB
405:Our challenge is to find the compassion for others that we want them to have for us. ~ Sally Kohn, #NFDB
406:Passion is like waves; it comes and goes. Compassion is the constant flow. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
407:self-compassion has three elements: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
408:The elasticity of imagination and compassion is what writing and reading promote. ~ Julia Alvarez, #NFDB
409:They learned no compassion from their own anguish. Thus their suffering was wasted. ~ Betty Smith, #NFDB
410:Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
411:Whatever life presents us, our response can be an expression of our compassion. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
412:you need power only to do something harmful.otherwise love is enough,compassion is enough. ~ Osho, #NFDB
413:Your friend, your enemy, your neutral all are equal. Genuine compassion is unbiased. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
414:compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love that you’ve got. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
415:Compassion removes the walls of mistrust and builds bridges of hope, trust and beliefs. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
416:Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
417:SHOW THE WORLD YOUR STRONG COMPASSION!
GIVE YOUR VOICE TO VOICELESS KOBANE KIDS! ~ Widad Akreyi,#NFDB
418:Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, #NFDB
419:There is nothing, my boy, to spark compassion like a sojourn in hell.” In ~ Jennifer Lee Carrell, #NFDB
420:Compassion does not, of course, mean to feel pity or condescend, but to feel with ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
421:Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
422:I committed to doing everything I could to put compassion on the scientific map. ~ Richard Davidson, #NFDB
423:Jnana yoga is the yoga of kindness and compassion - serving the self that is everywhere. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
424:Meditation is about cultivating constructive emotions, like altruism, compassion. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
425:Perhaps fate isn't blind after all. Perhaps it's capable of fantasy, even compassion. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
426:Some people have compassion for even strangers, but not for their own bodies. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
427:Suffering is always an invitation
to awareness
and compassion
and action. ~ Ivan M Granger,#NFDB
428:The genuine priest always feels something higher than compassion. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
429:The only unforgivable sin is to look into the human heart without compassion. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
430:Empathy may have burning effect but compassion has always a long-term fulfillment effect. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
431:It is better that a judge should lean on the side of compassion than severity. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
432:I vow to live each moment fully and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
433:Our lack of compassion stems from our inability to see deeply into the nature of things. ~ Surya Das, #NFDB
434:The genuine priest always feels something higher than compassion. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
435:There is no rain beyond the clouds; there is no humanity beyond the compassion! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
436:"Without the Tao, kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice." ~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching|, #NFDB
437:A generous heart, kind speech, and compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ Buddhist proverb, #NFDB
438:An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. ~ Bryan Stevenson, #NFDB
439:Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world. ~ Francis A Schaeffer, #NFDB
440:I adore him," she said. "I feel compassion for him because he's totally fucked up. ~ Candace Bushnell, #NFDB
441:I have no particular love for my species, but own to an exhaustless fund of compassion ~ Dorothea Dix, #NFDB
442:Justice without compassion was the destroyer of morality, a slayer blind to empathy. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
443:Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
444:Love is the ultimate state of human being where compassion prevails and kindness rules. ~ Yogi Bhajan, #NFDB
445:Not feeling compassion for a stranger is like not feeling when one's foot has caught fire ~ Confucius, #NFDB
446:Since its inception, our Nation has stood on the foundations of compassion and justice. ~ Mike DeWine, #NFDB
447:True compassion is universal in scope. It is accompanied by a feeling of responsibility. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
448:What if compassion is also profitable? What if compassion is also good for business? ~ Chade Meng Tan, #NFDB
449:You can relate to somebody's pain and you have compassion, which can lead to intimacy. ~ Jeff Bridges, #NFDB
450:As Father, the only authority he claims for himself is the authority of compassion. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
451:But compassion isn't about solutions. It's about giving all the love that you've got. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
452:But compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love that you’ve got. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
453:Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
454:Compassion leads to freedom of discovering your voice, your gifts, and your purpose. ~ Robert V Taylor, #NFDB
455:"Compassion reduces our fear, boosts our confidence, and opens us to inner strength." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
456:Fear feeds off ignorance, whereas compassion and lucidity flower from understanding. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
457:The most effective way to show compassion to another is to listen, rather than talk. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
458:Understanding begets empathy and compassion even for the meanest beggar - Oromis ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
459:We can’t just THINK ABOUT compassion and kindness; we must BE compassionate and kind. ~ Timber Hawkeye, #NFDB
460:We discover that if there is an opening for it, compassion is always present. ~ Shambhala Publications, #NFDB
461:We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love. ~ Jane Goodall, #NFDB
462:What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion: for yourself and for those around you. ~ Lupita Nyong o, #NFDB
463:Without cause or reason His compassion , His grace are pouring forth at every instant. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #NFDB
464:Aristotle wrote that the human soul is purged by the fear and compassion that tragedy evokes. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
465:Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
466:Compassion is contagious. Every moment we choose compassion, we move towards a better world. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
467:Compassion to all creatures is the condition of sainthood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Swaraj, #NFDB
468:I believe in continuing to put love and kindness and compassion and art into the world. ~ Nicole Kidman, #NFDB
469:I'm no expert standing at a podium giving speeches. I share heartbeats. Compassion. ~ Elizabeth Berkley, #NFDB
470:It is important to me to instill in [kids] a sense of compassion and respect for others. ~ Adriana Lima, #NFDB
471:It was like he used all his compassion on strangers and ran out by the time he came home. ~ Randy Ribay, #NFDB
472:Knowing the oneness of yourself and the other is true love, true care, true compassion. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
473:Liberals measure compassion by counting the number of people receiving government help. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
474:The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, meaning “to suffer with. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
475:The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
476:Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
477:Tradesmen regard an author with a mixed feeling of terror, compassion and curiosity. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
478:True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
479:True love is made of four elements: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
480:We can bring a heart of understanding and compassion to a world that needs it so much. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
481:We should fill the syllabuses of schools with lessons about love and compassion. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
482:...with the power of compassion there is nothing that cannot be accomplished. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #NFDB
483:You did not abandon them in the wilderness because of Your great compassion. Nehemiah 9:19 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
484:YOU MUST LEARN THE COMPASSION PROPER TO YOUR TRADE" "And what's that?" "A SHARP EDGE. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
485:Compassion grows in us when we know how the energy of love is available all around us. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
486:Compassion instills a sense of calm, inner strength, and a deep confidence and satisfaction ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
487:Compassion is a reflection of our connectedness. Your voice is need and much appreciated! ~ Widad Akreyi, #NFDB
488:For pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
489:Fruits of understanding is compassion. Fruits of compassion is love. Fruits of love is peace. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
490:"Having meditated on love and compassion, I forgot the difference between myself and others." ~ Milarepa, #NFDB
491:In the path of compassion even if we can save an insect that has a huge impact on the cosmos. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
492:I take the greatest lesson from compassion - it takes away all the conceit out of my life. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
493:I think that fiction has a part to play in urging us, as a species, toward compassion. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
494:it is clear that the only way to truly change our world is through teaching compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
495:It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
496:Kindness and compassion are sisters but not twins. One you can buy, the other is priceless. ~ Janet Mock, #NFDB
497:Love and compassion open our own inner life, reducing stress, distrust, and loneliness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
498:Now that I understand that I'm an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
499:That which is impermanent attracts compassion. That which is not provides wisdom. (116) ~ Stephen Levine, #NFDB
500:The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion. ~ Richard P Feynman, #NFDB
501:The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. Psalm 145:8 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
502:We begin to cultivate real love for ourselves when we treat ourselves with compassion. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
503:What is of most moment of compassion is not feelings of pity but feelings of togetherness. ~ Matthew Fox, #NFDB
504:When you have learned compassion for yourself, compassion for others is automatic. ~ Henepola Gunaratana, #NFDB
505:Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of man. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
506:Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
507:A gentle word, a smile, an act of compassion, these are the things that can turn hate to love, ~ K M Shea, #NFDB
508:All cruelty comes from weakness, just as all human compassion can come only from strength. ~ Peyton Quinn, #NFDB
509:all pain deserves to be held in the warm embrace of compassion, so that healing can occur. ~ Kristin Neff, #NFDB
510:as soon as you notice you’re suffering you automatically embrace yourself with compassion. ~ Kristin Neff, #NFDB
511:Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
512:"Be honest, truthful and warm-hearted. Make compassion the basis of your determination." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
513:Compassion is never compassion until you cross the street and go do something about it. ~ Christine Caine, #NFDB
514:"Compassion is our deepest nature.It arises from our interconnection with all things." ~ Buddhist proverb, #NFDB
515:Compassion is the artwork of tuning the individual plans with the grand plan of the existence. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
516:Human compassion is equal to human cruelty, and it is up to each of us to tip the balance. ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
517:I think technology really increased human ability, but technology cannot produce compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
518:I've been accused of lacking compassion. But that just shows I'm not without compassion. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
519:I want to be a man who mixes strengths and compassion. That's my magic elixir, so to speak. ~ Terry Crews, #NFDB
520:Lead with honesty, total integrity, compassion, patience and tolerance — toward yourself! ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
521:Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self compassion. ~ George Gissing, #NFDB
522:Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self-compassion. ~ George Gissing, #NFDB
523:Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love ~ Rumi, #NFDB
524:"... love and compassion are qualities that human beings require just to live together." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
525:Nonviolence aims at doing no harm to living being. Compassion aims at doing good to all being. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
526:No one serves their friends by grinding themselves into dust on the altar of compassion. ~ Seanan McGuire, #NFDB
527:No one serves their friends by grinding themselves into dust on the alter of compassion. ~ Seanan McGuire, #NFDB
528:Part of our role, as we understood it, was to model reason, compassion, and consistency. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
529:Science is driven by compassion and empathy often to alleviate the pains of humanity. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
530:the knowledge of personal failure ... is the invaluable predicate of all honest compassion. ~ Anne Truitt, #NFDB
531:The real challenge of compassion, nonviolence and mindfulness is to love in adverse situation. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
532:There is a compassion in rational thought that is sometimes missing in religious conviction. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
533:There is no justice without power and humanitarian compassion is not power. (Dr. Eric Dachy) ~ Sheri Fink, #NFDB
534:Timeon had quite possibly been traveling a long time, Mearme thought with no compassion. ~ Anne McCaffrey, #NFDB
535:We need you to be a father who can claim for himself the authority of true compassion. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
536:When the Sun of compassion arises darkness evaporates and the singing birds come from nowhere. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
537:Yet the LORD longsc to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.d ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
538:Close your eyes, forget everything that hurts you and dream love, kindness and compassion. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
539:Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.— ~ Pema ChödrönToday's Doodle: I love you ♡, #NFDB
540:Compassion is a mental quality that can bring us true lasting inner peace and inner strength. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
541:Compassion is the chief and perhaps the only law of being for all mankind. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, #NFDB
542:David Eckman is a man you can trust... His teaching resonates with God's wisdom and compassion ~ Stu Weber, #NFDB
543:For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
544:Jesus conveyed the impression of complete love, compassion, kindness, and infinite patience. ~ Mary C Neal, #NFDB
545:Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
546:Normal: lacking in taste, compassion, understanding, kindness, and ordinary human decency. ~ Frank Portman, #NFDB
547:Our most effective response to terror and to hatred is compassion to unity, and it's love. ~ Loretta Lynch, #NFDB
548:She bludgeoned me with a look of such limitless compassion that I immediately began to cry. ~ Miranda July, #NFDB
549:There's nothing wrong with the free-enterprise system. But it has to have some compassion. ~ Jim McDermott, #NFDB
550:Witnessing kindness makes us feel compassionate, and compassion predicts helping behavior. ~ Thupten Jinpa, #NFDB
551:A MAN WITHOUT A MAP WILL BE A MAN WITHOUT A HEART; HE’LL LACK BOTH PASSION AND COMPASSION. ~ Darrin Patrick, #NFDB
552:Charity alone, or love and compassion, is what joins [the Lord and a person] together. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
553:Making the choice to exercise compassion is an expression of Love for Humanity and Life itself. ~ Aberjhani, #NFDB
554:not hold past sins against us; let Your compassion come to us quickly, for we have become weak. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
555:There are these amazing little seeds called compassion. You should grow some. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
556:We are all born free of religion, but none of us are born free of the need for compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
557:without courage, compassion falters, and that without compassion, courage has no direction. ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
558:You can't change a regime on the basis of compassion. There's got to be something harder. ~ Nadine Gordimer, #NFDB
559:You never get anywhere until you figure out the difference between passion and compassion. ~ Cynthia Heimel, #NFDB
560:Your suffering is here to help you unfold and to awaken into compassion, love and strength. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
561:a greater openness to processing the threat of death allows compassion and fairness to reign. ~ Todd Kashdan, #NFDB
562:Although the big word on the left is 'compassion,' the big agenda on the left is dependency. ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
563:if you listen with compassion, you will learn where their fears and rigid patterns come from. ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
564:In the collective psyche it is being understood... that we can cultivate wisdom and compassion. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
565:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion...Chance encounters are what keep us going. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
566:It's hard to tell what's true compassion, when it's dressed up in hair and nails and fashion. ~ Edwin McCain, #NFDB
567:"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
568:Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
569:Of course we have compassion. We just don't believe the safety net should be used as a hammock. ~ Allen West, #NFDB
570:Pity arises when we are sorry for someone.Compassion is when we understand and help wisely. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
571:The first step toward feeling compassion for others is to set the intention to try it out. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
572:The word bodhisattva refers to those who have committed themselves to the path of compassion. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
573:They who torture living beings and feel no compassion towards them, them regard as impure. ~ Amaghanda Susta, #NFDB
574:True compassion is not about giving or taking. True compassion is doing just what is needed. ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #NFDB
575:We may learn anew what compassion and beauty are, and pause to listen to the Earth's music. ~ David R Brower, #NFDB
576:we recognized that the gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
577:As we practice meditation we are bringing forth ease, presence, compassion, wisdom & trust. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
578:A wide Compassion leans to embrace earth’s pain; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Universal Incarnation, #NFDB
579:Be mindful of clickbait - sensational stories designed to humiliate. Click with compassion. ~ Monica Lewinsky, #NFDB
580:Have respect for yourself, and patience and compassion. With these, you can handle anything. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
581:Honesty is the quality I value most in a friend. Not bluntness, but honesty with compassion. ~ Brooke Shields, #NFDB
582:I have found that the greatest degree of inner peace comes from cultivating love and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
583:Lamp burns through the inputs of small oil drops. Compassion grows through small acts of kindness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
584:Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion - towards ourselves and towards all living beings. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
585:No matter what the situation may be, the right course of action is always compassion and love. ~ Neil Strauss, #NFDB
586:The greater the force of your compassion, the greeater your resilience in confronting hardships. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
587:The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
588:YOU MUST LEARN THE COMPASSION PROPER TO YOUR TRADE"
"And what's that?"
"A SHARP EDGE. ~ Terry Pratchett,#NFDB
589:a stone image shed a miraculous tear of compassion over the incertitudes of life and death.... ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
590:Compassion can be defined, therefore, as an attitude of principled, consistent altruism. The ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
591:Compassion involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
592:Compassion is easily forsaken in the midst of prosperity, even when this prosperity is God given. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
593:compassion is the purest form of love because it neither expects nor demands anything in return. ~ Terry Hayes, #NFDB
594:Compassion refers to the arising in the heart of the desire to relieve the suffering of all beings. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
595:Developing compassion and wisdom and helping those in need is the true meaning of life. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #NFDB
596:"Discover inner capacities for wakefulness, joy, dignity and compassion – your Buddhanature." ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
597:Forgiveness sympathizes and compassion empathizes. And love? Love synthesizes the two. Appreciation ~ Om Swami, #NFDB
598:Love is the ultimate state of human being where compassion prevails and kindness rules. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
599:Our task is to widen our circle of compassion to include all living beings and all of nature ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
600:"Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human compassion." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
601:Religion that does not inspire
outward compassion and inward awakening
is not religion. ~ Ivan M Granger,#NFDB
602:Shallow understanding accompanies poor compassion; great understanding goes with great compassion. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
603:Sometimes a bit of compassion and decency is reason enough to do something out of the ordinary. ~ Ariel Lawhon, #NFDB
604:The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
605:AI will do the analytical thinking, while humans will wrap that analysis in warmth and compassion. ~ Kai Fu Lee, #NFDB
606:Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the word. It must be given freely.In abundance. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
607:Compassion naturally creates a positive atmosphere, and as a result you feel peaceful and content. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
608:Detachment and involvement: the artist must have both. The link between them is compassion. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
609:Gather the five virtues (Dignity, Confidence, Courage, Compassion, and Faith). Then you are a man. ~ Kofi Annan, #NFDB
610:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
611:My message is always the same: to cultivate and practice love, kindness, compassion and tolerance. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
612:Real love means loving kindness and compassion, the kind of love that does not have any conditions. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
613:The Lord will give you, if you ask, the feelings of the compassion He feels for those in need. ~ Henry B Eyring, #NFDB
614:The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis. ~ Thurgood Marshall, #NFDB
615:The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humor and style. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
616:There is nothing more ugly than an orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion. ~ Francis A Schaeffer, #NFDB
617:True compassion means not only feeling another's pain but also being moved to help relieve it. ~ Daniel Goleman, #NFDB
618:What is life if not laughter and love, caring and compassion, fresh bread and crisp radishes? ~ James Kavanaugh, #NFDB
619:Compassion is not feeling sorry for others. It's not soft. It requires an intellectual effort. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
620:I keep wondering how you find compassion for your own self when you go against what's good in you. ~ Anissa Gray, #NFDB
621:In separateness lies the world's greatest misery; in compassion lies the world's true strength. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
622:La compassion demeure une voie d´accès à la compréhension, une forme supérieure d´intelligence. ~ Daniel Meurois, #NFDB
623:Righteous is the one who was able to demonstrate compassion in face of human suffering. ~ Aleksander Kwasniewski, #NFDB
624:see myself and others with compassion and understanding. The people in my life are really mirrors ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
625:Skip the religion and politics, head straight to the compassion. Everything else is a distraction. ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
626:The authentic human has the might of compassion and the creative power to do any manner of good. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
627:The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #NFDB
628:The compassion of the oppressed for the oppressed is indispensable. It is the world's one hope. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
629:The cultivation of compassion is no longer a luxury, but a necessity, if our species is to survive. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
630:Tim Curley and Gary Schultz operate at the highest levels of honesty, integrity and compassion. ~ Graham Spanier, #NFDB
631:Where has his humanity gone?
His compassion?
Ha.
Pissed away in shell holes, that's where. ~ Andy Remic,#NFDB
632:Compassion, forgiveness, these are the real, ultimate sources of power for peace and success in life ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
633:Compassion isn't morose; it's something replenishing and opening; that's why it makes us happy. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
634:Compassion is the ability to see what needs doing right now and the willingness to do it right now. ~ Brad Warner, #NFDB
635:Dress down. Charisma comes from integrity, competence and compassion. Not from expensive clothes. ~ Chetan Bhagat, #NFDB
636:For me, Christmas is about family, loving, forgiveness, compassion, understanding and comradery. ~ Anthony Mackie, #NFDB
637:I have three things to teach:simplicity, patience and compassion.These three are the greatesttreasures. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
638:I like the humility that comes from being hated. Hopefully some humility and compassion comes out of that. ~ Moby, #NFDB
639:Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion towards ourselves and towards all living beings. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
640:Seules votre compassion, votre attention et votre gentillesse sont invincibles et sans limites. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
641:The quickest way to create a boy or man who lacks compassion is to judge and shame his feelings. ~ Michael Gurian, #NFDB
642:There is no substitute for love and caring and compassion and human beings helping one another. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
643:The root of the path of Mahayana is love and, most particularly, bodhicitta based on compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
644:This is a woman who models herself on Margaret Thatcher, only without the warmth and compassion. ~ Charles Stross, #NFDB
645:We should fund the armies of compassion, we should not discriminate against faith-based programs. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
646:What dooms our best efforts to cultivate empathy and compassion is always, of course, other people. ~ Tim Kreider, #NFDB
647:A heart of compassion is just as hard to hold within you as one of indifference" -the Truth Bird ~ Tony DiTerlizzi, #NFDB
648:Compassion is the heart that never stops loving others. It is like a wellspring that never runs dry. ~ Ryuho Okawa, #NFDB
649:Compassion: listening to a month’s worth of snivelling when you break up with yet another asshole. ~ Martyn V Halm, #NFDB
650:If our tears do not lead us to act then we have lost the reason of our humanity, which is compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
651:Much less than a man, a little bit more than a jackal! This is the person without compassion! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
652:Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
653:Spiritual fatherhood has nothing to do with power or control. It is a fatherhood of compassion. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
654:The focus of a politics of compassion is the alleviation of suffering caused by social structures. ~ Marcus J Borg, #NFDB
655:When Allah created his creatures He wrote above His throne: ‘Verily, my Compassion overcomes my wrath. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
656:When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students. ~ Alan Perlis, #NFDB
657:Women have the capacity to lead us to a more peaceful world with compassion, affection, and kindness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
658:Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
659:By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
660:Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
661:Compassion naturally creates a positive atmosphere, and as a result you feel peaceful and content. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
662:Compassion was the principal and, perhaps, the only law of existence for the whole of mankind. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
663:Enemies provide us some of the best opportunities to practice patience, tolerance, and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
664:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
665:It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding. ~ Erma Bombeck, #NFDB
666:Listen with ears of tolerance.See through the eyes of compassion.Speak with the language of love. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #NFDB
667:Not only does self-compassion soften life's blows, it can also strengthen your ability to bounce back. ~ Sara Eckel, #NFDB
668:The mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion. ~ Everett Dirksen, #NFDB
669:To have compassion for a character is no different from having compassion for another human being. ~ Tom Hiddleston, #NFDB
670:You need bravery for compassion. In the picture of your soul, the bravery points are the most beautiful. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
671:Be a lamp unto yourselves! Work out your liberation with diligence! Fill your mind with compassion! ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
672:Expect the worst, because the worst is so often true, but have belief, have faith, have compassion. ~ Laura Thompson, #NFDB
673:Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure - just a big field to wander in. ~ Natalie Goldberg, #NFDB
674:If compassion and mercy are not compatible with politics then something is the matter with politics. ~ Gerald R Ford, #NFDB
675:If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
676:"If we could see the whole truth of any situation, our only response would be one of compassion." ~ Mingyur Rinpoche, #NFDB
677:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
678:I use my job to engage empathy and compassion for people society might stereotype or ostricise. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
679:Many of us think that compassion drains us, but I promise you it is something that truly enlivens us. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
680:Real compassion is based on reason. Ordinary compassion or love is limited by desire or attachment. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
681:that human compassion is equal to human cruelty and that it is up to each of us to tip the balance. I ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
682:The functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
683:Those who believe patriotism to be the last refuge of the scoundrel have underestimated compassion. ~ Emmett Tyrrell, #NFDB
684:To develop understanding, you have to practice looking at all living things with the eyes of compassion. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
685:We must quit thinking we know everything, and quit placing "knowledge" over kindness and compassion. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
686:A generous heart, kind speech, & a life of service & compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
687:As Christians, our compassion is simply a response to the love that God has already shown us. ~ Steven Curtis Chapman, #NFDB
688:Being anxious, or in a painful rush of any kind, kills the possibility of meeting anyone with compassion ~ Guy Finley, #NFDB
689:Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
690:Compassion, love, and forgiveness, however, are not luxuries. They are fundamental for our survival. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
691:Forgiveness is the only way to heal. We can choose to forgive because we feel compassion for ourselves. ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
692:"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
693:I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
694:I saw the world and its lack of compassion, its harsh, grating judgment, and its cold, resentful eyes. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
695:Spirituality, a defended person has no room for love or compassion-he is too busy defending himself. ~ John Pierrakos, #NFDB
696:The greatest threat to compassion is the temptation to succumb to fantasies of moral superiority. ~ Stephen Batchelor, #NFDB
697:True compassion is about not bruising the other person’s self-respect. That’s what I think, anyway. ~ Naoki Higashida, #NFDB
698:A little child feeding an animal with great compassion will always look like a giant in our eyes! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
699:A seed cannot grow in stone. It requires fertile soil & water. Compassion is the soil where life grows. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
700:A small kindness, a confluence of compassion, had saved his life. Was that strength, or a weakness? ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
701:But a compassion for that which is not and cannot be useful and lovely, is degrading and futile. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
702:Compassion and love is the source of external and internal peace and is also the root of racial survival. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
703:Compassion for victims is sometimes forgotten in a misapplied concern for their oppressors and murderers. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
704:Compassion in action may be the glorious possibility that could protect our crowded, polluted planet. ~ Victoria Moran, #NFDB
705:Compassion is something you can develop with practice. It involves two things: intention and action. ~ Richard Carlson, #NFDB
706:Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion. Verily, it is conviction that kills. ~ R Scott Bakker, #NFDB
707:God's Compassion - Eye gives us Not only one Chance But countless chances To change our wrong directions ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
708:I believe that yoga should lead us to a place where kindness and compassion are instantaneous. ~ Judith Hanson Lasater, #NFDB
709:In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
710:I want audiences to look at adolescent delinquents with greater understanding and more compassion. ~ Emmanuelle Bercot, #NFDB
711:I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
712:Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. ~ Starhawk, #NFDB
713:Listen with ears of tolerance! See through the eyes of compassion! Speak with the language of love.! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #NFDB
714:Lynching is the method of vulgar men! He who is deprived of compassion is deprived of everything! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
715:Men are fickle creatures, capable of kindness and compassion yet fascinated by the basest atrocities. ~ Brian Rathbone, #NFDB
716:"The development of loving-kindness and compassion begins with learning how to appreciate oneself." ~ Mingyur Rinpoche, #NFDB
717:We must quit thinking we know everything, and quit placing "knowledge" over kindness and compassion. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
718:we will not have a politics of justice and compassion unless we have a religion of God’s freedom. ~ Walter Brueggemann, #NFDB
719:When you acted on principle tempered by compassion, there was sooner or later always someone with a saw. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
720:With genuine love and compassion, another person's appearance or behavior has no affect on your attitude. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
721:Be a shining role model of the best qualities humane eating embodies: caring, compassion, and empathy. ~ Michael Greger, #NFDB
722:But my experience is that people who have been through painful, difficult times are filled with compassion. ~ Amy Grant, #NFDB
723:By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.
~ Thomas Browne,#NFDB
724:By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
725:Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
726:Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
727:Compassion is the rarest, magical well: the more you use, share and draw from it the deeper it gets. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
728:Compassion is what you're good at. I'm better at complex searches through organized data structures. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
729:Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness . ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
730:how can we expand our heart? increasing our understanding and compassion makes our heart grow greater ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
731:I don't think we find compassion. I think we become the space that compassion wants to live in. ~ Judith Hanson Lasater, #NFDB
732:I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
733:I looked up. Mom looked down at me with the compassion/practicality combo that was her trademark. ~ MaryJanice Davidson, #NFDB
734:No matter how much people on the left talk about compassion, they have no compassion for the taxpayers. ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
735:Organized religions have all the facets of organized crime, except the compassion of organized crime. ~ Malachy McCourt, #NFDB
736:Shallow understanding accompanies shallow compassion. Great understanding goes with great compassion. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
737:Study the lives of our great women, who were models of patience, fortitude, compassion and sacrifice. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
738:The essence of compassion is a desire to alleviate the suffering of others and to promote their well-being ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
739:We evaluate others with a Godlike justice, but we want them to evaluate us with a Godlike compassion. ~ Sydney J Harris, #NFDB
740:Acts committed in the heat of passion as much as acts of heartfelt compassion have the power to disenchant ~ Maria Tatar, #NFDB
741:As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
742:Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
743:Compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering; love is wanting them to have happiness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
744:Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion. ~ Barry Lopez, #NFDB
745:For innumerable reasons, Mahamati, the Bodhisattva, whose nature is compassion, is not to eat any meat. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
746:I now see how gifts like courage, compassion, and connection only work when they are exercised. Every day. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
747:I see compassion may become a justice, though it be a weakness, I confess, and nearer a vice than a virtue. ~ Ben Jonson, #NFDB
748:It is unconditional compassion for ourselves that leads naturally to unconditional compassion for others. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
749:I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
750:Love is the main generator of all good writing... Love, passion, compassion, are all welded together. ~ Carson McCullers, #NFDB
751:One thing I like about getting older is things, your spectrum widens, your capacity for compassion widens. ~ Patti Smith, #NFDB
752:Perimeter is not meaning, but it changes meaning,/as wit increases distance, and compassion erodes it. ~ Jane Hirshfield, #NFDB
753:The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
754:There is definitely openness to others' suffering that is dealt not with distress but with compassion. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
755:The worship practices of the people of God are to be marked by devotion to Him and compassion to the needy. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
756:Think fear, you attract anxiety. Think abundance, you attract wealth. Think love, you attract compassion. ~ Regina Brett, #NFDB
757:Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
758:Accustomed long to contemplating love and compassion I have forgotten all difference between myself and others ~ Milarepa, #NFDB
759:A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
760:I don't understand love quite honestly. I think compassion is important but love fizzles out eventually. ~ Anushka Sharma, #NFDB
761:If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void. (95) ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
762:If we could see the whole truth of any situation, our only response would be one of compassion. ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, #NFDB
763:I have compassion, I've told you people that over and over again. Enforcing the law overrides my compassion. ~ Joe Arpaio, #NFDB
764:It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd. ~ Glennon Melton, #NFDB
765:Our collective future depends on opening channels of compassion, acceptance, and understanding of others. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
766:Spiritual awakening is the process of recognizing our essential goodness, our natural wisdom and compassion. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
767:Spirituality is allowing compassion and love to flourish. When belongness begins, corruption ends. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
768:Such is the compassion, such the love which Mary bears us, that she is never tired of praying for us. ~ Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
769:[T]he family is a school of compassion because it is here that we learn to live with other people. (68) ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
770:The inability to forgive, that is the lack of compassion, is really nothing more than lack of knowledge. ~ Ron Smothermon, #NFDB
771:The only way to learn compassion is through your heart; you have to back up and pass through your own pain. ~ Matthew Fox, #NFDB
772:The Purpose of life is to thrive and save lives with passion! Save Yazidis today with love and compassion! ~ Widad Akreyi, #NFDB
773:Through training there is knowledge. You can produce compassion, love, forgiveness. you can change yourself. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
774:Unless and until you have developed a heart inundated with compassion, do not sit on the seat of judgement. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
775:When you acted on principle tempered by compassion, there was sooner or later always someone with a saw. He ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
776:With this life I give you compassion,” Pinestar murmured. “Judge as much with your heart as with your mind. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
777:Your honesty, Your love, Your compassion should come from your inner being, not from teachings and scriptures. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
778:15But †You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
779:8Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
780:Beautify your inner dialogue. Beautify your inner world with love light and compassion. Life will be beautiful. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
781:do not heal in isolation. Connecting with others is how we develop compassion for others and for ourselves. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
782:Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
783:Gross compassion quotient (GCQ) of a country is the measure of the level of compassion of the country as whole. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
784:I always believed in love, compassion and a sense of universal respect. Every human being has that potential. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
785:If I could imagine the past with compassion, why couldn’t I breathe hope into an imagined future? ~ Jennifer Finney Boylan, #NFDB
786:If we transform our ordinary mind into love and compassion we will naturally act in a positive way. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #NFDB
787:If you have compassion for society, only then will the events of your life, sow seeds of revolution in it. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
788:Make of the Silence your to-do tasks, of the compassion your wealth and of the meditation your beggar's bowl. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
789:Only by demonstrating genuine compassion will Christians earn the right to offer a biblical alternative. ~ Nancy R Pearcey, #NFDB
790:Patience is a natural consequence of the cultivation of compassion & love, for ourselves and all beings. ~ Allan Lokos, #NFDB
791:The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it. ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
792:What you don’t realize is that the world does not need more perfection. It needs more compassion and empathy. ~ Tessa Dare, #NFDB
793:Compassion becomes an automatic reaction when you see all of humanity as one undivided and indivisible family. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
794:Compassion can shoulder the suffering of the entire world without feeling the slightest bit of pain. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
795:Compassion in evangelical churches is out of balance. When I talk about it, I get a lot of glazed expressions. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
796:Compassion only plagues those with hearts, much like a field of thorns only troubles those who bleed. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
797:He buried his face against her neck and held on to her healing compassion for just as long as she’d let him. ~ Julie Miller, #NFDB
798:included: no religious doctrine or practice can be authentic if it does not lead to practical compassion. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
799:It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
800:Let us not hold ourselves above our fellow human beings. To see how we are all of one family is compassion. ~ Ming Dao Deng, #NFDB
801:Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place. Science leads you to killing people. ~ Ben Stein, #NFDB
802:Make a daily practice of opening your heart in compassion when you see someone less fortunate than yourself. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
803:Miracles occur in response to every problem, yet it is my faith and compassion that bring them forth. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
804:Perfect wisdom, Perfect tranquility,Perfect compassion,arise fromOur love,Our sincerity.Our understanding. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
805:Sex is animal, love is human, compassion is divine. Sex is physical, love is psychological, compassion is spiritual. ~ Osho, #NFDB
806:Suffering is not a problem that needs a solution as much as it’s an experience that needs compassion. Because ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
807:The challenge today is to convince people of the value of truth, honesty, compassion and a concern for others. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
808:The greatest medicine on Earth isn’t a pill. It’s compassion. The ability to make someone feel less alone. ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
809:The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it. ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
810:The solution to nearly every problem in the world comes down to greater awareness, compassion, and empathy. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
811:TO ME, THE definition of hell is simple: it is a place where there is no understanding and no compassion. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
812:Where I didn't have the maturity and the compassion to consider other people's needs, I did a lot of damage. ~ Peter Coyote, #NFDB
813:You can never let your compassion stand in the way of justice because when you do, other people get hurt. ~ Donna Lynn Hope, #NFDB
814:Compassion, caring, teaching, loving, and sharing your gifts, talents, and abilities are the gateways to power. ~ Jamie Sams, #NFDB
815:Compassion is nothing one feels with the intellect alone. Compassion is particular; it is never general. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
816:Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
817:Everyday, I have the choice to live a life of compassion that not only saves animals, but helps the environment. ~ Kat Von D, #NFDB
818:"Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
819:God’s past faithfulness and compassion toward us is a heritage upon which we build our faith in the future. ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
820:It does not matter whether you are a theist or atheist, what matters is sincerity, forgiveness, and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
821:I think of compassion as the fundamental religious experience and, unless that is there, you have nothing. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
822:It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
823:No, I’m a mother. It’s easy to feel compassion when you understand that everyone’s the child of a woman like you. ~ Paul Pen, #NFDB
824:Start a rumor about
peace taking over,
love being the new black,
and compassion going viral. ~ Khang Kijarro Nguyen,#NFDB
825:To forgive is an act of compassion... It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it. ~ Joss Whedon, #NFDB
826:Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
827:Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
828:Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings. ~ Pema Chödrön, #NFDB
829:@ZenEssentials 'Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.' ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
830:Fear, O Achilles, the wrath of heaven; think on your own father and have compassion upon me, who am the more pitiable ~ Homer, #NFDB
831:Happiness and peace will come to earth only as the light of love and human compassion enter the souls of men. ~ David O McKay, #NFDB
832:If you want others to be happy practice compassion; and if you want yourself to be happy practice compassion ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
833:...It also taught me that while cruelty can be fun for a few moments, compassion has a much longer shelf life. ~ Doreen Orion, #NFDB
834:It’s amazing what deadly weapons compassion and morality are when they’re deployed in the service of diplomacy. ~ David Weber, #NFDB
835:Love for me is innocence, honesty, compassion, trust, loyalty, a gentle summer breeze, sunshine, a great cuddle. ~ A J McLean, #NFDB
836:Night becomes day only when the sun appears; dark man becomes good man only when the compassion appears! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
837:The solution to nearly every problem in the world comes down to greater awareness, compassion, and empathy. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
838:The sweets of pillage can be known To no one but the thief, Compassion for integrity Is his divinest grief. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
839:This dying forces you to look into yourself. And in this, compassion is the only way. Love is the only way. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
840:A politician who has no compassion is nothing but an evil apparition; he is just a ghost, not a real man! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
841:As a human being Plato mingles regal, exclusive, and self-contained features with melancholy compassion. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
842:Be happy for those who are happy, have compassion towards the unhappy, and maintain equanimity towards the wicked. ~ Patanjali, #NFDB
843:Danger arouses interest. Where death is involved, the vilest criminal invariably stirs a little compassion. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
844:Divine compassion which strengthens the arm and clarifies the knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #NFDB
845:God, on the other hand, has every right to show mercy and compassion to whomever He chooses (Ex. 33:19). ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
846:if an author would have us feel a strong degree of compassion, his characters must not be too perfect. ~ Anna Letitia Barbauld, #NFDB
847:If you want others to be happy practice compassion; and if you want yourself to be happy practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
848:In this world, where we find ourselves, we need compassion more than anything, I think, or we are all alone. ~ Guy Gavriel Kay, #NFDB
849:I think most important, you need to have the compassion and caring for helping to protect vulnerable people. ~ Ellen Sauerbrey, #NFDB
850:It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
851:Love and Compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
852:Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool. ~ Andre Maurois, #NFDB
853:She looked up at me, her eyes large with compassion, with understanding of the solitude and incivility of grief. ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
854:To me, empathy and compassion are among the bravest of emotions ... and faith, the bravest of convictions. ~ Gerard de Marigny, #NFDB
855:Transcendence is realising that people do not deserve pity or love or compassion. People deserve contempt. ~ Christos Tsiolkas, #NFDB
856:We will be fair, just, and compassionate to all, but our greatest compassion must be for our American citizens. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
857:Be the wisdom your support. Be the compassion your guide and listen to the Divine Music that beats in every heart. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
858:Can you be compassionate even to those who have no compassion? If so, there is no finer karma that you can create. ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
859:Compassion is a living, breathing, organic emotion that vibrates through you and links you to those around you. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
860:Compassion should be unbiased and based on the recognition that others have the right to happiness, just like you. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
861:Don't become a Buddhist. The world doesn't need Buddhist. Do practice Compassion. The world needs more compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
862:Don't keep coughing so, Kitty, for Heaven's sake! Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
863:For compassion a human heart suffices, but for full and adequate sympathy, with joy, an angel's only. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
864:I feel certain that words
can be as human
as people,
alive
with the breath
of compassion. ~ Margarita Engle,#NFDB
865:I have never considered compassion a finite resource. I would not want to live in a world where such was the case. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
866:In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path - the path of compassion, courage, understanding and love. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
867:In Russia, we have a long tradition of compassion for people who have been put into labor camps or prison. ~ Lyudmila Alexeyeva, #NFDB
868:Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
869:No, you're not allowed to be bossy when you're married. You have to learn compromise, and compassion and patience. ~ Star Jones, #NFDB
870:Our boys, their compassion to will away inherited sorrow, it's what makes them good and mine and Indian. ~ Terese Marie Mailhot, #NFDB
871:Pity, mercy, compassion."
"Thats's all I'm afraid," said Alfred.
"That is everything," said the phantasm. ~ Margaret Weis,#NFDB
872:Relationships can be happy with low levels of love and high levels of compassion, but not the other way around. ~ Steven Stosny, #NFDB
873:Such is the compassion, such the love which Mary bears us, that she is never tired of praying for us. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
874:The manifestation of the free mind is said to be lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
875:The real test of compassion is not what we say in abstract discussions but how we conduct ourselves in daily life. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
876:To practice courage, compassion, and connection is to look at life and the people around us, and say, “I’m all in. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
877:With passion you want to possess. The conversion of passion into compassion is the whole problem of marriage. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
878:You cannot save people from themselves. All you can do is stand firmly in your hopes for them, with compassion. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
879:In that world where jingles replace doxology, God is not free and the people know no justice or compassion. ~ Walter Brueggemann, #NFDB
880:Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
881:...now her compassion had been pierced and set flowing; it felt as though her life's blood were running away. ~ Elizabeth Goudge, #NFDB
882:Self-compassion embraces imperfection with love, providing the fertile soil needed for romance to truly flourish. ~ Kristin Neff, #NFDB
883:She [Hillary Clinton] exudes leadership, confidence and - importantly - empathy, compassion, and understanding. ~ Chrissy Teigen, #NFDB
884:Strength without compassion is soulless and cruel. Weakness, too, has its place, for it brings understanding. ~ Isobelle Carmody, #NFDB
885:The one big difference between John and me, besides the fact that he’s a boy and I’m a girl, is I have compassion. ~ Paul Zindel, #NFDB
886:The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
887:To act, no matter how the character is, you have to love and have compassion for the character you're playing. ~ Marshall Allman, #NFDB
888:When you can face reality without camouflage, yours is the face of compassion. What a sight for sore eyes! ~ Karen Maezen Miller, #NFDB
889:Yoga exercises are the best connecting tools for unity, human dignity, health, equality, global peace and compassion. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
890:You are the people who are shaping a better world. One of the secrets of inner peace is the practice of compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
891:You desire that which exceeds my humble powers, but I trust in the compassion and mercy of the All-powerful God. ~ Saint Stephen, #NFDB
892:At their best, all religious, philosophical, and ethical traditions are based on the principle of compassion. I ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
893:"Compassion brings us peace of mind. It brings a smile to our face and genuine smiles bring us closer together." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
894:Compassion is the signature of Higher Consciousness. Non-violence is the tool to evolve into the Higher Consciousness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
895:Light of compassion and the light of wisdom that arises from our deepest and truest nature surpasses all other lights. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
896:The danger of a closed mind is that it can also leave good things like love, compassion and reason on its outside. ~ Lennox Lewis, #NFDB
897:The heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there? ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
898:We must throw out the old, fear-based thought-forms and evolve, and begin to live as higher beings of compassion. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
899:You cannot save people from themselves. All you can do is stand firmly in your hopes for them, with compassion. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
900:As Schaeffer once wrote, there is nothing uglier than theological orthodoxy without understanding or compassion. ~ Nancy R Pearcey, #NFDB
901:By practicing compassion, you destroy all those artificial barriers and you truly understand that we all bleed red. ~ Patrick King, #NFDB
902:Compassion is a practically acquired knowledge, like dancing. You must do it and practice diligently day by day. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
903:Feelings and intuition, love and compassion, those are the things make a soul, not blood and bones or machine parts. ~ Peter Bunzl, #NFDB
904:Hate is the last refuge of the ignorant. Love is the medicine. Compassion is the gift of the awakened ones. ~ Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, #NFDB
905:I admire the fact that the central core of Buddhist teaching involves mindfulness and loving kindness and compassion. ~ Ron Reagan, #NFDB
906:If experiments on animals were abandoned on grounds of compassion, mankind would have made a fundamental advance. ~ Richard Wagner, #NFDB
907:I saw power, yet meekness, forcefulness, yet gentleness, discipline, yet compassion. I had never seen eyes like His. ~ Chuck Black, #NFDB
908:Love and Compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
909:Love has these three stages, and compassion accordingly has three stages, and both can exist in different combinations. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
910:NVC helps us connect with each other and ourselves in a way that allows our natural compassion to flourish. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
911:Oxytocin is lauded for how it promotes warmth, generosity, social bonding, cooperation, trust, and compassion. ~ Robert M Sapolsky, #NFDB
912:psychological sense of spirituality is a feeling of union and transcendence, motivated by compassion, awe, or joy. ~ Steven Stosny, #NFDB
913:We shouldn't have been so scornful; we should have had compassion. But compassion takes work, and we were young. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
914:We understand that the human family is in crisis, and that all individuals are capable of and deserve compassion. ~ John M Gottman, #NFDB
915:A heart full of love and compassion is the main source of inner strength, willpower, happiness, and mental tranquility ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
916:All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
917:Compassion is a reflection of our connectedness. YOUR devotion to helping others is an expression of YOUR greatness. ~ Widad Akreyi, #NFDB
918:Compassion is one of the highest states of consciousness that you can choose to assist you in times of enormous pain. ~ Debbie Ford, #NFDB
919:Developing our capacity for compassion makes it possible for us to help others in a more skillful and effective way. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
920:Fear of corporal punishment obscures children's awareness of the compassion underlying the parent's demands. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
921:How are we supposed to teach our children compassion if we remove all inconveniences from the world around them?” “But ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
922:Indignation and compassion form a powerful combination. They are indispensable to vision, and therefore to leadership. ~ John Stott, #NFDB
923:I think one of the big things that's come out of ghostwriting for me is real compassion for the complexity of fame. ~ Hilary Liftin, #NFDB
924:Life can be very hard sometimes and you wonder why, but a little compassion is sometimes all anyone needs to get by. ~ Heather Wolf, #NFDB
925:Like a cube of ice, anger cannot be eliminated by applying force, only by applying warmth, compassion and kindness. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
926:Rather, spend more on health and education for poor people. This is not forced socialism but voluntary compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
927:Shadow Work is about facing our inner darkness and immersing it in the light of conscious awareness and compassion. ~ Aletheia Luna, #NFDB
928:Social justice and compassion are compatible with an intelligent respect for private enterprise and law and order. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
929:Some people say that compassion is the purest form of love because it neither expects nor demands anything in return. ~ Terry Hayes, #NFDB
930:The Dalai Lama challenged me - he said, 'Why can't you use technological tools to study kindness and compassion? ~ Richard Davidson, #NFDB
931:There is no problem that greater consciousness and compassion, enjoined with positive resolve of will cannot solve. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
932:The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
933:We have no compassion and we ask no compassion from you. When our turn comes, we shall not make excuses for the terror. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
934:We have the power to improve our work lives immeasurably through awareness, compassion, patience & ingenuity. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
935:We need a little more compassion, and if we cannot have it, then no politician or even a magician can save the planet. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
936:When love and compassion fills your heart, you find newness in every moment, and life becomes a celebration. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
937:Y’know Fitzy, most the time you manage a passable imitation of compassion, but every now and then? You’re an ass.” He ~ Kevin Lucia, #NFDB
938:You don't want to cry over yourself, you don't want to have compassion about yourself. It's not the right place. ~ Isabelle Huppert, #NFDB
939:cause after politics economics war & illness, we still break each other’s hearts - search mercy, aim compassion. ~ Suheir Hammad, #NFDB
940:Compassion Judgment Loving-Kindness Compassion Is A Force Disconnection Self-Blame and Compassion Praise and Blame ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
941:I think both nature and grace live within everyone, and I always strive to be in a world of grace and compassion. ~ Jessica Chastain, #NFDB
942:I was a solipsist and a narcissist and much too arrogant. I have a lot more compassion now, but it took a long time. ~ Andrew Sarris, #NFDB
943:Life is all about choices. Today, show compassion for others, think powerful thoughts, and exercise self control. ~ Bradford Winters, #NFDB
944:No one in USAID embodied the spirit of compassion and brotherhood that underpins our efforts more than Larry Foley. ~ Andrew Natsios, #NFDB
945:Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
946:We can choose between the future and the past, between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology. ~ Ron Reagan, #NFDB
947:We need to forgive - but mindfully. We need compassion that powered by wisdom. That's the way to address our bullies. ~ Mark Coleman, #NFDB
948:We try to live every moment like that, dwelling peacefully in the present moment, and respond to events with compassion. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
949:4. If you push yourself hard in the direction of freedom, compassion, and excellence, you will recover.
True/False ~ Kiese Laymon,#NFDB
950:as a collective whole we ask for compassion and understanding but have a hard time handing it out when the time comes. ~ Meghan Quinn, #NFDB
951:Compassion existed when and only when one could step outside oneself, to suddenly see the bars from inside the cage. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
952:Compassion is someone else’s suffering flaring in your own nerves. Pity is a projection of, a lament for, the self. ~ Christian Wiman, #NFDB
953:Every one of us strives to be a better person; and if I am to contribute one thing of myself, it would be compassion. ~ Masiela Lusha, #NFDB
954:Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion. ~ Annie Lennox, #NFDB
955:If our lives do not reflect radical compassion for the poor, there is reason to wonder if Christ is really in us at all ~ David Platt, #NFDB
956:In art there is compassion, in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love,' Peters said. ~ Gregory Peck, #NFDB
957:In the '80s and '90s, there was some degree of compassion for people with HIV because there was visible human suffering. ~ Sean Strub, #NFDB
958:It's hard to practice compassion when we're struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
959:Only when there is undiluted compassion for everyone, even our worst enemies, is ego truly conquered. Realization ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
960:"We all want to live a happy life, which is our right. And the key to doing so is developing compassion for others." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
961:We're connected by millions of shared experiences and dreams and nightmares, all tied together with compassion. ~ Laura Anderson Kurk, #NFDB
962:What she really needed he thought, ablaze with compassion, was someone to take her in hand and unlock her potential. ~ David Nicholls, #NFDB
963:What would your prayers look like if you believed that the cross really was the measure of God's compassion for someone? ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
964:When your fear touches someone’s pain, it becomes pity, when your love touches someone’s pain, it become compassion. ~ Stephen Levine, #NFDB
965:Wisdom and compassion should become the dominating influences that guide our thoughts , our words, and our actions. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
966:By taking a look at your anger it can be transformed into the kind of energy that you need - understanding and compassion. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
967:Compassion is fierce and strong, and it holds people accountable. But it doesn't do it with anger or judgment. ~ Judith Hanson Lasater, #NFDB
968:"Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things." ~ Buddhist proverb||compassion #connectedness, #NFDB
969:Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. ~ Christopher Hitchens, #NFDB
970:He had no sense of compassion for the Wargals who had died for him. They were nothing more than a tool for him to use. ~ John Flanagan, #NFDB
971:I may be crazy but I'd never smash someone's ankles in because I loved them so much. Compassion runs deep in my blood. ~ Alicia Sixtos, #NFDB
972:I wanted to show her all of my burdens and have her lift them from me with her clever mind and her elegant compassion. ~ Sierra Simone, #NFDB
973:Lets try to come to a place of compassion about mental illness, in all its forms, and help each other find healing. ~ Mariel Hemingway, #NFDB
974:Lucy, I’m a malevolent skull, without an ounce of compassion. You’ve got to be worried if I’m feeling sorry for you. ~ Jonathan Stroud, #NFDB
975:May I be given the appropriate difficulties so that my heart can truly open with compassion. Imagine asking for that. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
976:The compassion that you see in the kindhearted is God's compassion. He has given it to them to protect the helpless. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
977:The expansion of your own consciousness, love capacity, humility and compassion - this is the path; this is the way. ~ Bryant H McGill, #NFDB
978:Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
979:We shall be permitted to live on this planet only for as long as we treat all nature with compassion and intelligence. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
980:What I want in my life is compassion, a flow between myself and others based on a mutual giving from the heart. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
981:When infused with compassion, even the most useless snake oils have the power to heal broken hearts and shattered souls. ~ Darren Main, #NFDB
982:You know, when real trouble comes your humanity is awakened. The fundamental human experience is that of compassion. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
983:All I know for sure is that issues like race, like class, are always best approached with compassion and open-mindedness. ~ Ezra Koenig, #NFDB
984:Anyone can have enough compassion to write a check for the needy, but who has compassion for the kid who makes life hard? ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
985:Courage gives us a voice and compassion gives us an ear. Without both, there is no opportunity for empathy and connection. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
986:Education is the way to achieve far-reaching results, it is the proper way to promote compassion and tolerance in society. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
987:Every act of kindness and compassion done by any man for his fellow Christian is done by Christ working within him. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
988:If compassion was the motivating factor behind all of our decisions, would our world not be a completely different place? ~ Sheryl Crow, #NFDB
989:I’m going to address you bluntly, but it’s a directness that rises from my compassion for you, not my judgment of you. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
990:I've spent quite a bit of my life as a meditation teacher and writer commending the strengths of love and compassion. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
991:The challenge, I learned, is to not be angry with anyone for the issues they are working out, which is true compassion. ~ Galen Stoller, #NFDB
992:The essence of any religion is good heart. Sometimes I call love and compassion a universal religion. This is my religion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
993:The Mother is always ready to welcome the child whatever fault the child may have committed—with deep love and compassion. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
994:We need to infuse politics with ideas like compassion and empathy, and a sense that we live in an interdependent world. ~ Pankaj Mishra, #NFDB
995:We ought to be people of compassion. And being people of compassion means we deny ourselves, and our self centeredness. ~ Mike Huckabee, #NFDB
996:A mind committed to compassion is like an overflowing reservoir - a constant source of energy, determination, and kindness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
997:Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allowing ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
998:Compassion without wisdom is dangerous. It's what enables people to support the 'underdog,' even if the underdog is evil ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
999:Happiness is a function of compassion. If you do not have compassion in your heart, you do not have any happiness. The ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1000:Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
1001:In the depth of the soul is the atman, the oversoul. And that oversoul is really love and compassion, peace, joy, and wisdom. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
1002:It is our enemies who provide us with the challenge we need to develop the qualities of tolerance, patience and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1003:Jesus, Thou art all compassion, pure unbounded love Thou art; Visit us with Thy salvation, enter every trembling heart. ~ Charles Wesley, #NFDB
1004:Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
1005:My point is, it takes a special person to cry over a book. It shows compassion as well as imagination...Don't ever lose that ~ Alex Gino, #NFDB
1006:Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1007:Practicing courage, compassion, and connection in our daily lives is how we cultivate worthiness. The key word is practice. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1008:Society is more concerned with material possessions than it is with the true love and compassion of another human being. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1009:The greatest antidote to insecurity & sense of fear is compassion. It brings one back to the basis of one's inner strength. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1010:The purpose of the journey is compassion. When you have come past the pairs of opposites, you have reached compassion. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
1011:Therefore, let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. ~ Doreen Valiente, #NFDB
1012:The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other.... The whole purpose of life is to live by love. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1013:We are all given a gift of existence and of being sentient beings, and I think true happiness lies in love and compassion. ~ Adam Pascal, #NFDB
1014:We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1015:When people hear needs, it provokes compassion. When people hear diagnoses, it provokes defensiveness and attack. ~ Marshall B Rosenberg, #NFDB
1016:When your fear touches someone’s pain it becomes pity; when your love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion.”4 ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
1017:Without stick or sword, filled with sympathy and benevolence, let the disciple show to all beings love and compassion. ~ Magghima Nikaya, #NFDB
1018:Without the tao, Kindness and compassion are replaced by law and justice; Faith and trust are supplanted by ritual and ceremony. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1019:You can't have pride without humility. Aggression without tolerance. Strength without compassion. Power without restraint. ~ D J MacHale, #NFDB
1020:All around you are people whose lives are filled with trouble and sorrow, and they need your compassion and encouragement. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
1021:And if there are any two moral stances that our times call for, they are precisely these, self-restraint and compassion. ~ Daniel Goleman, #NFDB
1022:Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion between supposed lovers, between supposed brothers. ~ Maynard James Keenan, #NFDB
1023:Compassion is one of the principal things that make our lives meaningful. It is the source of all lasting happiness and joy. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1024:Embrace love and compassion with all your spirit. Understand that they never hurt or offend, they just heal and empower. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1025:Look at the world with the vision of peace, love, and compassion. Then the whole world will appear loving and peaceful. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1026:Maybe it was not naiveté, but suffering, that inspired kindness. Maybe, she thought, it was pain that inspired compassion. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1027:May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
1028:Nothing renews my faith in humanity more than the exchange of compassion so profound that mere words cannot embrace it. ~ Tiffany Madison, #NFDB
1029:Our most natural state is joy. It is the foundation for love, compassion, healing, and the desire to alleviate suffering. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1030:Simply put, meditation is the path to clarity, compassion, and a path of wisdom leading to the eradication of suffering. ~ Jon Kabat Zinn, #NFDB
1031:Tsultrim Tso, who possessed all the characteristics of a dakini, like gentle behavior and immense compassion for others, ~ Dilgo Khyentse, #NFDB
1032:Unless we do experiments with compassion and nonviolence, it is very difficult to understand its value and transforming power. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1033:We can look around and see that a person who lives with happiness and compassion has the capacity to make others happy. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1034:We live that we might have experience; that through it we might gain wisdom, compassion, faith, and inner strength. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
1035:When we are motivated by compassion and wisdom, the results of our actions benefit everyone, not just our individual selves. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1036:When we encounter suffering, it is important to respond w/ compassion rather than to question the politics of those we help. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1037:Compassion is not a virtue—it is a commitment. It’s not something we have or don’t have—it’s something we choose to practice. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1038:Compassion is the greatest transforming power of the Universe. It is the most humble and the most gentle power of the creation. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1039:Don’t limit the Lord with your own shallow perceptions of Him, or assign Him a level of compassion equal only to yours … ~ Kathleen Morgan, #NFDB
1040:establish a world where the head is balanced with the heart, wealth with wisdom, and discipline with compassion. Come, ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
1041:Great communication, Character, Competitive drive, Consistency, Compassion, Confidence -- skills successful leaders share. ~ Avery Johnson, #NFDB
1042:If we know how to create the energy of love, understanding, compassion, and beauty, then we can contribute a lot to the world. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1043:In the Buddhist tradition, one who has realized the fullness of compassion and lives from compassion is called a bodhisattva. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
1044:I think it's really healing to see movies that are based on true stories. It builds so much more compassion and empathy. ~ Vanessa Hudgens, #NFDB
1045:It takes discipline and compassion to awaken the divine in ourselves long enough to recognize the divine in another. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher, #NFDB
1046:Love and compassion ... are the ultimate source of human happiness, and the need for them lies at the very core of our being. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1047:Nothing on earth is as unbearable as dealing with other people if you are a person who lacks compassion and understanding. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
1048:One will develop ruchi (liking) for chanting of the holy names, when one has compassion for each and every living being. ~ Lokanatha Swami, #NFDB
1049:Practice looking at all beings with the eyes of compassion: this is the meditation called “the meditation on compassion. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1050:Rather, think of etiquette as a philosophy of living and enjoying life with grace, compassion, and respect for others. ~ Mary Alice Monroe, #NFDB
1051:The human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing. ~ Steven Pinker, #NFDB
1052:The light of compassion opens the petals of the heart. When the petals of the heart unfold fragrance spreads across the valley. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1053:"The point isn't to perfect your body or your personality. The point is really to perfect your compassion and your love." ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1054:Truly generous men are always ready to feel compassion when their enemy’s misfortune exceeds the bounds of their hatred. ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
1055:What is my great wish and intention, is to make a base of compassion and to encourage people to work to shift the energy. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
1056:"When truly present, you are more in control of situations, you have more love, patience, understanding and compassion." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1057:A summons home to the nature that nourishes the best human qualities of creativity, intelligence, connection, and compassion. ~ David W Orr, #NFDB
1058:Compassion and empathy are not the same as feeling sorry for oneself. They are emotions that extend our perceptual ranges. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1059:Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy. ~ Chogyam Trungpa, #NFDB
1060:Compassion is not sympathy. Compassion is mercy. It is a commitment to take responsibility for the suffering of others. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
1061:Compassion is the feeling of shared suffering. When you feel someone else's suffering, there is the birth of understanding. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1062:Compassion toward animals is essentially bound up with goodness of character. Whoever is cruel to them cannot be good to men ~ Sehopenhauer, #NFDB
1063:I don't ever want to live in a world where something like mercy...or maybe it's compassion...is the wrong choice. ~ Jonathan Maberry, #NFDB
1064:let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
1065:One with compassion is kind even when angry; one without compassion will kill even as he smiles. SHABKAR, TIBETAN POET ~ Barbara Ann Kipfer, #NFDB
1066:Romance wasn't fair. Nor was it a game. It was war. And, as on any other battlefield, compassion and mercy had no place there. ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
1067:The coming era of Artificial Intelligence will not be the era of war, but be the era of deep compassion, non-violence, and love. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1068:the distance between this pigeon's brain and mine is minute compared to that between mine and Bodhi 's Wisdom Compassion ~ Frederick Franck, #NFDB
1069:The essence of any religion is good heart. Sometimes I call love and compassion a universal religion. This is my religion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1070:The path of compassion is to bring more happiness and smiles into the world and to eliminate the pains and cries from the world. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1071:Treat everyone with kindness, dignity, compassion and respect, irrespective of whether you think they understand or not. ~ Martin Pistorius, #NFDB
1072:We experience it as kindness, giving, mercy, compassion, peace, joy, acceptance, non-judgment, joining, and intimacy. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1073:But no one walks out of his family without reprisals: a family is too disciplined an army to offer compassion to its deserters. ~ Pat Conroy, #NFDB
1074:Compassion is a sign of superficiality: broken destinies and unrelenting misery either make you scream or turn you to stone. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
1075:Every human being has to have compassion and try to be understanding, and that goes double for people who share your blood, ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
1076:Forgiveness is really a gift to yourself - have the compassion to forgive others, and the courage to forgive yourself. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher, #NFDB
1077:For in this love he now felt there was compassion: without which love is untempered, and is not whole, and does not last. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1078:Have compassion, have pity for all beings that live. Let thy heart be benevolent and sympathetic towards all that lives. ~ Fo’shu-tsrn-king-, #NFDB
1079:I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that's ever happened to me has taught me compassion. ~ Ellen DeGeneres, #NFDB
1080:I observed a thousand acts of courage, compassion and love [as a POW] and I will always treasure that memory above all others. ~ John McCain, #NFDB
1081:I try to treat whoever I meet as an old friend. This gives me a genuine feeling of happiness. It is the practice of compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1082:One of Buddhism’s main practices is understanding and experiencing compassion, and how that ultimately is a road to happiness. ~ Goldie Hawn, #NFDB
1083:Our country is great because it is built on principles of self-reliance, opportunity, innovation, and compassion for others. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
1084:Rather than saying 'I hate mess', it might draw more compassion to say, 'mess terrifies me as a harbinger of catastrophe'. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1085:Simply let experience take place very freely, so that your open heart is suffused with the tenderness of true compassion. ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche, #NFDB
1086:True heroism, as the ancients understood, isn’t about strength, or boldness, or even courage. It’s about compassion. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
1087:When we radiate the warmth of our love-energy, our compassion-energy on the planet, we shine the qualities of our Source! ~ Michael Beckwith, #NFDB
1088:Your suffering is not senseless. Your suffering is here to help you unfold and to awaken into compassion, love and strength. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
1089:A great mind is above insults, injustice, grief, and raillery, and would be invulnerable were it not open to compassion. ~ Jean de la Bruyere, #NFDB
1090:"A mind committed to compassion is like an overflowing reservoir – a constant source of energy, determination and kindness." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1091:As the welfare state is hollowed out, a culture of compassion is replaced by a culture of violence, cruelty and disposability. ~ Henry Giroux, #NFDB
1092:Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
1093:Compassion can help you to be present right in this moment. Compassion can release your trapped life-energy and blossom your life. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1094:Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
1095:Defeat anger, stop using it as a shield against truth, and you will find the compassion you need to forgive the people you love. ~ Glenn Beck, #NFDB
1096:God makes His presence known in many ways. In acts of love, in selfless acts of courage, in everyday human compassion. ~ William Kent Krueger, #NFDB
1097:I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1098:I don't think human affection and compassion are just religious concerns; they're indispensable factors in our day-to-day lives. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1099:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” –His Holiness the Dalai Lama ~ Tom Ayling, #NFDB
1100:Islam is a faith that brings comfort to people. It inspires them to lead lives based on honesty, and justice, and compassion. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1101:It is our enemies who provide us with the challenge we need to develop the qualities of tolerance, patience, and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1102:One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
1103:Put anger aside. It is not a solution. Patience and love is a solution. With compassion and action, together we can end slavery. ~ Somaly Mam, #NFDB
1104:There's little value in advancing technology if our consciousness, compassion, conversation and cooperation is regressing. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
1105:What would we have to hold in compassion to be at peace right now? What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now? ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1106:When love overflows and is expressed through every word and deed, we call it compassion. That is the goal of religion. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
1107:When someone is full of Love and Compassion, he cannot draw a line between two countries, two faiths or two religions. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
1108:Above all, being a Democrat means having compassion for others. ... It means standing up for people who have been kept down. ~ George McGovern, #NFDB
1109:Americans in general have a lot of compassion, we just don't always have the same view of how that compassion is implemented. ~ Adam Kinzinger, #NFDB
1110:dawning of compassion, the awakening of an inborn capacity to identify with and understand the experience of others. ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, #NFDB
1111:Even the strongest and bravest must sometimes weep. It shows they have a great heart, one that can feel compassion for others. ~ Brian Jacques, #NFDB
1112:GNP measures neither our courage, our wisdom neither our compassion. It measures everything except what makes life worthwhile ~ Robert Kennedy, #NFDB
1113:I am going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone, but my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1114:If everyone sincerely practices the path of compassion and wisdom, all their problems will be solved. I guarantee this. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #NFDB
1115:If the extension of your compassion does not include all living beings, then you will be unable to find peace by yourself. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1116:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion."
...
"I think it means that chance encounters are what keep us going. ~ Haruki Murakami,#NFDB
1117:Like a flash of lightning Arthur Schopenhauer appeared to me and said, "The highest law is love, the love that is compassion, ~ Bohumil Hrabal, #NFDB
1118:Love and compassion benefit both ourselves and others. Through kindness to others, your heart and mind will be peaceful and open. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1119:May you find great value in these You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
1120:One of the greatest things you can learn in life is to be compassionate, and true compassion includes compassion for yourself. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
1121:One of the realities we're all called to go through is to move from repulsion to compassion and from compassion to wonderment. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1122:Tibetan poet Shabkar said: “One with compassion is kind even when angry; one without compassion will kill even as he smiles. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
1123:To be cold and incapable of pity is one thing; to have compassion and use it only when it's convenient is nothing less than evil. ~ Stacey Jay, #NFDB
1124:To be inhuman in defence of our humanity . . . harsh in defence of compassion. To be single-minded in defence of our disparity. ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
1125:We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our ~ Bryan Stevenson, #NFDB
1126:Academic Marxism is a fantasy world, and unctuous compassion-sweepstakes, into which real workers or peasants never penetrate. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
1127:Buddha also said that the Dharma, like a bird, needs two wings to fly, and that the wing that balances Wisdom is compassion. ~ Sylvia Boorstein, #NFDB
1128:Compassion can change a lot of things, including the world. Young people especially need to know that, because they're the future. ~ Aloe Blacc, #NFDB
1129:Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
1130:Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
1131:Compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and a sense of self-discipline are qualities that help us lead our daily lives with a calm mind ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1132:Hate the critics? I have nothing but compassion for them. How can one hate the crippled, the mentally deficient, and the dead? ~ Ronald Harwood, #NFDB
1133:I just don't know that shame and fear need to be our teachers; rather, compassion, understanding, and love should be our guides. ~ Kyan Douglas, #NFDB
1134:She had seen what it cost him and her heart quickened with compassion. For that alone, she might have loved him almost. ~ Cecilia Dart Thornton, #NFDB
1135:Small minds select narrow roads; expand your mental vision and take to the broad road of helpfulness, compassion and service. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1136:What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
1137:What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love. ~ Richard Gere, #NFDB
1138:Woman is closer to angels than man because she knows how to mingle an infinite tenderness with the most absolute compassion. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
1139:All the great feelings like goodness, love or compassion eliminate the gravity and thus the wingless man rises like a bird. ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1140:A noted writer in The Washington Post recently described the cause of compassion for farm animals as “the moral calling of our time. ~ Gene Baur, #NFDB
1141:Compassion asks us to look into our hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse to inflict that pain on anybody else. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
1142:Compassion is not a virtue -- it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have -- it's something we choose to practice. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1143:He was no stranger to compassion: his heart was open to many good impulses, though his rank often prevented their manifestation. ~ Nikolai Gogol, #NFDB
1144:I warn you all, hatred is finding fertile soil within me. And in your compassion, in your every good intention, you nurture it. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1145:Love is not without its flaws. The stronger the love, the more it tests you. Compassion and empathy will make true love persist. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1146:Technology and innovation may aid, speed, support and even prolong the human race - but only love and compassion can save it. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
1147:The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother's love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested. ~ Richard Gere, #NFDB
1148:The only way to enhance one’s power in the world is by increasing one’s integrity, understanding, and capacity for compassion. ~ David R Hawkins, #NFDB
1149:The world is full of incredible people who are embodiments of compassion. Some of them have a spiritual path; some of them don't. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
1150:Try to feel and give only love and compassion to every one; you will be happy. Don't judge or hate anything. You will be unhappy. ~ Jason Becker, #NFDB
1151:We will be remembered not for the power of our weapons but for the power of our compassion, our dedication to human welfare. ~ Hubert H Humphrey, #NFDB
1152:Compassion is not a virtue -- it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have -- it's something we choose to practice. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
1153:God is the evolutionary impulse of the universe. God is infinite creativity, infinite love, infinite compassion, infinite caring. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1154:I am working on a technical paper on compassion. So I am reading everything I can on the subject, including my own mind and heart. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
1155:I have always felt that the way we treat animals is a pretty good indicator of the compassion we are capable of for the human race. ~ Ali MacGraw, #NFDB
1156:Jusqu'à ce qu'il étende le cercle de sa compassion à toutes les créatures vivantes, l'homme lui-même ne trouvera pas la paix. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1157:No compassion will be tolerated for the Jews. We deny the Pope’s statement that there is but one human race. The Jews are parasites. ~ Robert Ley, #NFDB
1158:One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.
~ Simone de Beauvoir,#NFDB
1159:The prerequisite for real empathy is compassion. We can only respond empathically if we are willing to be present to someone’s pain. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1160:Wherever love and compassion are active in life, we can perceive the magic breath of the spirit blowing through the sense world. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
1161:All meditation must begin with arousing deep compassion. Whatever one does must emerge from an attitude of love and benefitting others. ~ Milarepa, #NFDB
1162:Avoid trouble with those who are fanatics; they remain imprisoned in exclusivism and deserve compassion just as any other prisoner. ~ Chico Xavier, #NFDB
1163:Cruel people offer pity when they no longer feel threatened. However, kind people offer compassion and understanding regardless. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1164:God is the embodiment of compassion. He watches for a grain of goodness or humility so that He can reward it with tons of grace. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1165:If he was less motivated by compassion than anger at what he saw as the arrogance of capital,he chafed,nonetheless,to regulate it. ~ Edmund Morris, #NFDB
1166:If we want to create a viable, peaceful world, we've got to integrate compassion into the gritty realities of 21st century life. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
1167:If your orthodoxy doesn't fully affirm compassion- if it is not, itself, deeply compassionate- then it is no orthodoxy at all. ~ Jamie Arpin Ricci, #NFDB
1168:I often tease young people about their concern for how they look; more important is inner beauty - compassion, affection and respect. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1169:The function of hate, as Sarai saw it, was to stamp out compassion--to close a door to one's own self and forget it was ever there. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
1170:This genuine heart of sadness can teach us great compassion. It can humble us when we're arrogant and soften us when we are unkind. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
1171:When we face problems with compassion, sincerity, and good motivation, our solutions may take longer, but ultimately they are better. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1172:When we need it most, it is nearly impossible to see ourselves with compassion from the slit of a narrowed mind all tensed for battle. ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
1173:When we take time to quiet ourselves, we can all sense that our life could be lived with greater compassion and greater weakness. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1174:And I think some suffering, maybe even intense suffering, is a necessary ingredient for life, certainly for developing compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1175:Christian soldiers armed with virtue- hearts afire with blind obsession, cannot see the difference 'twixt compassion and oppression ~ Lucretia Mott, #NFDB
1176:Contemplating Clodia I find scarcely a drop in my heart of that compassion which Epicurus enjoins us to extend toward the erring. ~ Thornton Wilder, #NFDB
1177:Developing love and compassion and reducing anger and spite is a universal activity which requires no faith in any religion whatsoever ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1178:go back to the Dalai Lama. He says, “I think technology has really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion. ~ Amy Poehler, #NFDB
1179:In times of tragedies, our duty is to lend a helping hand to those in grief and thus light lamps of kindness and compassion. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
1180:In U.S. politics, 'compassion' means giving money and privileges to well organized interest groups at everyone else's expense. ~ Paul Craig Roberts, #NFDB
1181:I rolled my eyes. “Do all narcotics officers lack basic human
compassion, or were you just not hugged enough as a child?”
Trust Me ~ L A Witt,#NFDB
1182:Loving ourselves points us to capacities of resilience, compassion, and understanding within that are simply part of being alive. —S ~ Kristin Neff, #NFDB
1183:Sadness is like sandpaper; it rubs at our sharper edges, softening and humbling us, making us ready for a coat of compassion. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
1184:“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” ~ Buddha, #NFDB
1185:The Christian life is not about finding safety and comfort; it’s about finding yourself in a dangerous place of vulnerable compassion. ~ Ed Stetzer, #NFDB
1186:The gardener knows how to turn garbage into compost. Therefore our anger, sadness, and fear is the best compost for our compassion. ~ Kayla Mueller, #NFDB
1187:The well taught philosophic mind To all compassion gives; Casts round the world an equal eye, And feels for all that lives. ~ Anna Letitia Barbauld, #NFDB
1188:To be brave without compassion, generous without moderation, and rule without refraining from being first in the world, are certain deaths. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1189:To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1190:Upon awakening, let the words Thank You flow from your lips, for this will remind you to begin your day with gratitude and compassion. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
1191:But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or not. ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
1192:Compassion drives us to cry for those who are in pain and suffering. Compassion dares us to move into the unknown where it can injure us. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1193:Humility, reverence, compassion, forbearance, sacrifice and self-control are the qualities that reveal the outcome of the true education. ~ Sai Baba, #NFDB
1194:If Abe Lincoln took part in the Republican debates, he would look out of place with his intelligence, compassion and gaping head wound. ~ Dana Gould, #NFDB
1195:If you have nothing but compassion, you are still very wealthy; if you have everything but compassion, you are still very poor! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1196:Jesus wants to give you five things: extravagant compassion, moral clarity, sacrificial courage, persevering hope, and refreshing joy. ~ Gary Haugen, #NFDB
1197:Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1198:Looking at various means of developing compassion, I think empathy is an important factor: the ability to appreciate others' suffering. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1199:Measure the hate you feel now, and the shame. That quantity is your capacity also to love and to feel joy and to have compassion. ~ Joanne Greenberg, #NFDB
1200:One can overcome the forces of negative emotions, like anger and hatred, by cultivating their counter-forces, like love and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1201:soften, to connect with your heart and engender a basic attitude of generosity and compassion toward yourself, the archetypal coward. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1202:That’s because sympathy identifies with the problem, but compassion gets up, looks up, and says, “I need to do something about this. ~ Brian Houston, #NFDB
1203:The molecular structure of love: one proton of faith, three electrons of humility, a neutron of compassion, and a bond of honesty. ~ Menna van Praag, #NFDB
1204:There is this notion that the lives of the comfortable-off middle class don't merit being treated seriously and with compassion. ~ William Nicholson, #NFDB
1205:We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1206:What would our hospitality look like if we believed that Jesus’s death on the cross was the measure of God’s compassion for someone? ~ Gloria Furman, #NFDB
1207:Where there's compassion, no heirarchy can exist. Where men are allowed to create themselves as equals, evil cannot thrive or survive. ~ Dean Frazer, #NFDB
1208:Anger and hatred lead to fear; compassion and concern for others allow us to develop self-confidence, which breeds trust and friendship. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1209:Compassion is all inclusive. Compassion knows no boundaries. Compassion comes with awareness, and awareness breaks all narrow territories. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1210:I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail...because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
1211:If we develop a good heart we will progress to true compassion, and awaken Bodhicitta. This is the way of the Buddha's method. ~ Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, #NFDB
1212:I have three treasures that I cherish. The first is compassion. The second is moderation. The third is not claiming to be first in the world. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1213:It's hard to pull apart empathy from compassion. What is really clear is that we innately care for other people at least to some extent. ~ Paul Bloom, #NFDB
1214:Moments of love and compassion are the only immortal moments in human being’s life! We humans are mortals with immortal moments! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1215:Some things have eternal value, and compassion is one of them. I hope we never lose that. Compassion for humans as well as animals. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
1216:The more I have deep love and compassion for my earth and my fellows, the more love and compassion I have for myself, and vice versa. ~ Alysia Reiner, #NFDB
1217:The true expression of nonviolence is compassion, which is not just a passive emotional response, but a rational stimulus to action. ~ Mark Kurlansky, #NFDB
1218:"To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own." ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1219:True love wasn't found in good hair or the right clothes, make-up or shoes. True love was found in the soul - as was wisdom and compassion ~ P C Cast, #NFDB
1220:When compassion wakes up in us, we find ourselves more willing to become vulnerable, to take the risk of entering the pain of others. ~ Sue Monk Kidd, #NFDB
1221:But if we have the energy of compassion and loving kindness in us, the people around us will be influenced by our way of being and living. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1222:Compassion basically means accepting people’s frailties, their weaknesses, not expecting them to behave like gods. That expectation is cruelty. ~ Osho, #NFDB
1223:Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
1224:Compassion matters to God. This is the time for service, not self-centeredness. Cancel the pity party. Love the people God brings to you. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1225:Conservatives understand that the power that binds our republic together is fierce independence held high on the shoulders of compassion. ~ Allen West, #NFDB
1226:Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
1227:For me the prophetic has to do with mustering the courage to love, to empathize, to exercise compassion, and to be committed to justice. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
1228:How can you have so much compassion? Isn’t it exhausting caring so much?” “Not as exhausting as pretending not to care about anything. ~ Tonya Burrows, #NFDB
1229:I don't really think about doing something kind, I think there's just a way to conduct your daily life with compassion to other people. ~ Kat Dennings, #NFDB
1230:If even outcasts and downtrodden folk like yourselves can't muster a bit of compassion for others, then there's no hope for this world. ~ Ransom Riggs, #NFDB
1231:In all human sorrow nothing gives comfort but love and faith, and that in the sight of Christ's compassion for us no sorrow is trifling. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1232:Inner values like friendship, trust, honesty and compassion are much more reliable than money - they always bring happiness and strength. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1233:It’s out of liberal-hearted love and compassion for people that the Church has always been so hardheadedly conservative about doctrine. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
1234:I understand what it's like to go to hospitals and there's no medicine, and the best thing you have to give the patients is compassion. ~ Sharon Stone, #NFDB
1235:My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1236:Our culture says that ruthless competition is the key to success. Jesus says that ruthless compassion is the purpose of our journey. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1237:When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
1238:When we blend courage and compassion, assertiveness and gentleness, our essential strength and kindness support us in being where we are. ~ A H Almaas, #NFDB
1239:With great understanding, we see the way out of our bondage. We discover the lightness and compassion necessary to love someone else ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1240:Worship that does not lead to neighborly compassion and justice cannot be faithful worship of YHWH. The offer is a phony Sabbath! ~ Walter Brueggemann, #NFDB
1241:Compassion has more to do with the attitude we bring to our encounters with other people than with any quantifiable metric of giving. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
1242:Heaven was a lovely, unspoiled Earth-like world; what Earth might have been like if men had treated her with compassion instead of lust. ~ Joe Haldeman, #NFDB
1243:In all human sorrow nothing gives comfort but love and faith, and that in the sight of Christ's compassion for us no sorrow is trifiling. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1244:Love is ruthless; it doesn't feel sorry for anyone, but it does have compassion. Fear is full of pity; it feels sorry for everyone. ~ Miguel Angel Ruiz, #NFDB
1245:My impulse is to create an aesthetic that's about a humanistic approach to a world and trying to create compassion for all the characters. ~ Mike White, #NFDB
1246:Nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy, good-for-nothing, land-lubber; a sailor has no bowels of compassion for him. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
1247:People are able to live with only half a heart, to live without real compassion, because they are able to use words that are only forms. ~ Angus Wilson, #NFDB
1248:That he may vanquish hate, let the disciple live with a soul delivered from all hate and show towards all beings love and compassion. ~ Magghima Nikaya, #NFDB
1249:The real essentials of life - compassion, kindness, good will, forgiveness - are what is fundamental to living as a true human being. ~ Eknath Easwaran, #NFDB
1250:There should be a balance between material and spiritual progress, a balance achieved through the principles based on love and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1251:To love our enemy is impossible. The moment we understand our enemy, we feel compassion towards him/her, and he/she is no longer our enemy. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1252:We give it up and just look directly with compassion and humor at who we are. Then loneliness is no threat and heartache, no punishment. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
1253:What a liberating thing to realize that our problems are probably our richest sources for rising to the ultimate virtue of compassion. ~ Krista Tippett, #NFDB
1254:When we develop a right attitude of compassion and gratitude, we take a giant step towards solving our personal and international problems ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1255:All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1256:An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, ~ Bryan Stevenson, #NFDB
1257:And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Matthew 14:13-14 ~ F F Bosworth,#NFDB
1258:Anyone who is speaking of a greater compassion, a greater humanitarian concern, is a leader paving the path we all need to follow. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1259:Compassion has dropped so far out of sight these days that many are confused about what is required. It even inspires overt hostility. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
1260:Compassion is not a passion; rather a noble disposition of the soul, made ready to receive love, mercy, and other charitable passions. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1261:Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
1262:I find that in the 21st century, there's not a lot of compassion for what other people are going through or the walk that they have to walk. ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
1263:If you make your best effort to be kinder, nurture compassion, make the world a better place, then you can say 'At least I've done my best. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1264:Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love. ~ Jane Goodall, #NFDB
1265:Liberals measure compassion by how many people are given welfare. Conservatives measure compassion by how many people no longer need it. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1266:Making choices that improve things for all of us on the planet is an act of compassion, a simple act we can do any time we go shopping. ~ Daniel Goleman, #NFDB
1267:Once you encourage the thought of compassion in your mind, once it becomes active, then your attitude towards others changes automatically. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1268:One scientist had discussions about love and compassion. Usually, he felt irritation. After our meeting, for some months, anger never come. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1269:Scientists are discovering that while anger and hatred eat into our immune system, warm-heartedness and compassion are good for our health. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1270:Show your compassion to people in their life time; no amount of your tears can serve as compensation when their coffins are lowered! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1271:The generosity and compassion of Christians changed the world once. What would happen if the church became known for such behavior again? ~ Andy Stanley, #NFDB
1272:The message of love and compassion will travel far and wide if all who follow a spiritual path work together in harmony and mutual respect. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1273:The old question still remains: Can a free people restrain crime without sacrificing fundamental liberties and a heritage of compassion? ~ Gerald R Ford, #NFDB
1274:The only intellectual attitude worthy of a superior creature is a feeling of calm, cool compassion for everything that is not himself. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1275:The only place healing can occur, wisdom can be realized, compassion can be extended, and peace can be experienced, is the present moment. ~ Darren Main, #NFDB
1276:To reduce destructive emotions we need to strengthen constructive emotions. For example, to counter anger we cultivate love and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1277:We are all, by nature, oriented toward the basic human values of love and compassion. We all prefer the love of others to their hatred. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1278:Art is magic, and art is powerful. Art saves lives- I really believe that. It gives us courage and compassion we might not have on our own. ~ Sarah Cross, #NFDB
1279:Heroes care. True heroism, as the ancients understood, isn’t about strength, or boldness, or even courage. It’s about compassion. ~ Christopher McDougall, #NFDB
1280:Hopeless heart that thrives on paradox,...that longs for certainty, fidelity, compassion, and plays roulette with anything precious. ~ Jeanette Winterson, #NFDB
1281:I'm not here to talk about bigotry in the sense that I don't know what's in Donald Trump's heart. I hope that it's a heart of compassion. ~ Donna Brazile, #NFDB
1282:I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
1283:Keep a constant awareness and a conscious effort to say good words, perform good actions, and to practice patience and compassion. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
1284:Love, compassion, kindness, and generosity change their function from being motivations for practice to becoming expressions of realization. ~ A H Almaas, #NFDB
1285:One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
1286:People with self-compassion don't try to convince themselves and others of their greatness; they simply focus on treating themselves kindly. ~ Sara Eckel, #NFDB
1287:Suffering turns us into egotists, for it absorbs us completely: it is later, in the form of memory, that it teaches us compassion. ~ Marguerite Yourcenar, #NFDB
1288:Thinking that we have to always burn our candle at both ends in order to benefit others is perhaps the greatest idiot compassion of all. ~ Ethan Nichtern, #NFDB
1289:This is a moment of suffering. Suffering is part of life. May I be kind to myself in this moment. May I give myself the compassion I need. ~ Kristin Neff, #NFDB
1290:True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1291:True compassion does not come from wanting to help out those less fortunate than ourselves but from realizing our kinship with all beings. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
1292:True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” Doc ~ Tavis Smiley, #NFDB
1293:We must each lead a way of life with self-awareness and compassion, to do as much as we can. Then, whatever happens we will have no regrets. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1294:What kind of person is void of compassion? A heartless one. But alas, compassion cannot exist without the endurance of afflictions. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
1295:A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life. — CHRISTOPHER K. GERMER3 ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1296:Change is hard, and slow...Sometimes people one the defensive rebound into compassion. Sometimes smart, good people are just a little behind. ~ Lindy West, #NFDB
1297:Do you believe that?” “Maybe if your only goal is to survive. If you want to thrive? I still think compassion and unity are the way to do it. ~ M R Forbes, #NFDB
1298:Friends are the best helpers. They come prepackaged with compassion and love. All they need is wisdom, and that is available to everyone. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
1299:Great compassion is the root of altruistic action, the object of amazement to the world;there is no greater source of help and happiness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1300:If you are motivated by loving kindness and compassion, there are many ways to bring happiness to others right now, starting with kind speech. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1301:"If you have compassion and are imbued with the spirit of the Way, it is of no consequence to be criticized, even reviled, by the ignorant." ~ Dogen Zenji, #NFDB
1302:One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
1303:only the heat of that compassion united with wisdom can melt the ore in our minds, so as to liberate the gold of our fundamental nature. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
1304:Their false compassion is called compassion and their false understanding is called understanding, for this is their most potent spell. ~ Aleister Crowley, #NFDB
1305:This earthly realm is, I believe, where we are meant to learn the lessons of unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance. ~ Eben Alexander, #NFDB
1306:17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister* in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1307:As we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others - what and whom we can work with, and how - becomes wider. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
1308:Compassion and generosity are not just lofty virtues - they are at the center of our humanity, what makes our lives joyful and meaningful. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1309:Compassion goes out looking for suffering, scouring the earth for poverty and misery and pain, the same way the cops look for criminals. ~ Donald O Donovan, #NFDB
1310:Compassion is a piece of vocabulary that could change us if we truly let it sink into the standards to which we hold ourselves and others. ~ Krista Tippett, #NFDB
1311:Compassion is ethical intelligence: it is the capacity to make connections and the consequent urge to act to relieve the suffering of others. ~ Will Tuttle, #NFDB
1312:Even the strongest and bravest must sometimes weep. It shows they have a great heart, one that can feel compassion for others." —Cornflower ~ Brian Jacques, #NFDB
1313:Forget about your little self, detach yourself from objects, and you will radiate light and warmth. Light is wisdom; warmth is compassion ~ Morihei Ueshiba, #NFDB
1314:God created us for love, for union, for forgiveness and compassion and, yet, that has not been our storyline. That has not been our history. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
1315:Have compassion towards each other, including animals. Love and respect every living being on this planet - a key factor to a greater society. ~ Matt Sorum, #NFDB
1316:He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1317:Reality is not wild or chaos. It is a grand artwork of the existence. Compassion is harmonizing our soul with the grand melody of the existence. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1318:Relational trust is built on movements of the human heart such as empathy, commitment, compassion, patience, and the capacity to forgive. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
1319:There is probably no word that the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop use more when describing the qualities worth cultivating than compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1320:This book stresses repeatedly that it is unconditional compassion for ourselves that leads naturally to unconditional compassion for others. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1321:We noted before that the passion of compassion was singularly absent from the minds and hearts of the men who made the American Revolution. ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
1322:When we clearly realize that the source of disharmony and misery in the world is ignorance, we can open the door of wisdom and compassion. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1323:All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1324:Come, my love,’ said Míkál, ‘and say goodnight to the dark.’ And held him close, full of a sweet young compassion, as the little boy died. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
1325:Compassion changes your interpretation and perception about the world, people and incidents. It provides the direct link with the cosmic oneness. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1326:Ease up on yourselves. Have some compassion for yourself as well as for others. There's no such thing as perfection, and life is not a race. ~ Doug Marlette, #NFDB
1327:Foolishness weakened us. Hatred divided us. Fear united us. When we gather in Compassion and know it to be our greatest power, we live. ~ Robert Chazz Chute, #NFDB
1328:I also hope this map will guide you to heal in a way that helps you become an unflinching source of kindness and self-compassion for yourself, ~ Pete Walker, #NFDB
1329:If anyone has this world’s goods† and sees a fellow believer† in need† but withholds compassion† from him — how does God’s love reside in him? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1330:If you're tired and pooped out all the time, do you have love and compassion in your heart for your fellow man? You don't even like yourself! ~ Jack LaLanne, #NFDB
1331:If you truly have compassion in your heart, show it by keeping your doubts to yourself and sharing your hope with those who love change! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1332:I’m a student of regret, and she’s a tough but fair teacher whose lessons on empathy and compassion are critical pieces of wholehearted living. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1333:[Our world] seeks to encourage empathy, kindness, and compassion in children but seems suspicious of these same values in adults. ~ Colleen Patrick Goudreau, #NFDB
1334:The topic of compassion is not at all religious business; it is important to know it is human business, it is a question of human survival. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1335:We are all trying to make it the best way we know how, so when we look at each other as individuals and nations we should do so with compassion. ~ Ger Duany, #NFDB
1336:We have many kinds of energies in us, including the energies of anger, violence, and craving. But compassion is also a very strong energy. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1337:Because it was far easier to be kind to other people than it was to be kind to herself. I deserve compassion. Ugh. She did. She really did. Tani ~ Alisha Rai, #NFDB
1338:If you can leave a relationship with love, empathy, and compassion, without any thoughts of revenge, hatred, or fear, that is how you let go. ~ Brian L Weiss, #NFDB
1339:“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” ~ Dalai Lama @DalaiLama Pic/Via @VegyPower @mysticpoetry, #NFDB
1340:Individual will, reason, compassion, and character are not strong enough to consistently defeat selfishness, pride, greed, and self-deception. ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
1341:In worship an increased power steals its way into the heart sanctuary, an increased compassion grows in the soul. To worship is to change. ~ Richard J Foster, #NFDB
1342:Jesus wants to make it clear that the God of whom he speaks is a God of compassion who joyously welcomes repentant sinners into his house. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
1343:Nevertheless, in this sea of human wretchedness and malice there bloomed at times compassion, as a pale flower blooms in a putrid marsh. ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz, #NFDB
1344:They're fanatics. It's like expecting humanity from a falling rock. It's not going to have a fit of compassion and not crack your skull open. ~ Ilona Andrews, #NFDB
1345:True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1346:We have to own our story and share it with someone who has earned the right to hear it, someone whom we can count on to respond with compassion. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1347:What we hate in ourselves, we’ll hate in others. To the degree that we have compassion for ourselves, we will also have compassion for others. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1348:World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1349:A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life. — CHRISTOPHER K. GERMER3 Dr. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1350:And what, most importantly of all, shall we be after we die? Out of compassion, I hope that those questioners never find that which they seek. ~ R A Salvatore, #NFDB
1351:As the aperture of your heart opens to love you will receive more of the light of compassion, acceptance, gentleness, grace and understanding. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
1352:Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Isaiah 49:15 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1353:Compassion is often mistaken for weakness, when the fact is, there is very little that is more powerful than the courage it takes to give it. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
1354:Long-protracted suffering is apt to exhaust not only the invalid, but the compassion of others; violent emotions cannot be prolonged endlessly. ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
1355:Need' now means wanting someone else's money. 'Greed' means wanting to keep your own. 'Compassion' is when a politician arranges the transfer. ~ Joseph Sobran, #NFDB
1356:Now, as an adult, I appreciate those memories. Mom taught me the importance of compassion for your waitress, your crossing guard, your mailman. ~ Cate Edwards, #NFDB
1357:She had wild eyes, slightly insane. She also carried an overload of compassion that was real enough and which obviously cost her something. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
1358:The power of religious dogma, when inculcated early, is such as to stifle conscience, compassion, and finally every feeling of humanity. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1359:Understanding the ordinary: Mind opens.
Mind opening leads to compassion, Compassion to nobility, Nobility to heavenliness, Heavenliness to TAO. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
1360:When we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1361:A man is not a master because he despotically subjects being living at his mercy. He can be called a master who has compassion for all that lives. ~ Dhammapada, #NFDB
1362:A man, who can, in cold blood, hunt and torture a poor, innocent animal, cannot feel much compassion for the distress of his own species. ~ Frederick The Great, #NFDB
1363:Bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya:
For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world. ~ Gautama Buddha,#NFDB
1364:Compassion has been advocated by all the great faiths because it has been found to be the safest and surest means of attaining enlightenment. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
1365:Compassion is a mind wishing that sentient beings be free from suffering, and loving-kindness is a mind wishing that they meet with happiness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1366:"From my own limited experience I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1367:Grace makes the heart tender, it causes sympathy and charity. As it melts the heart in contrition towards God, so in compassion towards others. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
1368:Mother Teresa's numerical results were not her greatest contribution. Instead, she made the world-and especially India-conscious of compassion. ~ Peter Drucker, #NFDB
1369:One of the greatest gifts we all possess is the ability to give. Wealth isn't a prerequisite; compassion and a kind heart are all you need ~ Joanne Huist Smith, #NFDB
1370:There are many people out there (me being one of them) who can vouch that animals have feelings; they feel compassion and love, as well as pain! ~ Jane Goodall, #NFDB
1371:The wisdom and compassion a woman can intuitively experience in childbirth can make her a source of healing and understanding for other women. ~ Stephen Gaskin, #NFDB
1372:True compassion is undirected & holds no conceptual focus. That kind of genuine, true compassion is only possible after realizing emptiness. ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche, #NFDB
1373:God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1374:If we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
1375:Perhaps the people who hurt you the most when they leave are the ones you shouldn’t have been with anyway, because they do it without compassion. ~ Neil Strauss, #NFDB
1376:To be lovestruck is to care, to have deep compassion, and to be concerned for each and every individual, including the poor and vulnerable. ~ Michelle Alexander, #NFDB
1377:Weakness is something we don't like to admit we have. We hold it against people, until we experience it, and then we feel more compassion for it. ~ Olivia Wilde, #NFDB
1378:With mindfulness, loving kindness, and self-compassion, we can begin to let go of our expectations about how life and those we love should be. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
1379:A body is simply a package for the true gifts inside. And you are full of gifts. Selflessness, kindness, compassion. All the things that matter. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
1380:As Stephen Levine says: “When your fear touches someone’s pain it becomes pity; when your love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion.”4 ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
1381:As warriors, as humanitarians, they've taught me that without courage, compassion falters, and that without compassion, courage has no direction. ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
1382:Compassion automatically brings happiness and calmness. Then, even if you receive disturbing news, it will be easier to take, as your mind is still. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1383:Compassion is the desire that moves the individual self to widen the scope of its self-concern to embrace the whole of the universe self. ~ Arnold Joseph Toynbee, #NFDB
1384:Each aspect within us needs understanding and compassion. If we are unwilling to give it to ourselves how can we expect the world to give it to us? ~ Debbie Ford, #NFDB
1385:Hardships make us strong. Problems give birth to wisdom. Sorrows cultivate compassion. Those who have suffered the most will become the happiest. ~ Daisaku Ikeda, #NFDB
1386:I have three treasures To maintain and conserve: The first is compassion. The second is frugality. The third is not presuming To be first under heaven. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1387:In compassion meditation, instead of focusing on negativity, focus on positive transformation - transformation of the inner world and the outer world. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1388:I reveal myself, then, at last: I am a villian, for I created wantonly, and a blackguard, for I destroyed without compassion; I have no excuse. ~ Shirley Jackson, #NFDB
1389:It is compassion, then, that is the best protection; it is also, as the great masters of the past have always known, the source of all healing. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
1390:Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1391:Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1392:Roving dogs do not indicate the civilisation or compassion of the society. They betray on the country the ignorance and lethargy of its members. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1393:The greatest force of personal liberation is the decision to widen our circle of compassion, moving from focus on self to focus on service. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1394:The simple fact is that we must not-and we will not-surrender our borders to those who wish to exploit our history of compassion and justice. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
1395:Through awareness, you get a certain attitude. That's the way, you see, to achieve more peaceful, more compassion, more friendship through that way. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1396:With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment. ~ Christina Baldwin, #NFDB
1397:Without plenty, the wealthy lack compassion for the poor, hoarding without sharing. Without law, the strong bully the weak, stealing by force. ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
1398:World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1399:All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity.” For ~ Michael Shelden, #NFDB
1400:Compassion is even more powerful than courage. Sure, with courage you can conquer a world - but only with compassion can you heal and build it. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
1401:Compassion is of little value if it just remains an idea. It must motivate how we respond to others and be reflective in all our thoughts and actions ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1402:followers have a very clear picture of what they want and need from the most influential leaders in their lives: trust, compassion, stability, and hope ~ Tom Rath, #NFDB
1403:For me, love is an enhanced state of kindness, compassion, service, respect, and humility, an emotion I feel we are all here to give and to receive. ~ Nathan East, #NFDB
1404:Happy Wednesday! Practice compassion. Lift others. Learn to encourage rather than criticize. You'll feel better when you help others feel better. ~ Tracey Edmonds, #NFDB
1405:Let the flower of compassion blossom in the rich soil of maître, and water it with the good water of equanimity in the cool, refreshing shade of joy. ~ Longchenpa, #NFDB
1406:People confuse compassion with government being compassionate with other people's money versus people being compassionate with their own money. ~ Michele Bachmann, #NFDB
1407:Self-improvement can have temporary results, but lasting transformation occurs only when we honor ourselves as the source of wisdom and compassion. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1408:Well first, we go back to the Dalai Lama. He says, “I think technology has really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion. ~ Amy Poehler, #NFDB
1409:When someone you love makes compassion, kindness, forgiveness, respect and God an option, you can be sure they have made you an option, as well. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1410:Women have a level of outward compassion that a lot of men don't necessarily have. Guys feel as deeply as women, but they don't share it as much. ~ Ashton Kutcher, #NFDB
1411:As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1412:Followers have a very clear picture of what they want and need from the most influential leaders in their lives: trust, compassion, stability, and hope. ~ Tom Rath, #NFDB
1413:For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him. Proud that in a cause of compassion and honour, he had been able to get the better of himself. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1414:for it is precisely the humanity, affability, and brotherly compassion of a doctor which prove the most efficacious remedies for his patients. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1415:God steers moving ships — ships driven by the winds of worship, gratefulness, love to God for what he’s done, and compassion for those he cares about. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
1416:Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
1417:History is replete with instances of men, who, by dying with courage and compassion on their lips converted the hearts of their violent opponents. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1418:If you want to help her, you need to help yourself first. No one serves their friends by grinding themselves into dust on the altar of compassion. ~ Seanan McGuire, #NFDB
1419:I hope that when the time comes, I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1420:I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that. ~ Ellen DeGeneres, #NFDB
1421:may you be happy, may you be well
may you be peaceful and at ease
may you be filled with loving kindness
And compassion for all beingslk ~ Morihei Ueshiba,#NFDB
1422:That kind of discipline whose pungent severity is in the manifestations of paternal love, compassion, and tenderness is the most sure of its object. ~ Hosea Ballou, #NFDB
1423:Their false compassion is called compassion and their false understanding is called understanding, for this is their most potent spell. ~ Aleister Crowley, #index, #NFDB
1424:The light around someone who speaks truth, who consistently acts with compassion for all, even in great difficulty, is visible to all around them. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1425:This is a moment of suffering.
Suffering is part of life.
May I be kind to myself in this moment.
May I give myself the compassion I need. ~ Kristin Neff,#NFDB
1426:True compassion is undirected & holds no conceptual focus. That kind of genuine, true compassion is only possible after realizing emptiness. ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche, #NFDB
1427:When you distinguish between good and evil, you've lost the art. Art goes beyond morality. The reach of your compassion is the reach of your art. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
1428:According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the "quivering of the pure heart" when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life. ~ Jack Kornfield, #NFDB
1429:All pursuits are pointless and fruitless unless and until love and compassion are found and then are the foundation and destination of all you do ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
1430:As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. ~ David, #NFDB
1431:But the compassion of humans forced me to believe that there must be something or someone more powerful to have placed such perfection on this earth. ~ Sejal Badani, #NFDB
1432:Compassion as the key to the open way, the mahayana, makes possible the transcendental actions of the bodhisattva, also known as paramitas. ~ Shambhala Publications, #NFDB
1433:Eating, working, and making money are meaningless in themselves. However, even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose to our lives. P ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1434:Everything could be reasoned away or made to look silly with enough rational scrutiny. Faith, love, hope, lust, anger, sadness, compassion— everything. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1435:He is unfortunate indeed who does not gain my compassion. I do not know anyone, not even an insect, for whom I do not feel compassion. ~ Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, #NFDB
1436:if we cultivate compassion for those who have hurt us, we have the possibility of overcoming our anger,pain, and fear. compassion is a great medicine. ~ Goldie Hawn, #NFDB
1437:If you truly practice mindfulness, it will never cause harm. If the practice doesn’t bring about more compassion, then it’s not right mindfulness. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1438:It would be a humanity that demonstrated understanding or compassion or forgiveness or anything save the silence that now stretched between them. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
1439:none of my children—not one—ever took the easy road; that they strove to keep sanity, reason, and compassion alive and burning in these tragic times. ~ Tan Twan Eng, #NFDB
1440:Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”3 ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1441:Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1442:The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter. ~ Norman Cousins, #NFDB
1443:True love is made of four elements: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In Sanskrit, these are, maitri, karuna, mudita, and upeksha. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1444:When you are in anger, in passion, violent, aggressive, you feel a crystallized ego within you. Whenever you are in love, in compassion, it is not there. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1445:Act with God's compassion, mercy and forgiveness in mind and you will always be right. Act with revenge in your heart and you will always be wrong. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1446:Compassion certainly seems to be wasted on you, sir!’ she said tartly.
‘Yes, of course it is. Besides, I like you, and I shan’t if you pity me. ~ Georgette Heyer,#NFDB
1447:Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight. I ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
1448:I feel like my joy in life has intensified, (and) my compassion for people has just strengthened. I have compassion that I wouldn't have had before. ~ Lauren Scruggs, #NFDB
1449:I have a deep compassion for the idea that it's okay to be myself. The idea that anything 'other' is bad and wrong and broken is so wildly off base. ~ Natasha Lyonne, #NFDB
1450:Love, compassion, and peace do not belong to any religion or tradition. They are qualities in each one of us, qualities of our hearts and minds.. ~ Joseph Goldstein, #NFDB
1451:Mindfulness and compassion can give you the power, illumination, love, and wisdom to draw higher forms, thoughts, feelings, and situations into your life. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1452:My love is given to no one,’ said Lymond. ‘To neither man, woman or child. Duty, friendship, compassion I do owe to many. But love I offer to none. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
1453:“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.” ~ ~ Maya Angelou #thriving, #NFDB
1454:Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1455:The political vision of the religious right is for the most part an individualistic politics of righteousness, not a communal politics of compassion. ~ Marcus J Borg, #NFDB
1456:Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility of man to forgive his brother, because forgiveness is only real for him who has discovered the ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
1457:When one has love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives and friends. One retains only compassion for them. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
1458:Your actions will always be what the world sees, but people who choose to see through God's eyes will always have the compassion to understand why. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1459:Altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #NFDB
1460:He is unfortunate, indeed, who does not gain my compassion. I do not know anyone, not even an insect, for whom I do not feel compassion. ~ Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, #NFDB
1461:Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion and the beginning of morality ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
1462:I've got a lot of different religious ideas circling through my family, but the positive thing is that I was raised with a lot of openness and compassion. ~ Kali Hawk, #NFDB
1463:Most of us are shrinking in the face of psycho-social and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion actually mobilizes our immunity. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
1464:Nothing excites compassion, in friend and foe alike, as much as the sight of you ker-splonked on the Tarmac with your propeller buried six feet under. ~ Boris Johnson, #NFDB
1465:The key to your power is simple: love. Love is strength. Your compassion is commanding. Your ability to heal is hailing. Let this be your Goddess ethos. ~ Emma Mildon, #NFDB
1466:The word "compassion" means literally "suffering with."
Of course compassion condones suffering in that it recognizes yes, suffering is life. ~ Joseph Campbell,#NFDB
1467:When one begins to really feel into the spiritual dimension of their beings, they bump into love. They bump into compassion. They bump into beauty. ~ Michael Beckwith, #NFDB
1468:When one can possess loyalty even in the straits of full, brutal understanding, then that one understands all there is to understand about compassion ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1469:Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1470:Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1471:His weapons were kindness, attention, and compassion—and when victory was assured, he discarded them like spent casings, and his true nature emerged. ~ Liv Constantine, #NFDB
1472:How did the world get like this? How did the one creative intellect in the known universe lose its capacity for respect, compassion, and love? Everywhere ~ Dan Skinner, #NFDB
1473:I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1474:It is awareness of both our shared pain and our longing for happiness that links us to other people and helps us to turn toward them with compassion. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
1475:Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile. Smile five times a day at someone you don't really want to smile at at all. Do it for peace. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1476:Making children suffer temporarily for their own good is made possible by love, intelligence, and compassion, but yet again, it can be impeded by empathy. ~ Paul Bloom, #NFDB
1477:Remember that you don't have to like or admire someone to feel compassion for that person. All you have to do is wish for that person to be happy. ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu, #NFDB
1478:When the Sacred Masculine is combined with the sacred feminine inside each of us, we create the 'sacred marriage' of compassion and passion in ourselves. ~ Matthew Fox, #NFDB
1479:Without suffering, we do not have the opportunity to cultivate compassion and understanding; and without understanding, there can be no true love. So ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1480:You put a lot of faith in my compassion. For all you know, I could pull out a gun and shoot you in the heart, while you spout all this poetic crud at me. ~ Gena D Lutz, #NFDB
1481:Eating meat and drinking liquor are demonic vices. Those indulging in drink lose all sense of propriety, have no compassion or love and become demons. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1482:For fear of causing terror to living beings, Mahamati, let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating flesh. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
1483:I have more understanding, more compassion. I am on a much more important quest for the truth than any of you. You just don't want me to be president. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
1484:I think if we live with more compassion globally, I think we would be in a better place. We've had more then we have had as human beings technology wise. ~ Frank Grillo, #NFDB
1485:Krishna, from desire, life is born. From attachment, love. From passion, beauty. From compassion, humanity. Desire is the very foundation of nature. ~ Anand Neelakantan, #NFDB
1486:Let go of who you think you should be in order to be who you are. Be imperfect and have compassion for yourself. Connection is the result of authenticity. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
1487:Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1488:Make the Universal personal and you become richer, wiser and stronger. Make the personal Universal and you will find freedom, compassion and love ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
1489:Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love. ~ Stevie Wonder, #NFDB
1490:So, anyway, I think that cultivating positive mental states like kindness and compassion definitely leads to better psychological health and happiness. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1491:Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. —COLOSSIANS 3:12 ~ Sarah Young, #NFDB
1492:Authentic power is the energy that Is formed by the intentions of the Soul. It is the light shaped by the intentions of love and compassion guided by wisdom ~ Gary Zukav, #NFDB
1493:caring is not abstract. The circle of ecological compassion we feel is enlarged by direct experience of the living world, and shrunken by its lack. ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, #NFDB
1494:Certain beliefs must accompany every action: One should act without selfishness, cultivate compassion for all living things, and develop respect for others. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1495:Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other. ~ Henri J M Nouwen, #NFDB
1496:Compassion doesn't have to be learned. It's part of our fabric. We have just been programmed to neglect it over time, and THAT is what we have to unlearn. ~ Joan Marques, #NFDB
1497:Compassion is something really worthwhile. It is not just a religious or spiritual subject, not a matter of ideology. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1498:Conservatives define compassion not by the number of people who recieve some kind of government aid but rather by the number of people who no longer need it. ~ Jack Kemp, #NFDB
1499:Forgiving is an inward act that establishes outer boundaries; it is an undefeatable triumph of self-compassion that proclaims you are no longer a victim. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
1500:I live by three simple words: compassion, love and gratitude. We need to act on these three words daily. Doing so will irrevocably change your world. ~ Julian Pencilliah, #NFDB
141 Integral Yoga
65 Poetry
35 Yoga
28 Christianity
15 Philosophy
9 Occultism
9 Islam
7 Psychology
7 Buddhism
6 Mythology
6 Fiction
5 Hinduism
3 Sufism
3 Kabbalah
3 Baha i Faith
2 Theosophy
2 Science
2 Mysticism
2 Integral Theory
1 Alchemy
80 Sri Aurobindo
70 The Mother
48 Satprem
36 Nolini Kanta Gupta
33 Sri Ramakrishna
14 Saint Augustine of Hippo
9 Muhammad
9 Aldous Huxley
8 Anonymous
7 Saint John of Climacus
7 Nirodbaran
5 William Wordsworth
5 Walt Whitman
5 Vyasa
5 Thubten Chodron
5 Saint Teresa of Avila
5 Percy Bysshe Shelley
5 Ovid
5 Friedrich Nietzsche
5 A B Purani
4 Jetsun Milarepa
4 Friedrich Schiller
4 Carl Jung
4 Aleister Crowley
3 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
3 Jordan Peterson
3 Dadu Dayal
3 Bokar Rinpoche
3 Baha u llah
2 Yeshe Tsogyal
2 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
2 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
2 Muso Soseki
2 Ken Wilber
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 John Keats
2 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2 James George Frazer
2 Jalaluddin Rumi
2 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
2 Hafiz
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Al-Ghazali
32 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
18 The Synthesis Of Yoga
12 The Bible
10 Prayers And Meditations
9 The Perennial Philosophy
9 Quran
9 City of God
8 Words Of Long Ago
8 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
7 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
7 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
7 Savitri
7 Essays On The Gita
7 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
7 Agenda Vol 07
6 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
6 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
5 Wordsworth - Poems
5 Vishnu Purana
5 The Blue Cliff Records
5 Shelley - Poems
5 Metamorphoses
5 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
5 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
5 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
5 Collected Poems
5 Agenda Vol 01
4 Whitman - Poems
4 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
4 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
4 The Divine Comedy
4 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
4 Schiller - Poems
4 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
4 Milarepa - Poems
4 Liber ABA
4 Letters On Yoga II
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
4 Agenda Vol 10
4 Agenda Vol 08
4 Agenda Vol 04
4 Agenda Vol 02
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Life Divine
3 Tara - The Feminine Divine
3 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
3 Maps of Meaning
3 Letters On Yoga I
3 General Principles of Kabbalah
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
3 Agenda Vol 13
3 Agenda Vol 09
3 Agenda Vol 06
2 Words Of The Mother II
2 The Way of Perfection
2 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
2 The Golden Bough
2 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
2 The Alchemy of Happiness
2 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
2 Talks
2 Some Answers From The Mother
2 Sex Ecology Spirituality
2 Rumi - Poems
2 Questions And Answers 1956
2 Questions And Answers 1954
2 Magick Without Tears
2 Keats - Poems
2 Hafiz - Poems
2 Essays Divine And Human
2 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
2 Amrita Gita
2 Agenda Vol 12
2 Agenda Vol 05
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This mixing with life may, however, be pursued for the sake of the individual mind and with an entire indifference to the forms of the material existence or the uplifting of the race. This indifference is seen at its highest in the Epicurean discipline and is not entirely absent from the Stoic; and even altruism does the works of Compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. But this too is a limited fulfilment. The progressive mind is seen at its noblest when it strives to elevate the whole race to its own level whether by sowing broadcast the image of its own thought and fulfilment or by changing the material life of the race into fresh forms, religious, intellectual, social or political, intended to represent more nearly that ideal of truth, beauty, justice, righteousness with which the man's own soul is illumined. Failure in such a field matters little; for the mere attempt is dynamic and creative. The struggle of Mind to elevate life is the promise and condition of the conquest of life by that which is higher even than Mind.
That highest thing, the spiritual existence, is concerned with what is eternal but not therefore entirely aloof from the transient. For the spiritual man the mind's dream of perfect beauty is realised in an eternal love, beauty and delight that has no dependence and is equal behind all objective appearances; its dream of perfect Truth in the supreme, self-existent, self-apparent and eternal Verity which never varies, but explains and is the secret of all variations and the goal of all progress; its dream of perfect action in the omnipotent and self-guiding Law that is inherent for ever in all things and translates itself here in the rhythm of the worlds. What is fugitive vision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally existing Reality in the Self that knows2 and is the Lord.
--
But the spiritual life, like the mental, may thus make use of this outward existence for the benefit of the individual with a perfect indifference to any collective uplifting of the merely symbolic world which it uses. Since the Eternal is for ever the same in all things and all things the same to the Eternal, since the exact mode of action and the result are of no importance compared with the working out in oneself of the one great realisation, this spiritual indifference accepts no matter what environment, no matter what action, dispassionately, prepared to retire as soon as its own supreme end is realised. It is so that many have understood the ideal of the Gita. Or else the inner love and bliss may pour itself out on the world in good deeds, in service, in Compassion, the inner Truth in the giving of knowledge, without therefore attempting the transformation of a world which must by its inalienable nature remain a battlefield of the dualities, of sin and virtue, of truth and error, of joy and suffering.
But if Progress also is one of the chief terms of worldexistence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, this limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the spiritual life in the world, and it is its real mission, to change the material life into its own image, the image of the Divine. Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration. Ordinarily, the effort is concentrated on a mental and moral change in humanity, but it may extend itself also to the alteration of the forms of our life and its institutions so that they too may be a better mould for the inpourings of the Spirit. These attempts have been the supreme landmarks in the progressive development of human ideals and the divine preparation of the race. Every one of them, whatever its outward results, has left Earth more capable of Heaven and quickened in its tardy movements the evolutionary Yoga of Nature.
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
stones and are incapable of Compassion.
If I could detach myself entirely from this outer world,
--
My heart is full of Compassion for others and I am not
insensible to their suffering, but what's the good of this
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A deep of Compassion, a hushed sanctuary,
Her inward help unbarred a gate in heaven;
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The ever-wise Compassionate Brilliances
Await the sound of the Incarnate's voice
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is another aspect of his which the world has yet been slow to recognise. For, at bottom, Nietzsche is not all storm and fury. If his Superman is a Destroying Angel, he is none the less an angel. If he is endowed with a supreme sense of strength and power, there is also secreted in the core of his heart a sense of the beautiful that illumines his somewhat sombre aspect. For although Nietzsche is by birth a Slavo-Teuton, by culture and education he is pre-eminently Hellenic. His earliest works are on the subject of Greek tragedy and form what he describes as an "Apollonian dream." And to this dream, to this Greek aesthetic sense more than to any thing else he sacrifices justice and pity and charity. To him the weak and the miserable, the sick and the maimed are a sort of blot, a kind of ulcer on the beautiful face of humanity. The herd that wallow in suffering and relish suffering disfigure the aspect of the world and should therefore be relentlessly mowed out of existence. By being pitiful to them we give our tacit assent to their persistence. And it is precisely because of this that Nietzsche has a horror of Christianity. For Compassion gives indulgence to all the ugliness of the world and thus renders that ugliness a necessary and indispensable element of existence. To protect the weak, to sympathise with the lowly brings about more of weakness and more of lowliness. Nietzsche has an aristocratic taste par excellencewhat he aims at is health and vigour and beauty. But above all it is an aristocracy of the spirit, an aristocracy endowed with all the richness and beauty of the soul that Nietzsche wants to establish. The beggar of the street is the symbol of ugliness, of the poverty of the spirit. And the so-called aristocrat, die millionaire of today is as poor and ugly as any helpless leper. The soul of either of them is made of the same dirty, sickly stuff. The tattered rags, the crouching heart, the effeminate nerve, the unenlightened soul are the standing ugliness of the world and they have no place in the ideal, the perfect humanity. Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is made in order to be beautiful, to conceive the beautiful, to create the beautiful. Nietzsche's Superman has its perfect image in a Grecian statue of Zeus cut out in white marble-Olympian grandeur shedding in every lineament Apollonian beauty and Dionysian vigour.
The real secret of Nietzsche's philosophy is not an adoration of brute force, of blind irrational joy in fighting and killing. Far from it, Nietzsche has no kinship with Treitschke or Bernhard. What Nietzsche wanted was a world purged of littleness and ugliness, a humanity, not of saints, perhaps, but of heroes, lofty in their ideal, great in their achievement, majestic in their empirea race of titanic gods breathing the glory of heaven itself.
01.05 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And the Compassionate Infinitudes.
His height repelled the lowness of earth's state:
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Aurobindo speaks of the influence of the Divine Compassion and the Divine Grace.32 But what is the difference between the two?
The Compassion seeks to relieve the suffering of all, whether
they deserve it or not.
--
Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and
giving them their chance; (3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also
01.10 - Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Eastern spirituality does not view sorrow and sufferingevilas an integral part of the Divine Consciousness. It is born out of the Divine, no doubt, as nothing can be outside the Divine, but it is a local and temporal formation; it is a disposition consequent upon certain conditions and with the absence or elimination of those conditions, this disposition too disappears. God and the Divine Consciousness can only be purity, light, immortality and delight. The Compassion that a Buddha feels for the suffering humanity is not at all a feeling of suffering; pain or any such normal human reaction does not enter into its composition; it is the movement of a transcendent consciousness which is beyond and purified of the normal reactions, yet overarching them and entering into them as a soothing and illumining and vivifying presence. The healer knows and understands the pain and suffering of his patient but is not touched by them; he need not contract the illness of his patient in order to be in sympathy with him. The Divine the Soulcan be in flesh and yet not smirched with its mire; the flesh is not essentially or irrevocably the ooze it is under certain given conditions. The divine physical body is composed of radiant matter and one can speak of it even as of the soul that weapons cannot pierce it nor can fire burn it.
***
0 1958-08-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Evidently the gods of the Puranas are a good deal worse than human beings, as we saw in that film the other day1 (and that story was absolutely true). The gods of the Overmind are infinitely more egocentric the only thing that counts for them is their power, the extent of their power. Man has in addition a psychic being, so consequently he has true love and Compassionwherein lies his superiority over the gods. It was very, very clearly expressed in this film, and its very true.
The gods are faultless, for they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint; it is their godly way. But if one looks at it from a higher point of view, if one has a higher vision, a vision of the whole, they have fewer qualities than man. In this film, it was proved that through their capacity for love and self-giving, men can have as much power as the gods, and even morewhen they are not egoists, when they can overcome their egoism.
0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Seigneur, Dieu damour et de Compassion
Seigneur, Dieu du silence et de la contemplation
--
Lord, God of love and Compassion
Lord, God of silence and contemplation
0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Of course not! A disciplined work, which to us seems important, is to him basically an ignorance. What is true to such a person is a contemplative, ecstatic lifealong with a sentiment of Compassion and charity, so that nonetheless you spend a bit of your time helping out the poor brutes! But the true thing is ecstatic contemplation. As for those who are advanced and yet still attach some importance to workits irrational!
The only way I can make him understand that I have work to do is to tell him, Mother asked me to do it; then he keeps quiet.
0 1960-10-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In these Questions and Answers, for example, you had wanted to edit out the words Sweet Mother since people from the West might not understand. But then, we have just now received a letter from someone who suddenly had a very beautiful experience when he came across those words, Sweet Mother. He saw, he suddenly felt this maternal presence of love and Compassion watching over the world. The moment had come and, precisely, it did its work. Its very interesting.
Mentally we say, Oh, that cant go. And even I am often inclined to say, Dont publish this, dont speak of something or other. Then I realize how silly it is! There is something that uses everything. Even what may seem useless to usor perhaps worse than useless, harmfulmight be just the thing to give someone the right shock.
0 1960-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
While it was all coming up, I thought, How is this possible? For during those years of my life (Im now outside things; I do them but Im entirely outside, so they dont involve mewhether its like this or like that makes no difference to me; Im only doing my work, thats all), I was already conscious, but nevertheless I was IN what I was doing to a certain extent; I was this web of social life (but thank God it wasnt here in India, for had it been here I could not have withstood it! I think that even as a child I would have smashed everything, because here its even worse than over there). You see, there its its a bit less constricting, a bit looser, you can slip through the mesh from time to time to brea the some air. But here, according to what Ive learned from people and what Sri Aurobindo told me, its absolutely unbearable (its the same in Japan, absolutely unbearable). In other words, you cant help but smash everything. Over there, you sometimes get a breath of air, but still its quite relative. And this morning I wondered (you see, for years I lived in that way for years and years) just as I was wondering, How was I ABLE to live that and not kick out in every direction?, just as I was looking at it, I saw up above, above this (it is worse than horrible, it is a kind of Oh, not despair, for there isnt even any sense of feeling there is NOTHING! It is dull, dull, dull gray, gray, gray, clenched tight, a closed web that lets through neither air nor life nor lightthere is nothing) and just then I saw a splendor of such sweet light above itso sweet, so full of true love, true Compassion something so warm, so warm the relief, the solace of an eternity of sweetness, light, beauty, in an eternity of patience which feels neither the past nor the inanity and imbecility of thingsit was so wonderful! That was entirely the feeling it gave, and I said to myself, THAT is what made you live, without THAT it would not have been possible. Oh, it would not have been possible I would not have lived even three days! THAT is there, ALWAYS there, awaiting its hour, if we would only let it in.
(silence)
--
It was no longer this (that is, life as it is on earth) becoming conscious of That (the eternal soul, this portion of the Supreme as Sri Aurobindo said); it was the eternal soul seeing life in its own way but without separation, without any separation, not like something looking from above that feels itself to be different How strange it is! Its not something else, its NOT something else, its not even a distortion, not even Its losing its illusory quality as described in the old spiritualities thats not what it is! In my experience, there was there was clearly an emotion I cant describe it, there are no words. It wasnt a feeling, it was something like an emotion, a vibration of such TOTAL closeness and at the same time of Compassion, a Compassion of love. (Oh, words are so pitiful! ) One was this outer thing, which was the total negation of the other and AT THE SAME TIME the other, without the least separation between them. It WAS the other. So what was born in one was born in the other as well, in this eternal light. A sweetness of identity, precisely, an identity that was necessarily such total understanding with such perfect love but love says it poorly, all words are poor! Its not that; its something else! Its something that cannot be expressed.
I lived that this morning, upstairs.
0 1961-02-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All this [the world, the Ashram] is held in my consciousness with a kind of essential Compassion applying equally to all things, all difficulties, all obstacles. I receive letters by the dozens, as you know, and each person comes to me with his own little misery or problem, inner or outer (a tiny pimple becomes a mountain). When people come to me, my inner consciousness always responds in the same way, with a kind of equality and Compassion for all. But when people are talking to me or I am reading a letter and my body grows conscious of what it calls the to-do they make over their miseries, it has a kind of feeling (I mean there is a feeling in the cells): Why do they take things like that! They are making things much more difficult. The body understands. It understands that their way of taking the least little difficulty in such a blind, egotistical and self-centered manner, increases its difficulties furiously!
Its a rather amusing sensation, a combination of sensation and feeling, that the ordinary human attitude towards things multiplies and magnifies the difficulties to FANTASTIC proportions; while if they simply had the true attitudea NORMAL attitude, quite simple, uncomplicatedahh, all life would be much easier. For the body feels the vibrations (those very vibrations which concentrate to form a body), it feels their nature and sees that its normal reaction, a peaceful and confident reaction, makes things so much easier! But as soon as this agitation of anxiety, fear, discontent comes in, the reaction of a will that doesnt want any of it oh, right away it becomes like water boiling: pff! pff! pff! like a machine. While if the difficulty is accepted with confidence and simplicity, its reduced to its minimum, and I mean purely materially, in the material vibration itself.
0 1961-04-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Here, this is Grace.5 Here, Balance6 (how lovely!). Here, Light without Obscurity.7 And this is purity: an Integral Conversion8 (in the cup of this flower, Mother has placed two other flowers: Service9 and Sri Aurobindos Compassion10), an integral conversion, with Sri Aurobindo, with his Compassionhis Compassion which gives us the opportunity to serve him.
Oh, mon petit, we need to say something a bit intelligent, dont you think? Im counting on you.
0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I remember once going into a church (which I wont name) and I found it a very beautiful place. It wasnt a feast or ceremony day, so it was empty. There were just one or two people at prayer. I went in and sat down in a little chapel off to the side. Someone was praying there, someone who must have been in distressshe was crying and praying. And there was a statue, I no longer know of whom: Christ or the Virgin or a Saint I have no idea. And, oh! Suddenly, in place of the statue, I saw an enormous spider like a tarantula, you know, but (gesture) huge! It covered the entire wall of the chapel and was just waiting there to swallow all the vital force of the people who came. It was heart-rending. I said to myself, Oh, these people There was this miserable woman who had come seeking solace, who was praying there, weeping, hoping to find solace; and instead of reaching a consciousness that was at least Compassionate, her supplications were feeding this monster!
I have seen other things but I have rarely seen anything favorable in churches. Here, I remember going to M I was taken inside and received there in quite an unusual waya highly respected person introduced me as a great saint! They led me up to the main altar where people are not usually allowed to go, and what did I see there! An asura (oh, not a very high-ranking one, more like a rakshasa4), but such a monster! Hideous. So I went wham! (gesture of giving a blow) I thought something was going to happen. But this being left the altar and came over to try to intimidate me; of course, he saw it was useless, so he offered to make an alliance: If you just keep quiet and dont do anything, I will share all I get with you. Well, I sent him packing! The head of this Math5. It was a Math with a monastery and temple, which means a substantial fortune; the head of the Math has it all at his disposal for as long as he holds the position and he is appointed for life. But he has to name his successor and as a rule, his own life is considerably shortened by the successorthis is how it works. Everyone knew that the present head had considerably shortened the life of his predecessor. And what a creature! As asuric as the god he worshipped! I saw some poor fellows throw themselves at his feet (he must have been squeezing them pitilessly), to beg forgiveness and mercyan absolutely ruthless man. But he received meyou should have seen it! I said nothing, not a word about their god; I gave no sign that I knew anything. But I thought to myself, So thats how it is!
--
But I have rarely had an experience in churches. Rather the opposite: I have very often had the painful experience of the human effort to find solace, a divine Compassion falling into very bad hands.
One of my most terrible experiences took place in Venice (the cathedrals there are so beautifulmagnificent!). I remember I was painting they had let me settle down in a corner to paintand nearby there was a (what do they call it?) a confessional. And a poor woman was kneeling there in distresswith such a dreadful sense of sin! So piteous! She wept and wept. Then I saw the priest coming, oh, like a monster, a hard-hearted monster! He went inside; he was like an iron bar. And there was this poor woman sobbing, sobbing; and the voice of the other one, hard, curt. I could barely contain myself.
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The story began with an entirely concrete and material incident something very amusing; this is not the first time it has happened, but it was so concrete and so precise that it became interesting. Someone was complaining of being ill, quite a serious, psychological illness: periodic possession by a spirit of falsehood, recurring regularly every month, of more or less long duration. This person comes to see me, and the moment shes here theres an upwelling of that profound Compassion of Love, with a considerable, concentrated Power to drive away the possession; and all of this accompanied, even outwardly, by quite an affectionate gesture. This person leaves and within half an hour I receive a letter: Now I know: you hate me, you want me to be ill and you want me to die because I disgust you.
It was interesting because it was so concrete. I was conscious of my movement of Compassion and love and of what it had become in the other persons consciousness!
Its very easy to explain: she was already more than half possessed, and of course this spirit of falsehood hardly felt comfortable! And the identification2 (not only mental but sensory, vital) was so complete that she felt this love as a movement of hatred. When I saw the two phenomena, I also saw that this is exactly what happens in the world! Its exactly what EVERYONE is.
0 1962-04-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am no more in my body. I have left the Lord to take care of it, if it is to have the Supramental or not. I know, and I have also said, that now is the last fight. If the purpose for which this body is alive is to be fulfilled, that is to say, the first steps towards the Supramental transformation, then it will continue today. It is the Lords decision. I am not even asking what He has decided. If the body is incapable of bearing the fight, if it has to be dissolved, then humanity will pass through a critical time. What the Asuric Force that has succeeded in taking the appearance of Sri Aurobindo will create is a new religion or thought, perhaps cruel and merciless, in the name of the Supramental Realisation. But everybody must know that it is not true, it is not Sri Aurobindos teaching, not the truth of his teaching. The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and light and mercy. He is good and great and Compassionate and divine. Et cest Lui qui aura la victoire finale.1
Now, individually, if you want to help, you have only to pray. What the Lord wants will be done. Whatever He wills, He will do with this body, which is a poor thing.
0 1963-03-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then I looked, wondering, And what was Christs path? Basically, he always said, Love thy neighbor, in other words brotherhood (but thats a modern translation). For him, the idea was Compassion, charity (the Christians say its the law of Love, but were not yet there that will come much later). So I wrote:
Jesus preached Compassion.
Then I thought: now, Sri Aurobindo, its quite clear; for him, the goal was Perfection. Perfection not in the sense of a summit but of an all-inclusive totality in which everything is represented, has a place. And I saw that this Perfection would comemust comein stages. He announced something the realization of which will stretch over thousands of years. So it must come in stages. And I saw that what I find essential, indispensable (everything is there, everything finds a place, yet there is a kind of anguishnot a personal anguish but a terrestrial anguish), is Security. A need for Securitywhatever you attempt, whatever you seek, even Love, even Perfection, it needs Security. Nothing can be achieved with the feeling that all opposing forces can come and sweep everything away. We must find the point where nothing can be touched or destroyed or halted. Therefore, its Security, the very essence of Security. So I wrote:
0 1963-09-07, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No. And its not good to try either. If they cling to a religion, it means that that religion has helped them somehow or other, has helped something in them which in fact wanted to have a certitude without having to seek for itto lean on something solid without being responsible for its solidity (someone else is responsible! [Mother laughs]), and to leave their bodies in that way. So to want to pull them out of it shows a lack of Compassion they should just be left where they are. Never do I argue with someone who has a faithlet him keep his faith! And I take great care not to say anything that might shake his faith because its not goodsuch people are unable to have another faith.
But with a materialist I dont argue, I accept your point of view; only, you have nothing to say Ive taken my position, take yours. If you are satisfied with what you know, keep it. If it helps you to live, very good.
0 1963-09-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But that experience [of the crumbling stairs], I know what it corresponds to, because I know the experience I had when I went to sleep: its always when I am confronted with the Problem. I could put it this way (but that diminishes it a lot), Why is the world the way it is? Then there comes to me that sort of its an INTENSE state of Compassionintense, almost painful for the condition of the world and humanity. When that comes, I have those difficulties at night. And then I ask, I want to know the REAL secretnot all the things people have told (which all seem to me just like a story to to comfort children), but the REAL thing. When I go into deep rest with that tension, its always translated by those things collapsing: I try to climb and crunch! crunch! crunch! all the time, all the time everything crumbles under the weight of my ascent. Until I see that ill will trying to stop me from finding what I want to find, so I get angry and it stops instantlyis angry the word? I dont know: I refuse, I refuse the situation. Then it stops short.
And I awake saying to myself, You see, its all your fault: as long as you accept, you cannot know, you are in the dark; when you really refuse, you will know.
0 1963-12-31, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I was asked for an illustration for H.; I saw the image, the Lords face with a sardonic smile. And then, after last nights experience, this morning suddenly that expression of the face changed, and I saw the image of the true, the true sorrow of Compassion I dont know how to explain it. The sardonic smile changed: from sardonic it grew bitter, from bitter it grew sorrowful, from sorrowful it grew full of an extraordinary Compassion.
(silence)
0 1964-01-04, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yet has she more than any other the heart of the universal Mother. For her Compassion is endless
I cant see I am imagining more than seeing.
--
Imperial MAHESHWARI is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them. For she is the mighty and wise One who opens us to the supramental infinities and the cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the supreme Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mothers eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm for ever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. A strength is in her that meets everything and masters and none can prevail in the end against her vast intangible wisdom and high tranquil power. Equal, patient and unalterable in her will she deals with men according to their nature and with things and happenings according to their Force and the truth that is in them. Partiality she has none, but she follows the decrees of the Supreme and some she raises up and some she casts down or puts away from her into the darkness. To the wise she gives a greater and more luminous wisdom; those that have vision she admits to her counsels; on the hostile she imposes the consequence of their hostility; the ignorant and foolish she leads according to their blindness. In each man she answers and handles the different elements of his nature according to their need and their urge and the return they call for, puts on them the required pressure or leaves them to their cherished liberty to prosper in the ways of the Ignorance or to perish. For she is above all, bound by nothing, attached to nothing in the universe. Yet has she more than any other the heart of the universal Mother. For her Compassion is endless and inexhaustible; all are to her eyes her children and portions of the One, even the Asura and Rakshasa and Pisacha6 and those that are revolted and hostile. Even her rejections are only a postponement, even her punishments are a grace. But her Compassion does not blind her wisdom or turn her action from the course decreed; for the Truth of things is her one concern, knowledge her centre of power and to build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth her mission and her labour.
Ganapati, or Ganesh: the son of the supreme Mother, god of material knowledge and wealth. He is represented with an elephant's head.
0 1964-01-08, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wanted to see this sardonic laugh of the Lord! So I looked, and instead of a sardonic laugh, I saw a face with such a deep sorrowso deep, so grave and full of such Compassion. Its after that that I said (you remember, it was over there,1 I was seeing that): Falsehood is the sorrow of the Lord. It was naturally based on the experience that everything is the Lordthere is nothing that cannot be the Lord. So what is this sardonic smile? I was looking at that, and then I saw this face.
So, as I am supposed to do sketches for H.s paintings, I did the sketch: Falsehood is the sorrow of the Lord.
0 1965-10-16, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I always saw him with a perfectly peaceful and smiling face, and above all, the dominant expression was Compassion. That was what predominated in his appearance. An expression of Compassion so so peaceful, so tranquil, oh, magnificent.
That bust was made by a German woman (Else Fraenkel) and installed in Sri Aurobindo's room in 1958 at the disciples' instance. (One wonders why a bust, with golden illumination, was needed in this room.)
0 1965-11-27, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its quite clear that with the breadth and totality of the vision something comes which is a Compassion that understandsnot that pity of the superior for the inferior: the true divine Compassion, which is the total understanding that everyone is what he must be.
There remain only distortions. There was also the explanation of distortions. It was a decisive vision that puts everything in its place. A true revelation.
0 1965-12-04, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Basically, in order to feel at home in the world as it is today, one must belong to the category I spoke of the other day, of those who have established a harmony with all the human faculties, who are satisfied, and also who are egocentric enough not even to notice that things arent that way for others. Then its fine; otherwise Sri Aurobindo very much belonged (in his outward being) to the category of those who want things to change, who push for progress, who want to move on, who want to reject the past very much so. He had to make a great effort to be satisfied with things and people; it was his Compassion that made him accept people around him as they were. Otherwise he used to suffer a lot.
And thats what wears out and tires and disorganizes.
0 1966-08-03, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And then, what discoveries I make! Extraordinary discoveries: how every experience always has an obverse and a reverse. For instance, the calm of a vision thats vast enough not to be disturbed by tiny infinitesimal points and is (I was about to say seems to be, but it doesnt seem to be: it IS) the result of a growth of consciousness and of an identification with the higher regions, and at the same time that apparent insensitiveness that looks like the negation of divine Compassion; there comes a point when you see both as having become true and being able to exist not simultaneously but as ONE thing. As recently as the day before yesterday, I had the perfectly concrete experience of an extremely intense wave of divine Compassion [in the face of one of those psychological contagions], and I had the opportunity to observe how, if this Compassion is allowed to manifest on a certain plane, it becomes an emotion that may disturb or trouble the imperturbable calm; but if it manifests (they arent the same planes: there are imperceptible nuances), if it manifests in its essential truth, it retains all its power of action, of effective help, and it in no way changes the imperturbable calm of the eternal vision.
All those are experiences of nuances (or nuances of experiences, I dont know how to put it) that become necessary and concrete only in the physical consciousness. And then, it results in a perfection of realizationa perfection in the minutest detailwhich none of those realizations have in the higher realms. I am learning what the physical realization contri butes in terms of concreteness, accuracy and perfection in the Realization; and how all those experiences interpenetrate, combine with each other, complement each otherits wonderful.
0 1966-09-14, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ultimately, its only when you are absolutely sure you have the vision of the truth that its legitimate to intervene. Not only that, but also the clear vision of consequences. In order to intervene in anothers actions, you must be a propheta prophet. And a prophet with total benevolence and Compassion. You must even have the vision of the consequence the intervention will have in the others destiny. People are constantly giving each other advice: Do this, dont do that. I see that, they dont realize the extent to which they create confusion, they add to the confusion and disorder. And sometimes they harm the individuals normal development.
I consider opinions to be always dangerous things, and most of the time without any value whatever.
0 1966-09-17, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The wonder the wonderis this infinite Compassion thanks to which nothing is destroyed: it waits. Its there, waiting with its full power, its full force, and it simply asserts its presence without imposing it, so as to reduce the damage to the minimum.
Its a marvelous, marvelous Compassion!
And all those fools call it impotence!
0 1966-09-28, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But then, when that true Compassion of divine Love comes and you see all those things that look so horrible, so abnormal, so absurd, that great pain over all beings and even over things Then there was born in this physical being the aspiration to relieve, to cure, to make all that disappear. There is something in Love in its Origin that is constantly expressed by the intervention of the Grace; a force, a sweetness, something like a vibration of solace, spread everywhere, but which an enlightened consciousness can direct, concentrate on certain points. And thats just where I saw the true use one could make of thought: thought is used as a channel to carry the vibration from place to place, wherever its necessary. This force, this vibration of sweetness is there over the world in a static way, pressing to be received, but its an impersonal action, and thoughtenlightened thought, surrendered thought, the thought that is nothing more than an instrument, that no longer tries to set things in motion, that is satisfied with being moved by the higher Consciousness thought is used as an intermediary to make contact, to build a connection and allow this impersonal Force to act wherever its necessary, on precise points.
(silence)
--
So then, to return to the letter, when you are conscious of this Forcethis Force, this Compassion in its essential reality and see how it can be exerted through a conscious individual, you have the key to the problem.
Ive had experiences1
0 1966-10-05, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
About the financial situation, I have a little story to tell you, which took place on Sunday or Monday. I told you that the situation was quite to ordinary consciousnesses, it was critical. And there was a payment to be made. I dont remember the material details, but something had to be paid very urgently (I think it was to the workers: they were hungry and hadnt been given their money). And I needed a certain amountwhich I didnt have: I had nothing. Then a sort of Compassion came into me for those people who didnt have any money. I saw it wasnt right, and I couldnt do anything because there was none. So, in the evening while I was walking (I have an hour of meditation and quiet, of concentration), I presented it all like this (gesture upward), and with an almost childlike attitude I said to the Lord (He was there, of course, I was with Him) something that can be translated (I dont know, I dont speak but it could be translated into words) roughly like this: I know You are with me and behind everything I do and everywhere, but Id like to know whether what I do, the work I do, interests You or not! (Mother laughs) And if it does interest You, well, I must have this money.
It came like that, in a quite childlike form, but very, very pure. And two days later, when it was necessary for the money to come, for me to have money, just as everything seemed quite impossible, Amrita suddenly came in, telling me, Here, so-and-so has sent a cheque for such-and-such an amount.Exactly the amount needed. And I think it was the first time that person had sent money. It was quite unexpected, absolutely a miraclea miracle for children. The required amount, just at the required time, and absolutely unexpected. Then I had a good laugh. And I said to myself, How silly we can be! We dont know that everything happens exactly as it has to.
0 1966-11-19, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
According to the law of men, the guilty must be punished. But there is a more imperative law than the human law: it is the law of the Divine, the law of Compassion and mercy. It is thanks to this law that the world can last and progress
The vision was so clear. It was such a clear vision. If you follow this law of the guilty who must be punished, then little by little, with the unfolding of things, everything should be punished! (Mother laughs) Nothing would remain! So Sri Aurobindo said:
--
And I saw this note of yesterday as indicative of the key (I mean inwardly, in the universal attitudes). It was all clearly seen: men always believe that the guilty must be punished, that its the way out of the difficulty, but the true way is Compassion and mercy. Its not that you are ignorant of the true movement and the false one, but you have SPONTANEOUS mercy, effortlessly and at all times. The vision was very clear that this is how progress is possibleif the fault were always punished, there wouldnt be anyone left to progress!
Thats the conclusion.
0 1966-12-07, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, the other day someone asked me a question on the message for November 24,1 and Sri Aurobindo replied. It was so interesting! I saw something all of a sudden. While he was speaking it was absolutely marvelous. I saw the Compassion and the Grace, the law and the Compassion, and how the Compassion acts on everyoneon everyone and everything, without distinction and without condition and how the Compassion consists in bringing them to a state in which they can receive the Grace.
I found that wonderful.
That was the experience: I saw and felt this Compassion working through the meshes of the net, and how the Grace is all-powerful, meaning that the Law isnt an obstacle any longer. I saw this Compassion touching everyone and giving everyone their chance; I understood what he really meant when he said that it gives everyone their chanceequally, without the slightest distinction of importance or condition or anything, or of state: exactly the same chance to all. So then, the result of this Compassion was to awaken them to the existence of the Grace, to make them feel that there is in the universe something like the Grace. And with those who aspire and have trust, the Grace acts immediatelyit always acts, but with those who have trust it becomes fully effective.
All this was so clear, so precise! It really was like a new experience, a revelation. And how Sri Aurobindo was the expression of this Compassion. It could be seen in his eyes, of course, his eyes were full of Compassion. But I have understood what this Compassion really is (that was Sunday afternoon).
He also wrote somewhere: It is quite rare that the Grace turns away from someone, but many turn away from the Grace but men turn away from the Grace. I dont remember the exact words, but I think he used the word crooked. That also was so living: it wasnt the Grace withdrawing its action, not at all (the Grace went on acting), but men were, yes, crooked, twisted
--
"There are these three powers [governing life on earth]: (1) The Cosmic Law, of Karma or what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and giving them their chance; (3) the Divine Grace which acts more incalculably but also more irresistibly than the others."
(Sri Aurobindo)
0 1967-01-11, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, a patience People constantly bring revolt, abuse, all that. To me its an absolute zero, and sometimes its even amusing; sometimes I find it funny. But when I find it funny is not when I am in my best state, because when I am in my own state the true state of Compassionit doesnt change anything, it doesnt even make a ripple on the surface, nothing. When its funny is when it makes me start working on people who have done one thing or another. When something is at work, then I find it amusing.
Yesterday, I was asked the question; I was asked whether abuse, the feeling of being abused, and what in English is called self-respect (which is somewhat akin to self-esteem), have a place in the sadhana. Naturally, they dont, that goes without saying! But I saw the movement, it was extremely clear: I saw that without ego, when the ego isnt there, there CANNOT be that sort of ruffling in the being. I went back far into the past, to the time when I could still feel it (years ago), but now its not even something unfamiliarits something which is impossible. The whole being, and strangely even the physical constitution, doesnt understand what it means. Its the same thing when materially there is a knock (Mother shows a scratch on her elbow), like this for instance: its no longer felt the way an injury is felt. Its no longer felt that way. More often than not, theres nothing at all, it goes absolutely unnoticed on the whole; but when there is something, its only an impressiona very sweet, very intimate impressionof a help trying to make itself felt, of a lesson to be learned. But not the way its done mentally where there is always a stiffening; its not that: its immediately a kind of offering in the being, which gives itself in order to learn. I am speaking of all the cells. Its very interesting. Of course, if we mentalize it, we have to say its the sense or awareness of the divine Presence in all things, and that the mode the mode of contactcomes from the state in which we are.
0 1967-03-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is the maximum use of all possibilities and all impossibilities, all capacities and all incapacities; a maximum use in a maximum power and a maximum Compassion, and then a smile! A smile, a sense of humour, oh! Such a benevolent irony, so full of Compassion, so wonderful. And this presumptuous mind, which is an incredible phenomenon indeed: it spends its time judging what it doesnt know and deciding on what it doesnt see!
(silence)
0 1967-09-16, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, the first impression was painful, then I took a good look; and at bottom, the whole trouble comes from the fact that this person has a very high opinion of herself, she judges everything from the height of her superiority for instance, that air of benevolent Compassion for the Ashram. But that was my first impression when I saw her for the first time, and it has been growing since then and this letter has fully confirmed it.
So then, I didnt say anything, but yesterday I made F. talk about the lady, and she finally told me, There is something I have never told you because it made me uneasy, but today I will tell you. Soon after we first met, Mrs. Z told me one day (I repeat word for word), Because of MY position and YOUR position, I am convinced that we are destined to bring about the rapprochement of the Catholic Church and the Ashram. F. told me, I didnt replydidnt argue, didnt answer, didnt say a word or anything, I just left it at that.
0 1967-09-30, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is something inexorablewhy? I dont understand. Because Christ came, on the contrary, to speak of brotherhood, goodness, charity, Compassion. Yet this expression has something inexorableyes, there is no other word: thin-lipped and the mouth in a straight line like this (same blade-like gesture). It gives the appearance of a terrible nastiness, something inexorable (which found expression in the Inquisition, tortures and so on). Why is it there? But that German, for instance, the light was there when he was a baby, the day after his birthhe didnt have an inexorable mouth at that time!
But the difficulty with all those people the Pope, this German, those Rosicruciansis that basically they only think in terms of a Church.
0 1968-02-03, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But when the body is ready, it will be able to let itself go like that WITHOUT BEING DISSOLVED. And thats the work of preparation. The movement, yes, is to let oneself melt entirely. But the result is the egos abolition, that is to say, an UNKNOWN state, you understand, which we may call physically unrealized, because all those who sought Nirvana did so by giving up their body, whereas our work is to make the body, the material substance, capable of melting; but then, the principle of individualization remains, and all the egos drawbacks disappear. Thats the present attempt. How to keep the form without the egos presence?thats the problem. Well, thats how it takes place, little by little, little by little. Thats why it takes time: each element is taken up again, transformed. Thats the marvel, that is it (for the ordinary consciousness, its a miracle): its keeping the form while entirely losing the ego. For the vital and the mind, its easier to understand (for most people its very difficult, but still for those who are ready, its easy to understand, and then the action can be much more rapid), but HERE, this (Mother points to her body), for it not to be dissolved by this movement of fusion? Well, thats precisely the experience, thats it. And there is a slight movement of patience, a movement of its really the deep essence of Compassion: the minimum wastage for the maximum effect. That is, one goes as fast as one can, but delays arise from the need to prepare the various elements.
Thats precisely the so interesting curve at present unfolding. At times, you feel as if everything, everything is dissolving, getting disorganized; and I have observed closely: at first the physical consciousness wasnt sufficiently enlightened, and when those inner preparations took place, it would feel, Ah, this must be what heralds death; then, little by little, came the knowledge that it wasnt that at all, it was only the inner preparation to be capable, capable of identification. And then, on the contrary, the very clear vision of this plasticity so particular, this suppleness so extraordinary that if it were realized once its realized, it obviously means the abolition of the necessity of death.
This mornings experience was Everything was an immense ocean of luminous consciousness, and so powerful! Tremendously powerful. And something so sweet at the same time, so Compassionate, but causeless there was no cause: just like that. Like Divine Love which is without object, its like that. So this body starts floating in that, lighter and lighter, more and more transparent, and still remains the impression is of bark, but not even all over. Its a strange impression of something that still has contradictions. But not deliberate contradictions, its not that: incapacitiesspots of powerlessness, a lack of receptivity. But little by little, gradually, slowly, that gets cured.
Each experience and now its going fasteach experience points to a great step forward.
--
In my life, I have been given so many, so many experiences, as proof that EVERYTHING is possible. For instance, when I was twenty-two, one night, after an experience I had in the night (I forget the details of it) at the time women wore dresses that exactly touched the ground, just touched it without resting on it (gesture of skimming the ground), and in my experience at night, I had grown tallin the morning, there was one inch between the dress and the ground! Which means that the body had grown one inch WITH THE NIGHTS EXPERIENCE. You see, in the nights experience I had grown tall (I dont remember the details), and in the morning And Ive been given that material verification for many such experiences, so as to be sure, so the body may be convinced without having to repeat the experiences over and over again. So it KNOWS, it knows there is nothing impossible, it knows impossible doesnt mean anything. But it doesnt depend on an individual will, you understand. The Consciousness which rules things is a marvel of wisdom, patience, Compassion, endurance. When there is destruction or disorder, it means its absolutely unavoidable, absolutelybecause matters resistance in the individual or in things is so strong that it quite naturally brings about disorder or destruction. But that doesnt form part of the Action, the supreme Action, which is a marvel. The body has understood that; it has understood, it is patient. Only, from time to time (how can I put it?) There are people whom I prevent from dyingseveral people. I dont yet have the consciousness, the conscious power to cure them, but the possibility is there and I maintain it above them. That is to say, its not all-powerful in the sense that a certain receptivity, a certain response, a certain attitude are necessary which arent always there (human natures are very fluctuating, there are ups and downs and more ups and downs, and that makes the work very difficult), but at times, during a down spell, when a being suffers or sags, there is something in the consciousness [of Mother], a Compassion (how can I explain that?) Affliction and all those movements are movements of weakness, but that is something at once very strong and very sweet, almost like sorrow, and the whole, entire consciousness in the body rises like a prayer and an aspirationa pure prayer: Why are things still in this pitiful state, why? Why? And it instantly has an effect [in the sick person]. Unfortunately, the effect doesnt last; it doesnt last because certain conditions in others are still necessary. But its wonderful, you know! Its something so wonderful. And it makes one understand the necessity of a presence on this side, a presence capable of feeling, understanding still IN THE OTHER WAY, so the suffering of others may be a reality. And that also is taken into account, that also means time is needed, patience is needed. Now the body knows ittheres no longer any impatience; there is only, now and then, that sort of sorrow, especially when beings are full of aspiration, goodwill, faith, and in spite of it this suffering is still there, clinging. That on one side, and on the other, one thing: there is still a sort of horror and reprobation of acts of cruelty, of THE cruelty; thats And then, there is this awesome Poweryou feel, you can feel that a mere nothing, a simple little movement would, oh, bring about a catastrophe. So you have to keep that still, still, still so what happens may always be the best.
Now stupidity, imbecility, ignorance, all those things are looked at with a patience which waits for them to grow. But bad will and crueltyespecially viciousness, cruelty, what LOVES to cause suffering thats still difficult, one still has to keep a hold on oneself. In figurative language (not language, but a way of being), its Kali that wants to strike, and I have to tell her, Keep still, keep still. But thats a human transcription. All those gods, all those beings are real, they exist, but its a transcription. True truth is beyond all that.
0 1968-10-26, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This physical, this physical consciousness (I dont think its a personal physical consciousness), the general physical consciousness was, in this body, seized with such a pity, oh! I cant say pity its something very special: a very intimate, very tender Compassion for the human physical condition. But it seized me in massive proportions! Nothing else remained in the consciousness, and if I hadnt controlled it, I would have started crying and crying.
That has been the dominant note of these last few days.
And as if underneath, as if coming from the depths, beneath, the perception of this Compassion the divine Compassion the perception of the way the thing is seen and felt by the Divine. That was wonderful.
It really was a dominant note.
0 1968-11-09, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But there was in her mental formation a DEEP PITY for human suffering, and especially, especially an extraordinary Compassion. Oh, precisely for the suffering of death, for that transition, that moment of transition the suffering of death. That used to preoccupy her very much. And thats what was there the whole night of her death; it was a very bad nightbad in the sense that I suffered a lot, and very difficult. Didnt sleep for one minute.
Then, when I learned she had left, the first thing that came (gesture of mental vibration): Oh, how lonely she must have felt when she died! And it preoccupied me a lot, until her thought told me, Now its over, we wont think about it anymore. She must have had a difficult moment.
0 1969-03-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It also explained the use the raison dtre and the use, the utilizationof emotions: how all those things which in their incomplete state are seem to be obstacles and things to be got rid of, how, as soon as the consciousness is clarified, union is established, separation has disappeared, how all those things take their place and their full usefulness. Now I dont remember, but a few days ago I had such an interesting example! I dont remember (thats deliberate, I dont remember anything), but out of a movement of consciousness here (and now the body is very conscious of this presence of the superman consciousness, its very open and grateful, and very conscious), well, it saw a movement something resembling Compassion, a keen Compassion, but with the emotion the vital feels when it has Compassion (what the vital adds, that is); it saw that, and immediately saw the resulting effect and the response. It was someone (I forget who, the memory is deliberately taken away), it had to do with something that had happened to someone; this body consciousness reacted with a sort of moved pity, and that multiplied the power TENFOLD the effect of the power on the curebecause it was completely impersonal. It was the Power using that [emotion] as a means of action.
Constantly, constantly, its: learn and learn and learn. Interesting! (Mother laughs)
0 1969-04-02, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We could say this: if you compare the consciousness, not of ordinary humanity but the higher consciousness of humanity, the consciousness one has when one is a man and endeavors to come into contact with the higher consciousness (the contact one has with it), if you compare that with this Consciousness, you feel that as soon as the human consciousness tried to contact higher things, to purify lower movements, to widen, it used to become fluid, transparent, ethereal, whereas this Consciousness, with a vision, a perception INFINITELY SUPERIOR to the other, is solid and concrete. And the impression is its so strong! I said at the beginning that I felt as if surrounded by a protection [the rampart], something solid; well, its remained like that, with this solidity, and at the same time infinitely vaster, loftier, more understanding. And, yes, this solidity. And in this something I must call benevolence for lack of a better word, theres such an extraordinary Power of Compassion! Something like almost an intolerance of sufferingof PHYSICAL suffering (its not much interested in the moral suffering that stems from a moral distortion, it finds it idiotic), the wholly material suffering that comes from the structure and working of the material world: it finds that unacceptable. I dont know how to express it, theres a sort of refusal to accept that. I am observing (were still in a phase of observation), and from the experiences I have, it seems to me that this Power can, at least to some extent, transform physical suffering, cancel it. In some cases its obvious, but its not a constant fact. I dont know. Thats why, for instance, I was hoping, from what I had seen and what took place, that your nights would get better, but Naturally, I am an extremely imperfect instrument.
Theyre much better.
--
There is (for me, everything is now a question of vibrations), there is a certain vibration, which I find it hard to describe because there are no words, but which has to do, as I said, with Compassion (I dont know what to call it, but its very, very intense, those perceptions are very intense), and when it comes, it really has extraordinary power, but it doesnt seem to have the possibility (Mother suddenly tips over two fingers) of an abrupt change. In some cases, people have been completely quite relieved, but not cured.
My mother, you did cure her.2
0 1969-05-31, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(After a silence) I cant say (its inexpressible), it was something that contained horror, dread, sorrow and a Compassion, oh, intense! Never, never had the body felt things like that. Besides, that put it in a rather critical state for a few hours. Afterwards, it was as if everything, everything cameevery single thingwith a Smile and a resplendent Light; as if (to put it into childrens words), as if the Lord were saying, See, I am everywhere. See, I am in all things. It was unbelievableunbelievable. But theres no communication between the two.
You understand, that was when the body said, What? Shall we have to go on and on with that? Must we go on and on with that? The world, people, the whole creationgo on and on with that? It seemed I suddenly understood: Ah! Thats what they expressed as perpetual hell. Thats it. It was someone who had that perception.
0 1969-08-27, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, he didnt want to. He was all Compassion, goodness, patience.
Twice I saw him get angry with hertwice. But he instantly got a grip on himself.
--
(Mother gives Satprem and Sujata flowers of Sri Aurobindos Compassion)
See Agenda I, 26 March 1959.
0 1970-05-30, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
529Indiscriminate Compassion is the noblest gift of temperament, not to do even the least hurt to one living thing is the highest of all human virtues; but God practises neither. Is man therefore nobler and better than the All-loving?
528Human pity is born of ignorance and weakness; it is the slave of emotional impressions. Divine Compassion understands, discerns and saves.
You answer:
0 1971-05-01, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We must have Compassion and help them.
But I didnt have a chance to tell him. He seemed to be a man (gesture like iron). I dont know whats happening, but its like that everywhere, everywhere.
0 1971-09-14, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
They are covered with Sri Aurobindos Compassion, and near the head, there is a slightly broken pot with new creation, and near the feet a pot of devotion,1 the same for both. I found that very nice, but nothing has been done.
Ive never heard Pavitra complain about it! (laughter)
0 1972-01-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It may interest the reader to know that according to Sri Aurobindo, these colours generally have the following significances, though the exact meaning may vary "with the field, the combinations, the character and shades of the colour, the play of forces": red = physical; orange = supramental in the physical; yellow = thinking mind; green = life; blue = higher mind; violet = divine Compassion or grace; gold = divine Truth; white = the light of the Mother, or the Divine Consciousness. (See also Agenda IV, May 18, 1963.)
March 30, 1935. (Question:) Sri Aurobindo is bound to be wholly supramental and is being supramentalised in parts. If that is true and it iswell, he can't die till he is supramental and once he is so he is immortal. (Answer:) "It looks very much like a non-sequitur. The first part and the last are all right but the link is fragile. How do you know I won't take a fancy to die in between as a joke?" (Question:) Some people say that yourself and the Mother would have been supramentalised long ago if only we had not kept you down. Is it really true? (Answer:) "I can't say there is no truth in it."
0 1973-01-20, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Dalai Lama:) It is my dream to have the perfect economic development of Tibet, the perfect organization, the efficiency that we find in Communism, but all this based upon, founded upon the Buddhistic qualities of Compassion and Love, so that the people in power do not degenerate into corruption. What is Mothers view of this dream, and whether such a thing will be realized in Tibet?
It is not a dream. It will naturally be. But the time it will take, I do not know. This is something like what Sri Aurobindo has said about the Supramental.
Truth, Love, Compassion will give a basis to the new creation. It is not birth but the value of men that should give the right to authority.
If the teaching of Sri Aurobindo can spread over the world, and if there is the full manifestation of the Supramental, then the Supramental will be the power of the liberation of Tibet.
0 1973-02-14, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, Mother, I say this in all humility, because Ive been doing this work for eighteen years now; and I see how many years it took me, how many blunders, and how much help Sri Aurobindo gave me until I really started getting into the proper spirit. So I have Compassion for these people, I quite understand why they make mistakes. What annoys me is how they can be so sure of themselves. Its a pity.
Sometimes people understand a poor translation better than a good one.
03.01 - Humanism and Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There is indeed a gradation in the humanistic attitude that rises from grosser and more concrete forms to those that are less and less so. At the lowest rung and the most obvious in form and nature is what is called altruism, or philanthropy, that is to say, doing good to others, some good that is tangible and apparent, that is esteemed and valued by the world generally. In altruism refined and sublimated, when it is no longer a matter chiefly of doing but of feeling, from a more or less physical and material give and take we rise into a vital and psychological sympathy and intercommunion, we have what is humanism proper. Humanism is transfigured into something still higher and finer when from the domain of personal or individual feeling and sympathy we ascend to cosmic feeling, to self-identification with the All, the One that is Many. This is the experience that seems to be behind the Buddhistic Compassion, karu
And yet there can be a status even beyond. For beyond the cosmic reality, lies the transcendent reality. It is the Absolute, neti, neti, into which individual and cosmos, all disappear and vanish. In Compassion, the cosmic communion, there is a trace and an echo of humanismit is perhaps one of the reasons why Europeans generally are attracted to Buddhism and find it more congenial than Hinduism with its dizzy Vedantic heights; but in the status of the transcendent Selfhood humanism is totally transcended and transmuted, one dwells then in the Bliss that passeth all feeling.
The Upanishadic summit is not suffused with humanism or touched by it, because it is supra-human, not because there is a lack or want or deficiency in the human feeling, but because there is a heightening and a transcendence in the consciousness and being. To man, to human valuation, the Boddhisattwa may appear to be greater than the Buddha; even so to the sick a physician or a nurse may seem to be a diviner angel than any saint or sage or perhaps God Himself but that is an inferior viewpoint, that of particular or local interest.
--
The fact of the matter is that here we enter a domain inwhich the notion of egoism or selfishness has no raison dtre. It is only when one has transcended not only selfishness but egoism and sense of individuality that one becomes ready to enter the glory and beatitude of the Self, or Brahman or Shunyam. One may actually and irrevocably pass beyond, or one may return from there (or from the brink of it) to work in and on the worldout of Compassion or in obedience to a special call or a higher Will or because of some other thing; but this second course does not mean that one has attained a higher status of being. We may consider it more human, but it is not necessarily a superior realisation. It is a matter of choice of vocation only, to use a mundane phraseology. The Personal and the Impersonal are two co-ordinates of the same supreme Realitysome choose (or are chosen by) the one and others choose (or are chosen by) the other, perhaps as the integral Play or the inscrutable Plan demands and determines, but neither is intrinsically superior to the otheralthough, as I have already said, from an interested human standpoint, one may seem more immediately profitable or nearer than the other; but from that standpoint there may be other truths that are still more practically useful, still closer to the earthly texture of humanity.
The humanism, known to Europe generally, both in its profane and religious aspects, is all "humantoo human" as Nietzsche pronounced it; it was for this reason that the Promethean prophet conjured man to transcend his humanity anyhow, and rise to a superior status of culture and civilisation, of being and consciousness as we would say.
03.04 - The Vision and the Boon, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It leaned Compassionate from immortal calm
And housed desire, the troubled seed of things.
03.06 - Divine Humanism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There is, indeed, a gradation in the humanistic attitude that rises from grosser and more concrete forms to those that are less and less so. At the lowest rung and the most obvious in form and nature is what is called altruism, or more especially, philanthropy, that is to say, doing good to others, some good j that is tangible and apparent, that is esteemed and valued by the world generally. In an altruism refined and sublimated, when it is no longer a matter primarily of doing but of feeling, when, from a more or less physical and material give and take, we rise into a vital and psychological sympathy and inter communion, we have what is humanism proper. Humanism is transfigured into something still higher and finer when, from the domain of personal or individual feeling" and sympathy, we ascend to cosmic feeling, to self-identification with the All, the One that is Many. This is the experience that seems to be behind the Buddhistic Compassion, karu.
And yet there can be a status even beyond. For, beyond the cosmic reality lies the transcendent reality. It is the Absolute, neti, neti, into which individual and cosmos, all disappear and vanish. In Compassion, the cosmic communion, there is a trace and an echo of humanismit is perhaps one of the reasons why Europeans generally are attracted to Buddhism and find it more congenial than Hinduism with its dizzy Vedantic heights. But in the status of the transcendent Self-hood, humanism is totally transcended and transmuted; one dwells there in the Bliss that passeth all feeling.
The Upanishadic summit is not suffused with humanism or touched by it, because it is supra-human, not because there is a lack or deficiency in the human feeling, but because there is a heightening and a transcendence in the consciousness and being. To man, to human valuation, the Bodhisattva may appear to be greater than the Buddha; even so to the sick a physician or a nurse may seem to be a diviner angel than any saint or sage or perhaps God himself but that is an inferior view-point, that of particular or local interest.
--
The fact of the matter is that here we enter a domain in which the notion of egoism or selfishness has no raison d'tre. It is only when one has transcended not only selfishness, but egoism and all sense of individuality that one becomes ready to step into the glory and beatitude of the Self or Brahman or unyam. One may actually and irrevocably pass beyond, or one may return from there (or from the brink of it) to work in and on the worldout of Compassion, or in obedience to a special call or a higher Will, or because of some other thing; but this second course does not mean that one has attained a higher status of being. We may consider it more human, but it is not necessarily a superior realisation. It is a matter of choice of vocation only, to use a mundane figure. The Personal and the Impersonal are two co-ordinates of the same supreme Realitysome choose (or are chosen by) one and others choose (or chosen by) the other, perhaps as the integral Play or the inscrutable Plan demands and determines, but neither is intrinsically superior to the other.
The humanism with which Europe is familiar, both in its profane and religious aspects, would look, from an IndianVedanticstandpoint, all 'human, too human'; it was a European who declared it so. It was for this reason that the Promethean prophet conjured man to transcend his humanity anyhow and rise to a superior status of culture and civilisationof being and consciousness, as we would say.
03.08 - The Standpoint of Indian Art, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is this characteristic that struck the European mind in its first contact with the Indian artistic world and called forth the criticism that Indian culture lacks in humanism. It is true, a very sublimated humanism finds remarkable expression in Ajanta, and perhaps it is here that the Western eye began to learn and appreciate the Indian style of beauty; even in Ajanta, however, in the pieces where the art reaches its very height, mere humanism seems to be at its minimum. And if we go beyond these productions that reflect the mellowness and humaneness of the Buddhist Compassion, if we go into the sanctuary of the Brahmanic art, we find that the experiences embodied there and the method of expression become more and more "anonymous"; they have not, that is to say, the local colour of humanity, which alone makes the European mind feel entirely at home. Europe's revulsion of feeling against Indian art came chiefly from her first meeting with the multiple-headed, multiple-armed, expressionless, strangely poised Hindu gods and goddesses, so different in every way from ordinary human types.
Indian art had to be non-human, because its aim was to be supra-human, unnatural, because its very atmosphere was the supra-natural.
03.09 - Buddhism and Hinduism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Hinduism, one may even say, Indianism, has cast Buddhism out of India, the mother country, to the wonder of many. Buddhism came to rub out the dead deposits and accretions on the parent body and in doing so it often rubbed on the raw and against the grain. Hinduism had to accept the corrections; in the process it had to absorb, however, many elements contrary to its nature, even antipathic to its soul. Buddha was accepted as an Avatar; he was given a divine status in the Hindu Pantheon. Divested, apparently, of all heterodoxical and controversial appendages, he was anointed with the sole sufficing aspect of supreme kindness, universal Compassion. Even so, in and through this Assumption, not a little of the peculiarly Buddhist inspiration entered the original organism. The most drastic and of far-reaching consequence was the inauguration and idolisation of monastic life, which has become since then in Indian conception, the summum bonum, the supreme goal of human existence. It was not without reason that India's older and truer tradition cried out against Shankara being a crypto-Buddhist (pracchanna bauddha), who was yet one of the most consistent and violent critics of Buddhism.
Life is an expression of the Divine Presence, earth is the field of labour for the godssuch was the original old-world Vedic view. It was the Buddhist dispensation that made life an inferior truth, a complex of unreality and decreed that the highest aim of man is to disappear from life after life's fitful fever to sleep well that seems to have been the motto given.
Buddhism saw and accepted a world of misery; therefore it knew how to touch the human heart, open up the doors in human consciousness to sympathy and Compassion and love. Life it envisaged as an unreal persistence and therefore awakened and installed there the fiery urge towards withdrawal, ascension and transcendence. It was Buddhism that canonised the way of asceticism, laid out the path of the Everlasting Nayalthough called (somewhat euphemistically perhaps) the Middle Path being tempered by an attitude of sweet reasonableness in the inner heart.
The original and primeval Indianism was built upon the Vedic realisation of the Everlasting Yes. That luminous body of an integral realisation, which means the Veda, came to be covered over by a more strenuous demand of immediate necessity, by an over-emphasis on one side or aspect or line of growth of the human consciousness; a negative approach was needed for man to rise out of its too earthly a tenement to glimpse his divine possibility beyond, before he could hope to build it here below. The long reign of Siva was a necessary preparation for the advent of Vishnu.
03.10 - The Mission of Buddhism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
As it took man as a rational animal, at least as a starting-point, even so it gave a sober human value to things human. A rationalist's eye made him see and recognise the normal misery of mankind; and the great Compassion goaded him to find the way out of the misery. It was not a dispassionate quest into the ultimate truth and reality nor an all-consuming zeal to meet the Divine that set Buddha on the Path; it was the everyday problem of the ordinary man which troubled his mind, and for which he sought a solution, a permanent radical solution. The Vedanist saw only delight and ecstasy and beatitude; forhim the dark shadow did not exist at all or did not matter; it was the product of illusion or wrong view of things; one was asked to ignore or turn away from this and look towards That. Such was not the Buddha's procedure.
These are the two primarytruthsrya saryawhichBuddha's illumination meant and for which he has become one of the great divine leaders of humanity. First, he has discovered man's rationality, and second, he has discovered man's humanity. Since his advent two thousand and five hundred years ago till the present day, in this what may pertinently be called the Buddhist age of humanity, the entire growth, development and preoccupation of mankind was centred upon the twofold truth. Science and religion today are the highest expressions of that achievement.
03.14 - Mater Dolorosa, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is a counsel of perfection, one would say. But there is no other way out. If humanity is to be saved, if it is at all to progress, it can be only in this direction. Buddha's was no less a counsel of perfection. He saw the misery of man, the three great maladies inherent in life and his supreme Compassion led him to the discovery of a remedy, a radical remedy,indeed it could remove the malady altogether, for it removed the patient also. What we propose is, in this sense, something less drastic. Ours is not a path of escape, although that too needs heroism, but of battle and conquest and lordship.
It is not to say that other remediesless radical but more normal to human naturecannot be undertaken in the meanwhile. The higher truths do not rule out the lower. These too have their place and utility in Nature's integral economy. An organisation based on science and ethicism can be of help as a palliative and measure of relief; it may be even immediately necessary under the circumstances, but however imperative at the moment it does not go to the root of the matter.
04.06 - To the Heights VI (Maheshwari), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Sheds, equal and unruffled, her benign Compassion on obscure mortals,
Draws them infallibly ever nearer to her through the rolling ages
04.10 - To the Heights-X, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Pour, pour thy soothing Light, O Divine Compassion!
When men have passed through their little illusions,
04.20 - To the Heights-XX, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
We obey the gesture of a Compassion that sees and feels, that relieves and delivers.
This surface is a veil, a tissue made of obscurity,
04.30 - To the HeightsXXX, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Into the single orb of thy Compassion,
O my One and All!
05.01 - Man and the Gods, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Man possesses characters that mark him as an entity sui generis and give him the value that is his. First, toil and suffering and more failures than success have given him the quality of endurance and patience, of humility and quietness. That is the quality of earth-natureearth is always spoken of by the poets and seers as all-bearing and all-forgiving. She never protests under any load put upon her, never rises in revolt, never in a hurry or in worry, she goes on with her appointed labour silently, steadily, calmly, unflinchingly. Human consciousness can take infinite pains, go through the infinite details of execution, through countless repetitions and mazes: patience and perseverance are the very badge and blazon of the tribe. Ribhus, the artisans of immortalitychildren of Mahasaraswatiwere originally men, men who have laboured into godhood. Human nature knows to wait, wait infinitely, as it has all the eternity before it and can afford and is prepared to continue and persist life after life. I do not say that all men can do it and are of this nature; but there is this essential capacity in human nature. The gods, who are usually described as the very embodiment of calmness and firmness, of a serene and concentrated will to achieve, nevertheless suffer ill any delay or hindrance to their work. Man has not perhaps the even tenor, the steadiness of their movement, even though intense and fast flowing; but what man possesses is persistence through ups and downshis path is rugged with rise and fall, as the poet says. The steadiness or the staying power of the gods contains something of the nature of indifference, something hard in its grain, not unlike a crystal or a diamond. But human patience, when it has formed and taken shape, possesses a mellowness, an understanding, a sweet reasonableness and a resilience all its own. And because of its intimacy with the tears of things, because of its long travail and calvary, human consciousness is suffused with a quality that is peculiarly human and humane that of sympathy, Compassion, comprehension, the psychic feeling of closeness and oneness. The gods are, after all, egoistic; unless in their supreme supramental status where they are one and identical with the Divine himself; on the lower levels, in their own domains, they are separate, more or less immiscible entities, as it were; greater stress is laid here upon their individual functioning and fulfilment than upon their solidarity. Even if they have not the egoism of the Asuras that sets itself in revolt and antagonism to the Divine, still they have to the fullest extent the sense of a separate mission that each has to fulfil, which none else can fulfil and so each is bound rigidly to its own orbit of activity. There is no mixture in their workingsna me thate, as the Vedas say; the conflict of the later gods, the apple of discord that drove each to establish his hegemony over the rest, as narrated in the mythologies and popular legends, carry the difference to a degree natural to the human level and human modes and reactions. The egoism of the gods may have the gait of aristocracy about it, it has the aloofness and indifference and calm nonchalance that go often with nobility: it has a family likeness to the egoism of an ascetic, of a saintit is sttwic; still it is egoism. It may prove even more difficult to break and dissolve than the violent and ebullient rjasicpride of a vital being. Human failings in this respect are generally more complex and contain all shades and rhythms. And yet that is not the whole or dominant mystery of man's nature. His egoism is thwarted at every stepfrom outside, by, the force of circumstances, the force of counter-egoisms, and from inside, for there is there the thin little voice that always cuts across egoism's play and takes away from it something of its elemental blind momentum. The gods know not of this division in their nature, this schizophrenia, as the malady is termed nowadays, which is the source of the eternal strain of melancholy in human nature of which Matthew Arnold speaks, of the Shelleyan saddest thoughts: Nietzsche need not have gone elsewhere in his quest for the origin and birth of Tragedy. A Socrates discontented, the Christ as the Man of Sorrows, and Amitabha, the soul of pity and Compassion are peculiarly human phenomena. They are not merely human weaknesses and failings that are to be brushed aside with a godlike disdain; but they contain and yield a deeper sap of life and out of them a richer fulfilment is being elaborated.
Human understanding, we know, is a tangled skein of light and shademore shade perhaps than lightof knowledge and ignorance, of ignorance straining towards knowledge. And yet this limited and earthly frame that mind is has something to give which even the overmind of the gods does not possess and needs. It is indeed a frame, even though perhaps a steel frame, to hold and fix the pattern of knowledge, that arranges, classifies, consolidates effective ideas, as they are translated into facts and events. It has not the initiative, the creative power of the vision of a god, but it is an indispensable aid, a precious instrument for the canalisation and expression of that vision, for the intimate application of the divine inspiration to physical life and external conduct. If nothing else, it is a sort of blue print which an engineer of life cannot forego if he has to execute his work of building a new life accurately and beautifully and perfectly.
05.06 - The Role of Evil, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Evil is evil, no doubt; it is not divine and it is not an illusion. It is a real blot on the fair face of creation. Its existence cannot be justified in the sense that it is the right thing and has to be welcomed and maintained, since it forms part of the universal symphony. Not even in the sense that it is a test and a trial set by the Divine for the righteous to prove their merit. It has not been put there with a set purpose, but that once given, it has been the occasion of a miracle, it offered the opportunity for the manifestation of something unique, great and grandiose, marvellous and beautiful. The presence of evil moved the DivineGiustizia masse il mio alto Fattorel1and Grace was born. He descended, the Aloof and the Transcendent, in all his love and Compassion down into this vale of tears: he descended straight into our midst without halting anywhere in the infinite gradation that marks the distance between the highest and the lowest, he descended from the very highest into the very lowest, demanding nothing, asking for no condition whatsoever from the soul in Ignorance, from the earth under the grip of evil. Thus it was that Life lodged itself in the home of death, Light found its way into the far cavern of obscurity and inconscience, and Delight bloomed in the core of misery. Hope was lit, a flame rising from the nether gloom towards the Dawn. But for the spirit of denial we would not have seen this close and intimate figure of the gracious Mother.
Justice moved my great maker
05.08 - True Charity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This condition is attained, fully and sovereignly, when there is absolute egolessness, when there is no consciousness of a separate person, the dual consciousness of the helper and the helped, the reformer and the reformed, the doctor and the patient. The normal human sense of values is based upon such a division, upon egohood, mamatvam. A philanthropic man helps others through a sense of sympathy giving rise to a sense of duty and obligation. This feeling of pity, of commiseration is dangerous, for it puts you in a frame of mind that tends to make you look down upon, take a superior air towards your object of pity. You become self-conscious, with the consciousness of your inferior self, that you are helping others, doing good to the world, doing something that raises your value: this sense of personal merit is only another name for vanity. Vanity and ambition are the motive powers that lie behind the philanthropical spirit born of sympathy. To denote a shade of meaning different from what is usually conveyed by the word sympathy, modern psychology has I found another wordempathy. Sympathy may be said to be the relation or contact between two egos; it is a link or bridge between two separate and independent entities; empathy, on the other hand, means the entering into the I very being and consciousness of another, becoming that other one; it is identification and identity. This again is what I spiritual consciousness alone can do. Sympathy leads to! philanthropy, empathy is the origin of true charity, the spiritual I Compassion of a Buddha or a Christ. Philanthropy is human, I charity (caritas) is divine.
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07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Absorbed in a deep Compassion's ecstasy,
Lifting the mild ray of her patient gaze,
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And the Compassion that supports the suns.
I am the hope that looks towards my God,
07.14 - The Divine Suffering, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Generally speaking, when one is unhappy, it is one more suffering added to the collective suffering of the Divine. The Divine acts upon Matter in a state of deep Compassion: this Compassion is translated in Matter and is figured there by what we call Psychic Sorrow. It is, as it were, a reversed image of the original reality.
The Divine's Compassion, translated in the individual physical consciousness, becomes a sorrow that is not egoistic, a sorrow that is an expression of one's identification with the universal sorrow through sympathy. I have described the experience at some length in one of the Prayers and Meditations. I spoke there of the sweetest tears that I shed in life; for those tears were not for my sake, I was not weeping for myself. In almost every case man grieves for egoistic reasons, in the human way. Whenever anyone loses a person he loves, he suffers and weeps, not over the condition of the person: in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred or even more, people do not know in what condition the person gone may be, do not and cannot know if the person is happy or unhappy, if he is suffering or is in peace. It is the sense of separation that causes the grief, the feeling that he will not be with them anymore which they so much wish. At the root of all human sorrow, there lies this return upon one's own self, more or less conscious, more or less admitted. But when you feel unhappy for the unhappiness of others, there comes in a mixture. That is to say, to your personal grief is added a psychic element which I described as the reversed image of the Divine Compassion. Now, if you can distinguish between the two, the personal anguish and the disinterested sorrow, come out of what is egoistic and concentrate upon the divine element, make yourself one with it, then you can in that way come in contact with the great universal Compassion, which is something immense, vast, calm, mighty, pro-found, which is perfect peace and infinite Bliss. If you know then how to enter into your suffering, go down to the very bottom of it, pass beyond the portion that is egoistic and personal, go farther on, then you arrive at the door of a wonderful revelation. Not that you should seek suffering for the sake of the suffering and in order to have the experience; but when it is there, when it has come upon you, then try what I have suggested, cross the border, the barrier of egoism in your suffering: note first where is the egoistic part, what is it that makes you suffer, what is the egoistic reason of your suffering, then step across and beyond, towards something universal, towards a greater principle. You enter then into the vast, the infinite Compassion, the door of the Psychic opens for you. If, in that domain, you see me in tears, as you say you did in your dream, then you can identify yourself with me at the moment, enter into those tears as it were, melt into them. That will open the door and it will bring you an experience, a very unique experience that leaves always a deep mark upon the consciousness. It is never blotted out altogether even if the door closes again and you become once more what you are in your ordinary movements. That experience, that mark remains behind and you can recall it, go back to it, refer to it in your moments of concentration. You feel then the immensity of an infinite sweetness, a great peace, pervading all your being, it is not in your thought only; it goes out and sympathises with everything and can cure everything.
Only you must sincerely wish, you must have the will, to be cured. Everything lies there. Now I always come back to the same theme. You must be sincere. If you want an experience for the sake of the experience and, once you have it, to go back to your ordinary ways, that will not do. You must sincerely will to be curedcured precisely of the ordinary waysyou must have the aspiration, the true aspiration to overcome the obstacle, to mount up and up, above and beyond yourself, so that you may drop all that pulls you back, drags you down, to break all limits, clarify and purify yourself, rid yourself of all that lies in your way. If you have this will, the true intense will not to fall back into past errors, to rise out of obscurity and ignorance towards the light, shorn of all that is human, too humantoo small, too ignorant then that will and that aspiration shall act, act gradually, strongly and effectively bringing you a complete and definitive result. But beware, there must be nothing that clings to the old movements, that does not declare itself but hides its head and when the occasion is opportune puts up its snout.
07.15 - Divine Disgust, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is a disgust filled with all Compassion. It is something which takes upon itself the wrong vibrations in others to cure them. Instead of throwing a wrong movement back upon the wrong doer in a spirit of cold justice, it draws it within itself, absorbs it in order to eliminate it or transform it, reducing as much as possible its material consequences. You know the ancient legend of Shiva who has a dark patch upon his throat, because he swallowed all the poison of the world: it is a figure of divine disgust.
Naturally, the poison will not have the same effect upon the Divine as upon man. For there is an essential difference between a state of ignorance and a state of knowledge. Something untoward happens to you in your normal state of ignorance, it has a certain character and brings mentally certain results: but the same thing happening to you in a state of knowledge will not carry the same effect. For example, take a very material thing, a blow, a right royal physical blow, well, if you are in a state of inconscience and ignorance, as you usually are, you will have to suffer the full consequence which in its turn depends wholly upon the force of the blow, who or what gave the blow and the helplessness of the object. But the the same blow delivered in the same way by the same agent but upon a being who is conscious and full of knowledge, will produce instantly a reaction reducing the natural consequences to a minimum, even annulling the consequences altogether; for the reaction here is a reaction of knowledge, of light and not that of ignorance, of obscurity. On the moral level the action can be clearly noticed. For example, you can receive an emotional shock, not in egoistic blindness, that is to say, identifying yourself with it or drowned in it; you can hold it away from you, look at it in an objective manner, see what it is, note the nature of its vibration, etc., etc., and then you put the light of your knowledge, the ultra-violet ray, as it were, of truth upon it. As a result, there comes a new disposition, the shock loses its effectivity. Even so, the physical result of a physical blow can be obviated. If that were not possible what would be the utility of the Divine taking upon himself the evil thing. Evil would continue in the same way and the world continue suffering in the same way. Precisely because the obscure vibrations are transformed into vibrations of light in the divine consciousness that the Divine takes upon and within himself all the ills of the world.
08.36 - Buddha and Shankara, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I have reasons to think that 'the Buddha manifested something of the Shiva power. It was the same Compassion and comprehension of all misery and it was the same force that destroys, evidently with the intention of transforming, but destroying more than constructing.
His work does not seem to have been very constructive indeed. It was necessary to give a practical training to man not to be egoistic. In that way it proved to be useful.
10.02 - Beyond Vedanta, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
An earlier form of this humanised love was given in Buddha's Compassion. The transcendent Delight (Ananda) was made terrestrial and human in Buddha. But Buddha's Compassion was a universal feeling and had no personal frame as it were. Vaishnavism gave it a personal frame and a human form. Radha and Krishna are not figures of an allegory but concrete realities. Vrindavan is not merely the land of heart's desire, a garden of paradise but real habitation in a real and concrete consciousness and life. The human frame assumed by Radha and Krishna is not merely an assumption, an illusion but an eternal reality in an eternal domain. The gradation of the spiritual domains is thus sometimes given as (1) Brahmaloka of the Vedantin, (2) Shivaloka of the Tantrik and finally (3) Goloka of the Vaishnava.
The relation between the Supreme (over and above the creation) and the individual in the creation representing the creation is sometimes described in human terms to give it a concrete and graphic form. This relationship characteristically indicates the fundamental nature of the Reality it deals with. Thus in the Vedantic tradition the Supreme is worshipped as the Father (pit no asi). It is also a relation of Master and disciple, the leader and the led. Ii brings out into prominence the Purusha aspect of the Reality. In the Tantra the relation is as between Mother and child. The supreme Reality is the Divine Mother holding the universe in her arms. The individual worships and adores the Supreme Prakriti as a human child does. The Vaishnava makes the relation as between the lover and the beloved, and the love depicted is intensely vital and even physical, as intense and poignant as the ordinary ignorant human passion. It is to show that the Love Divine can beat the human love on its own ground, that is to say, it can be or it is as passionately sweet and as intensely intimate as any human love. It is why Bhakta Prahlad said to his beloved Vishnu "O Lord, what ordinary men feel and enjoy in and through their physical senses, may I have the same enjoyment in and through Thee."
1.002 - The Heifer, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
163. Your God is one God. There is no god but He, the Benevolent, the Compassionate.
164. In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of night and day; in the ships that sail the oceans for the benefit of mankind; in the water that God sends down from the sky, and revives the earth with it after it had died, and scatters in it all kinds of creatures; in the changing of the winds, and the clouds disposed between the sky and the earth; are signs for people who understand.
10.04 - The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Disdainful, weary and Compassionate,
It kept no more its old intolerant sound,
1.009 - Repentance, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
99. Yet among the Desert-Arabs are those who believe in God and the Last Day, and consider their contribution to be a means towards God, and the prayers of the Messenger. Surely it will draw them closer, and God will admit them into His mercy. God is Forgiving and Compassionate.
100. The Pioneers—The first of the Migrants and the Supporters, and those who followed them in righteousness. God is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will abide forever. That is the sublime triumph.
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117. God has redeemed the Prophet, and the Emigrants, and the Supporters—those who followed him in the hour of difficulty—after the hearts of some of them almost swerved. Then He pardoned them. He is Kind towards them, Compassionate.
118. Also towards the three who were left behind. Then, when the earth, as vast as it is, closed in on them, and their very souls closed in on them, and they realized that there was no refuge from God, except in Him, He redeemed them, so that they may repent. God is the Redeemer, the Merciful.
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128. There has come to you a messenger from among yourselves, concerned over your suffering, anxious over you. Towards the believers, he is Compassionate and merciful.
129. If they turn away, say, “God is enough for me; there is no god except He; in Him I have put my trust; He is the Lord of the Sublime Throne.”
1.00e - DIVISION E - MOTION ON THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
As regards taste and smell, we might call them minor senses, for they are closely allied to the important sense of touch. They are practically subsidiary to that sense. This second sense, and its connection with this second solar system, should be carefully pondered over. It is predominantly the sense most closely connected with the second Logos. This conveys a hint of much value if duly considered. It is of value to study the extensions of physical plane touch on other planes and to see whither we are led. It is the faculty which enables us to arrive [197] at the essence by due recognition of the veiling sheath. It enables the Thinker who fully utilises it to put himself en rapport with the essence of all selves at all stages, and thereby to aid in the due evolution of the sheath and actively to serve. A Lord of Compassion is one who (by means of touch) feels with, fully comprehends, and realises the manner in which to heal and correct the inadequacies of the not-self and thus actively to serve the plan of evolution. We should study likewise in this connection the value of touch as demonstrated by the healers of the race (those on the Bodhisattva line) [lxxxv]83 and the effect of the Law of Attraction and Repulsion as thus manipulated by them. Students of etymology will have noted that the origin of the word touch is somewhat obscure, but probably means to 'draw with quick motion.' Herein lies the whole secret of this objective solar system, and herein will be demonstrated the quickening of vibration by means of touch. Inertia, mobility, rhythm, are the qualities manifested by the not-self. Rhythm, balance, and stable vibration are achieved by means of this very faculty of touch or feeling. Let me illustrate briefly so as to make the problem somewhat clearer. What results in meditation? By dint of strenuous effort and due attention to rules laid down, the aspirant succeeds in touching matter of a quality rarer than is his usual custom. He contacts his causal body, in time he contacts the matter of the buddhic plane. By means of this touch his own vibration is temporarily and briefly quickened. Fundamentally we are brought back to the subject that we deal with in this treatise. The latent fire of matter attracts to itself that fire, latent in other forms. They touch, and recognition and awareness ensues. The fire of manas burns continuously and is fed by that which is attracted and repulsed. When the two [198] blend, the stimulation is greatly increased and the ability to touch intensified. The Law of Attraction persists in its work until another fire is attracted and touched, and the threefold merging is completed. Forget not in this connection the mystery of the Rod of Initiation. [lxxxvi]84 Later when we consider the subject of the centres and Initiation it must be remembered that we are definitely studying one aspect of this mysterious faculty of touch, the faculty of the second Logos, wielding the law of Attraction.
Let us now finish what may be imparted on the remaining three sensessight, taste, smell and then briefly sum up their relationship to the centres, and their mutual action and interaction. That will then leave two more points to be dealt with in this first division of the Treatise on Cosmic Fire, and a summing up. We shall then be in a position to take up that portion of the treatise that deals with the fire of manas and with the development of the manasaputras, [lxxxvii]85 both in their totality and likewise individually. This topic is of the most imperative importance as it deals entirely with man, the Ego, the thinker, and shows the cosmic blending of the fires of matter and of mind, and their utilisation by the indwelling Flame.
1.00 - Main, #The Book of Certitude, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
When travelling, if ye should stop and rest in some safe spot, perform ye-men and women alike-a single prostration in place of each unsaid Obligatory Prayer, and while prostrating say "Glorified be God, the Lord of Might and Majesty, of Grace and Bounty". Whoso is unable to do this, let him say only "Glorified be God"; this shall assuredly suffice him. He is, of a truth, the all-sufficing, the ever-abiding, the forgiving, Compassionate God. Upon completing your prostrations, seat yourselves cross-legged-men and women alike-and eighteen times repeat "Glorified be God, the Lord of the kingdoms of earth and heaven". Thus doth the Lord make plain the ways of truth and guidance, ways that lead to one way, which is this Straight Path. Render thanks unto God for this most gracious favour; offer praise unto Him for this bounty that hath encompassed the heavens and the earth; extol Him for this mercy that hath pervaded all creation.
Say: God hath made My hidden love the key to the Treasure; would that ye might perceive it! But for the key, the Treasure would to all eternity have remained concealed; would that ye might believe it! Say: This is the Source of Revelation, the Dawning-place of Splendour, Whose brightness hath illumined the horizons of the world. Would that ye might understand!
--
Say: This is that hidden knowledge which shall never change, since its beginning is with nine, the symbol that betokeneth the concealed and manifest, the inviolable and unapproachably exalted Name. As for what We have appropriated to the children, this is a bounty conferred on them by God, that they may render thanks unto their Lord, the Compassionate, the Merciful. These, verily, are the Laws of God; transgress them not at the prompting of your base and selfish desires. Observe ye the injunctions laid upon you by Him Who is the Dawning-place of Utterance. The sincere among His servants will regard the precepts set forth by God as the Water of Life to the followers of every faith, and the Lamp of wisdom and loving providence to all the denizens of earth and heaven.
The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein shall gather counsellors to the number of Baha, and should it exceed this number it doth not matter. They should consider themselves as entering the Court of the presence of God, the Exalted, the Most High, and as beholding Him Who is the Unseen. It behoveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly. Thus hath the Lord your God commanded you. Beware lest ye put away that which is clearly revealed in His Tablet. Fear God, O ye that perceive.
O people of the world! Build ye houses of worship throughout the lands in the name of Him Who is the Lord of all religions. Make them as perfect as is possible in the world of being, and adorn them with that which befitteth them, not with images and effigies. Then, with radiance and joy, celebrate therein the praise of your Lord, the Most Compassionate. Verily, by His remembrance the eye is cheered and the heart is filled with light.
The Lord hath ordained that those of you who are able shall make pilgrimage to the sacred House, and from this He hath exempted women as a mercy on His part. He, of a truth, is the All-Bountiful, the Most Generous.
--
Exile and imprisonment are decreed for the thief, and, on the third offence, place ye a mark upon his brow so that, thus identified, he may not be accepted in the cities of God and His countries. Beware lest, through Compassion, ye neglect to carry out the statutes of the religion of God; do that which hath been bidden you by Him Who is Compassionate and merciful. We school you with the rod of wisdom and laws, like unto the father who educateth his son, and this for naught but the protection of your own selves and the elevation of your stations. By My life, were ye to discover what We have desired for you in revealing Our holy laws, ye would offer up your very souls for this sacred, this mighty, and most exalted Faith.
Whoso wisheth to make use of vessels of silver and gold is at liberty to do so. Take heed lest, when partaking of food, ye plunge your hands into the contents of bowls and platters. Adopt ye such usages as are most in keeping with refinement. He, verily, desireth to see in you the manners of the inmates of Paradise in His mighty and most sublime Kingdom. Hold ye fast unto refinement under all conditions, that your eyes may be preserved from beholding what is repugnant both to your own selves and to the dwellers of Paradise. Should anyone depart therefrom, his deed shall at that moment be rendered vain; yet should he have good reason, God will excuse him. He, in truth, is the Gracious, the Most Bountiful.
--
God hath, likewise, as a bounty from His presence, abolished the concept of "uncleanness", whereby divers things and peoples have been held to be impure. He, of a certainty, is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous. Verily, all created things were immersed in the sea of purification when, on that first day of Ridvan, We shed upon the whole of creation the splendours of Our most excellent Names and Our most exalted Attri butes. This, verily, is a token of My loving providence, which hath encompassed all the worlds. Consort ye then with the followers of all religions, and proclaim ye the Cause of your Lord, the Most Compassionate; this is the very crown of deeds, if ye be of them who understand.
God hath enjoined upon you to observe the utmost cleanliness, to the extent of washing what is soiled with dust, let alone with hardened dirt and similar defilement. Fear Him, and be of those who are pure. Should the garb of anyone be visibly sullied, his prayers shall not ascend to God, and the celestial Concourse will turn away from him. Make use of rose-water, and of pure perfume; this, indeed, is that which God hath loved from the beginning that hath no beginning, in order that there may be diffused from you what your Lord, the Incomparable, the All-Wise, desireth.
--
In the Bayan it had been forbidden you to ask Us questions. The Lord hath now relieved you of this prohibition, that ye may be free to ask what you need to ask, but not such idle questions as those on which the men of former times were wont to dwell. Fear God, and be ye of the righteous! Ask ye that which shall be of profit to you in the Cause of God and His dominion, for the portals of His tender Compassion have been opened before all who dwell in heaven and on earth.
127
--
The inscription on these rings should read, for men: "Unto God belongeth all that is in the heavens and on the earth and whatsoever is between them, and He, in truth, hath knowledge of all things"; and for women: "Unto God belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatsoever is between them, and He, in truth, is potent over all things". These are the verses that were revealed aforetime, but lo, the Point of the Bayan now calleth out, exclaiming, "O Best-Beloved of the worlds! Reveal Thou in their stead such words as will waft the fragrance of Thy gracious favours over all mankind. We have announced unto everyone that one single word from Thee excelleth all that hath been sent down in the Bayan. Thou, indeed, hast power to do what pleaseth Thee. Deprive not Thy servants of the overflowing bounties of the ocean of Thy mercy! Thou, in truth, art He Whose grace is infinite." Behold, We have hearkened to His call, and now fulfil His wish. He, verily, is the Best-Beloved, the Answerer of prayers. If the following verse, which hath at this moment been sent down by God, be engraved upon the burial-rings of both men and women, it shall be better for them; We, of a certainty, are the Supreme Ordainer: "I came forth from God, and return unto Him, detached from all save Him, holding fast to His Name, the Merciful, the Compassionate." Thus doth the Lord single out whomsoever He desireth for a bounty from His presence. He is, in very truth, the God of might and power.
130
--
Whoever hath been transported by the rapture born of adoration for My Name, the Most Compassionate, will recite the verses of God in such wise as to captivate the hearts of those yet wrapped in slumber. Well is it with him who hath quaffed the Mystic Wine of everlasting life from the utterance of his merciful Lord in My Name-a Name through which every lofty and majestic mountain hath been reduced to dust.
151
--
Beware lest aught that hath been revealed in the Bayan should keep you from your Lord, the Most Compassionate. God is My witness that the Bayan was sent down for no other purpose than to celebrate My praise, did ye but know! In it the pure in heart will find only the fragrance of My love, only My Name that overshadoweth all that seeth and is seen. Say: Turn ye, O people, unto that which hath proceeded from My Most Exalted Pen. Should ye inhale therefrom the fragrance of God, set not yourselves against Him, nor deny yourselves a portion of His gracious favour and His manifold bestowals. Thus doth your Lord admonish you; He, verily, is the Counsellor, the Omniscient.
180
10.10 - A Poem, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Non-violence lazy, Compassionate,
Do not be greedy for the world,
10.12 - The Divine Grace and Love, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Grace is of Maheshwari, that is to say, it is the special attribute, a particular emanation of her own self, it is a form of herself in an attitude that belongs particularly to her. Love is of Mahalaxmi it is her own special form and gesture. Or, varying the image we may say Grace is Shiva, the benign white radiance on the supreme heights enveloping the creation in its calm immutable Compassion; while Krishna is Love, the immortal delight dwelling in the heart of mortality.
***
1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he pretends to disown, behind him, even to his kitchen furniture and all the trumpery which he saves and will not burn, and he will appear to be harnessed to it and making what headway he can. I think that the man is at a dead set who has got through a knot hole or gateway where his sledge load of furniture cannot follow him. I cannot but feel Compassion when I hear some trig, compact-looking man, seemingly free, all girded and ready, speak of his
furniture, as whether it is insured or not. But what shall I do with my furniture? My gay butterfly is entangled in a spiders web then.
1.01f - Introduction, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
There were also eighty thousand bodhisattva mahsattvas, all of whom were irreversible from highest, complete enlightenment (anuttar samyaksabodhi). They had obtained the dhras, were established in eloquence, and had turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma. Each had paid homage to countless hundreds of thousands of buddhas, planted roots of merit in their presence, and had always been praised by those buddhas. They had also cultivated Compassion within themselves, skillfully caused others to enter the wisdom of a buddha, obtained great wisdom, and reached the other shore. All of them were famous throughout countless worlds and had saved innumerable hundreds of thousands of sentient beings. They were Majur, Avalokitevara, Mahsthmaprpta, Nityodyukta, Anikiptadhura, Ratnapni,
Bhaiajyarja, Pradnara, Ratnacandra, Candraprabha, Pracandra,
1.01 - On knowledge of the soul, and how knowledge of the soul is the key to the knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
The science of the structure of the body is called anatomy : it is a great science, but most men are heedless of it. If any study it, it is only for the purpose of acquiring skill in medicine, and not for the sake of becoming acquainted with the perfection of the power of God. But whoever will occupy himself with anatomy, and therein contemplate the wonders of the works of God, will reap three advantages. The first advantage will be, that in learning the composition of the thing made, and thereby gaining a comprehensive and condensed view of all other things like it he will see that it is impossible to discover imperfection or incompetence in the being who has created him in such perfection. The Creator himself will be acknowledged to be almighty and perfect. The second advantage will be, that he will see that it is impossible that a being who has created an organization so intelligent, capable of comprehension, endowed with beauty, and useful, should be otherwise than perfect in knowledge himself. And lastly, we shall understand the mercy, favor and perfect Compassion of God towards us. Nothing that is either useful or ornamental has been omitted in the framing of our bodies, whether it be such things as are the sources of life, like the spirit and the head; or such as sustain life, as the hand, the foot, the mouth and the teeth : or such as are a means of ornament, as the beard, elegance of form, black hair and the lips. It is to be observed that similar organs have been provided not only for man, but for all creatures, so that nothing is wanting to initiate and sustain life in the mouse, the wasp, the snake and the ant. God has done all things perfectly, and may his name be glorified !
The investigator of truth this fact well knows,
1.01 - On renunciation of the world, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Some people living carelessly in the world have asked me: We have wives and are beset with social cares, and how can we lead the solitary life? I replied to them: Do all the good you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone; do not be arrogant towards anyone; do not hate any one; be sure you go to church; be Compassionate to the needy; do not offend anyone; do not wreck another mans domestic happiness;3 and be content with what your own wives can give you. If you behave in this way you will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us charge into the good fight with joy and love without being afraid of our enemies. Though unseen themselves, they can look at the face of our soul, and if they see it altered by fear, they take up arms against us all the more fiercely. For the cunning creatures have observed that we are scared. So let us take up arms against them courageously. No one will fight with a resolute fighter.
1.01 - Tara the Divine, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
These deities come directly from the Compassionate
activity of the buddhas. If the deities have a feminine
--
means, that is, the Compassionate activity, the dynamic pole
of awakening, and feminine deities the "knowledge," the
--
empowerment of Compassion of all the buddhas'
- 20 -
--
Having infinite Compassion for suffering beings,
bodhisattvas make wishes that lead them to act in one
--
and Tara's Compassion.
We must understand that if phenomena had reality
--
mother of all buddhas and her Compassion for all
beings .is uninterrupted.
--
absence of wishes) and generates Compassion by
means of the four unlimited qualities of the
bodhisattvas (love, Compassion, joy, and equanimity).
- 45 -
1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
I am not competent, nor is this the place to discuss the doctrinal differences between Buddhism and Hinduism. Let it suffice to point out that, when he insisted that human beings are by nature non-Atman, the Buddha was evidently speaking about the personal self and not the universal Self. The Brahman controversialists, who appear in certain of the Pali scriptures, never so much as mention the Vedanta doctrine of the identity of Atman and Godhead and the non-identity of ego and Atman. What they maintain and Gautama denies is the substantial nature and eternal persistence of the individual psyche. As an unintelligent man seeks for the abode of music in the body of the lute, so does he look for a soul within the skandhas (the material and psychic aggregates, of which the individual mind-body is composed). About the existence of the Atman that is Brahman, as about most other metaphysical matters, the Buddha declines to speak, on the ground that such discussions do not tend to edification or spiritual progress among the members of a monastic order, such as he had founded. But though it has its dangers, though it may become the most absorbing, because the most serious and noblest, of distractions, metaphysical thinking is unavoidable and finally necessary. Even the Hinayanists found this, and the later Mahayanists were to develop, in connection with the practice of their religion, a splendid and imposing system of cosmological, ethical and psychological thought. This system was based upon the postulates of a strict idealism and professed to dispense with the idea of God. But moral and spiritual experience was too strong for philosophical theory, and under the inspiration of direct experience, the writers of the Mahayana sutras found themselves using all their ingenuity to explain why the Tathagata and the Bodhisattvas display an infinite charity towards beings that do not really exist. At the same time they stretched the framework of subjective idealism so as to make room for Universal Mind; qualified the idea of soullessness with the doctrine that, if purified, the individual mind can identify itself with the Universal Mind or Buddha-womb; and, while maintaining godlessness, asserted that this realizable Universal Mind is the inner consciousness of the eternal Buddha and that the Buddha-mind is associated with a great Compassionate heart which desires the liberation of every sentient being and bestows divine grace on all who make a serious effort to achieve mans final end. In a word, despite their inauspicious vocabulary, the best of the Mahayana sutras contain an au thentic formulation of the Perennial Philosophya formulation which in some respects (as we shall see when we come to the section, God in the World) is more complete than any other.
In India, as in Persia, Mohammedan thought came to be enriched by the doctrine that God is immanent as well as transcendent, while to Mohammedan practice were added the moral disciplines and spiritual exercises, by means of which the soul is prepared for contemplation or the unitive knowledge of the Godhead. It is a significant historical fact that the poet-saint Kabir is claimed as a co-religionist both by Moslems and Hindus. The politics of those whose goal is beyond time are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecuting and make the wars.
1.01 - The Highest Meaning of the Holy Truths, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
facing me?" Bodhidharma's Compassion was excessive; again
he addressed him, saying, "I don't know." At this, Emperor Wu
--
For the sake of Compassion, Hsueh Tou versifies what hap
pened: "Henceforth (Bodhidharma) secretly crossed the river;
1.01 - The Unexpected, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Already two hours had passed and the news had flown all over the Ashram a real bolt from the blue. All hopes and aspirations of hundreds of people were set at naught by this single blow. They gathered in the courtyard of the Ashram to know the truth and went back sullen-hearted with a fervent prayer addressed to the Mother and the Lord for his speedy recovery. Miss Wilson accepted Fate's decree with a calm submission. The Mother, out of Compassion for the disappointed devotees, gave darshan to all in the evening. Thus she wiped away their gloom with the sunshine of her smile and the power of her touch.
As we had no work now except to keep a watch, I could not but contemplate upon what had happened. I remembered Sri Aurobindo writing to me that though he had acquired sufficient control over disease and death, accidents were possible. Still, living in entire seclusion, secure from all outward contingencies, and inwardly master of cosmic forces, and yet to meet with such an accident in so unexpected a way, was inconceivable. {Sri Aurobindo explained to us later on in the "Talks" the why and wherefore of the catastrophe.) The forces must have been very sly clever indeed to have chosen the time when the Mother had retired, the Gods were asleep. But the Powers of the Inconscience were awake to strike their infernal blow. It was really the hour of the unexpected!
1.01 - To Watanabe Sukefusa, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Zen
But never forget, that no matter how long-lived your parents are, they cannot remain forever in this illusory world of dreams. Accounts have been transmitted throughout the past of brave samurai whose minds were filled with thoughts of filial devotion, of virtuous priests of deep attainment whose love and Compassion for their parents was a constant concern. Still, perhaps you think it strange my saying these things to you. "Ekaku is quick to grab his brush and write letters of this kind to people. But what about him? Hasn't he left his father, who is well into his eighties, to go wandering off to the far-flung corners of the country, never so much as sending him a letter?"
However, a person who leaves his home to take the vows of a Buddhist monk has, in doing so, renounced his former self completely. He sets out in search of a good master who can help him achieve his goal, engaging in arduous practice day and night, precisely because he is concerned with obtaining a favorable rebirth for his parents into the endless future. He is performing the greatest kind of filial piety.
1.01 - Who is Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
qualities, such as equanimity, love, Compassion, joy, and the six far-reaching
attitudesgenerosity, ethical discipline, patience, joyous effort, concentration, and wisdom.
--
various forms out of Compassion in order to benet us. All of the different
forms in which a Buddha appears are called form bodies.
--
limited stage of spiritual development. Out of Compassion, in order to benet
us, Buddhas manifest in our world and appear to us as ordinary beings in
--
impartial love and Compassion for each and every living being. She was not
enchanted by the luxuries of palace life; instead, she vowed to show the way
--
objects of the senses, the Compassionate Buddhas appear in various forms in
order to communicate with us. Tara, like other meditation deities, is one of
--
may emphasize a particular quality. For example, Tara symbolizes enlightened activity, while Avalokiteshvara embodies Compassion. Among the
diverse forms of Tara, Green Tara, who will be described below, eliminates
--
on their constant, Compassionate help, we are naturally attracted to Taras
female appearance. We can relax in her presence and look at ourselves honestly, knowing that Tara will not judge, reject, or abandon us due to our
--
suffering but faces it fearlessly and Compassionately, thereby counteracting
it. Her left leg is tucked in, demonstrating that she has full control over her
--
refuge and practicing their teachings, we can actualize the unity of Compassionate bliss and wisdom, which is symbolized by the joining of her ring
nger and thumb.
--
and Compassionate guide on the path. By keeping her mentor on her crown,
Tara is ever mindful of the teachings she has received from him. This reminds
--
look beautiful, Taras inner beautyher tranquility, Compassion, and wisdomare her real adornments. Her dazzling jeweled necklaces, armlets,
anklets, earrings, and tiara indicate that the six far-reaching attitudes or
1.02.2.2 - Self-Realisation, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
of a widening love or Compassion or fellow-feeling for others,
the impulsion of work for the sake of others.
1.02 - IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"There is another way: earnestly praying to God. God is our very own. We should say to Him: 'O God, what is Thy nature? Reveal Thyself to me. Thou must show Thyself to me; for why else hast Thou created me?' Some Sikh devotees once said to me, 'God is full of Compassion.' I said: 'But why should we call Him Compassionate? He is our Creator.
What is there to be wondered at if He is kind to us? Parents bring up their children. Do you call that an act of kindness? They must act that way.' Therefore we should force our demands on God. He is our Father and Mother, isn't He? If the son demands his patrimony and gives up food and drink in order to enforce his demand, then the parents hand his share over to him three years before the legal time. Or when the child demands some pice from his mother, and says over and over again: 'Mother, give me a couple of pice. I beg you on my knees!' - then the mother, seeing his earnestness, and unable to bear it any more, tosses the money to him.
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
dominance without Compassion, greed without empathy. She is the Freudian id, unconsciousness
contaminated with the unknown and mortal terror, and the flies in the corpse of a kitten. She is everything
--
I have Compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to
eat;
1.02 - Meditating on Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
or Compassion.
Becoming enlightened doesnt depend on calling ourselves Buddhist.
--
Generating bodhichitta depends on having impartial love and Compassion
for all sentient beings. We ordinary beings see love as a limited commodity;
--
love that Tara has. A Buddhas love remains constant. It is shared with everyone, no matter how they treat that Buddha. Taras love and Compassion do
not depend upon whether other people like her or not, whether others praise
--
with Compassion, This is a sentient being who wants happiness just like me
and doesnt want suffering. Thats all. Shes acting that way because shes
--
performing her enlightening activities to benet all beings. We imagine feeling the impartial love and Compassion for all beings that Tara feels and having her skillful means to be able to benet them. From our Tara body made
of light, we emanate countless small Taras that radiate throughout the universe, touching each sentient being, alleviating their suffering and becoming what they need. All sentient beings delements are puried and they
--
hostility, or clinging attachment and with immeasurable wisdom, Compassion, and skill. In this way, we train our mind to think and act like a Buddha
by bringing the Tara we will become in the future into the present moment
--
and with Compassion for ourselves, we seek a state of lasting happiness that
is founded on wisdom, not the vagaries of transient sense objects. Based on
1.02 - On detachment, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
3. After our renunciation of the world, the demons suggest to us that we should envy those living in the world who are merciful and Compassionate, and be sorry for ourselves as deprived of these virtues. The aim of our foes is, by false humility, either to make us return to the world, or, if we remain monks, to plunge us into despair. It is possible to belittle those living in the world out of conceit; and it is also possible to disparage them behind their backs in order to avoid despair and to obtain hope.
4. Let us listen to what the Lord said to the young man who had fulfilled nearly all the commandments: One thing thou lackest; sell what thou hast and give to the poor1 and become a beggar who receives alms from others.
1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Let us notice, also, the daily necessities of man, his need of food, of clothing and of a dwelling; his need of rain, clouds, wind, heat and cold : and that he needs the weaver, the cotton-spinner, the clothier and the fuller to provide him with clothing; and that each one of these has need of so many instruments, and of so many trades, like those of the blacksmith, the farmer, the carpenter, the dyer, and the tanner; and besides, their need of iron, lead, wood and the like. Notice at the same time, the adaptation of these workmen to their instruments, and of the instruments to the trades, and how each art has given rise to several others, and the mind is astonished and distracted. The adaptation of all these instruments comes from the pure grace and perfect mercy of God, and from the fountain of his benevolence. Moreover, God's creating prophets, sending them to us, and leading us to their law and to love them, is a perfume of His universal beneficence. He proclaims himself, "My mercy surpasses my anger," and the Prophet has said: "Verily, God is more full of Compassion to his servants, than the affectionate mother to her nursing child."
It has been shown that man from his own existence, knows the existence of his creator, that from his analysis of the materials of which his body is composed and of its distinctive characters he understands the almighty power of God, that from the uses, the arrangement and the combination of his organs, he knows the omniscient wisdom of God, and that his clemency and Compassion extend to [45] all. He knows, also, that these many mercies and bounties are bestowed upon him without his seeking or care, from God's rich and overflowing grace. Now in this way it is possible that the knowledge of the soul should become the key to the knowledge of God. For just as from a survey of your own being and attributes, you have in a contracted form learned the being and attributes of God, it is also possible to understand how the freedom and the holiness of God, bear a resemblance to the freedom of your soul.
Know, that God exists exempt from and independent of the notions that enter the mind, and the forms that are produced in the imagination, that he is not subjected to reasoning, and time and place cannot be ascribed to him. Still his exercise of power and the manifestation of his glory are not independent of place. But in the same manner, this independence and freedom is possible in your soul. The spirit, for example, which we call heart is exempt from the entrance of fancies and imaginations, and also from size and divisibility. Nor has it form or color, for if it had, it could be seen by the eye, and would enter into the sphere of fancy and imagination, and its beauty or ugliness, its greatness or littleness would be known. If any one ask you about your soul, you may answer, "It exists by the will of God: it has neither quantity or physical quality; it is exempt from being known." Beloved, since you are incapable of knowing the spirit which is in your body, how should it be possible for you to know God, who created spirits, bodies and all things, who is himself foreign to all of them, and who is not of their class and kind ? It is one of the most important things, yea, a most necessary duty, to treat of God as holy, independent and free.
--
The fifth class of persons in error are those who say that, "God is merciful and ready to pardon, loving and Compassionate, and more pitiful to his servants than a father and mother to their children, and therefore he will pardon our faults and cover our transgressions." They do not consider that notwithstanding God is bounteous and merciful, there are still multitudes of poor and miserable people in the world, multitudes who are infirm and helpless, and many who are subjected to suffering. This is a mystery which is known only to God. But it shows us, that though God is disposed to cover and hide sin, still he is an absolute sovereign and an avenger. While he is bounteous and beneficent, he is at the same time dreadful in his chastisements : while he is a benefactor, and provides the necessaries of life, at the same time he who does not seek to gain, obtains no store: and he who is not industrious, accomplishes nothing in the world. Beloved, these ignorant men, in the affairs of the world, in their schemes of living, and in their business, manifest no trust in the bounty of God, nor do they leave off for one moment their buying and selling, their trades or their farming, although God has decreed the means of their existence many years before they were born, and has made himself surety that it should be provided for them. He announces in his eternal word and book of mighty distinctions, that "there is no creature on the earth, for whom God has not taken upon himself to provide nourishment." 2 Still they make not the least exertion in reference to their relations and condition in eternity, [61] but merely rely upon the mercy of God, notwithstanding God declares in his holy word, "man can have nothing without exertion." 1 When they say that God is gracious and merciful, they speak correctly. But they are not aware that Satan is deceiving them with it, hindering them from obedience and worship, and preventing them from engaging in that cultivation and commerce that would prepare them for eternity.
The sixth class who indulge in error, are those who, exalted with pride, think that they have already attained and are perfect: and they say, "we have reached such a state that transgressions do us no harm: we are like the sea, which is not polluted by filth falling into it." These foolish people are so ignorant, that they do not know that "to be like the sea," means to attain such a degree of calm that no wind can put them in movement and that nothing can cause any perturbation in their minds. These persons on the contrary, if an individual fail to treat them with honor and respect, or if in conversation the individual do not address them as, my lord or dear sir, or speak a word that touches their reputation, they bear him a grudge for a long time, and even perhaps attempt to do him an injury. And if a person take a piece of money or a morsel of bread from them, the world becomes too straight for them, and every thing looks dark. These foolish people have not even yet reached manhood. They are weak in their own souls, and are in subjection like slaves to passion and anger. If it were not so, how could they be so inconsiderate and presumptuous? Beloved, the falsehood and error of these people appear from this consideration. When inadvertently any of the prophets fell into sin, even a little and venial sin, they would spend years in mourning and lamentation over it, and occupied themselves in endeavors to obliterate [62] their faults, and to obtain pardon and forgiveness. Filled with fear and dread, they became blind from their tears; from their long continuing perturbation and distraction of mind, yon would think they had lost the use of their reason. As for the companions of the prophet, and their immediate successors who were faithful witnesses for the truth and the beloved of God, they were so afraid in their suspicionsness of doing wrong, that they abstained in their anxiety, from doing even what was lawful. Do not these ignoramuses know that their degree of attainment does not equal that of the prophets and apostles, and that they are even at a great distance from them ? Why then do they not shrink in fear and awe from the shining vengeance of the glorious God ?
1.02 - Skillful Means, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
And perfected great Compassion,
Have certainly attained the path of the buddhas.
--
I feel great Compassion
For such sentient beings.
1.02 - The Descent. Dante's Protest and Virgil's Appeal. The Intercession of the Three Ladies Benedight., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
"O she Compassionate, who succoured me,
And courteous thou, who hast obeyed so soon
1.02 - The Eternal Law, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
seems unnatural to the average Indian, who will bow respectfully before Christ (with as much spontaneous reverence as before his own image of God), but who will see also the face of God in the laughter of Krishna, the terror of Kali, the sweetness of Saraswati, and in the thousands upon thousands of other gods who dance, multicolored and mustachioed, mirthful or terrifying, illuminated or Compassionate, on the deliriously carved towers of Indian temples. A God who cannot smile could not have created this humorous universe,13 said Sri Aurobindo. All is His face, all is His play, terrible or beautiful, as many-faceted as our world itself. For this country so teeming with 13
Thoughts and Aphorisms, 17:138
1.030 - The Romans, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
21. And of His signs is that He created for you mates from among yourselves, so that you may find tranquility in them; and He planted love and Compassion between you. In this are signs for people who reflect.
22. And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and colors. In this are signs for those who know.
1.03 - A Parable, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
With his great mercy and Compassion he incessantly and indefatigably seeks the welfare of all beings and benets them all.
The Tathgata appears in the triple world, which is like a decaying old house on re, to rescue sentient beings from the re of birth, old age, illness, and death, anxiety, sorrow, suffering, distress, delusion, blindness, and the three poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance. Thus he leads and inspires sentient beings and causes them to attain highest, complete enlightenment.
--
Those beings who accept the Dharma of the Buddha Bhagavat, who are diligent and persevere in seeking the wisdom of the Omniscient One, the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Self-generated One, the wisdom acquired without a teacher, the wisdom and insight, powers, and fearlessness of the Tathgata; who are Compassionate, put immeasurable sentient beings at ease, benet devas and humans, and save all beings, are all practicing the Mahayana. Bodhisattvas are called mahsattvas (great beings) because they seek this vehicle. They are just like those children who left the burning house seeking the cart yoked to an ox.
O riputra! That afuent man saw his children leave the burning house safely and arrive at a safe place. Knowing that he had immeasurable wealth, he gave a large cart equally to each child. The Tathgata is exactly like this.
--
Always practice Compassion,
And give unsparingly of their bodies and lives.
1.03 - PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The biographies of the saints testify unequivocally to the fact that spiritual training leads to a transcendence of personality, not merely in the special circumstances of battle, but in all circumstances and in relation to all creatures, so that the saint loves his enemies or, if he is a Buddhist, does not even recognize the existence of enemies, but treats all sentient beings, sub-human as well as human, with the same Compassion and disinterested good will. Those who win through to the unitive knowledge of God set out upon their course from the most diverse starting points. One is a man, another a woman; one a born active, another a born contemplative. No two of them inherit the same temperament and physical constitution, and their lives are passed in material, moral and intellectual environments that are profoundly dissimilar. Nevertheless, insofar as they are saints, insofar as they possess the unitive knowledge that makes them perfect as their Father which is in heaven is perfect, they are all astonishingly alike. Their actions are uniformly selfless and they are constantly recollected, so that at every moment they know who they are and what is their true relation to the universe and its spiritual Ground. Of even plain average people it may be said that their name is Legionmuch more so of exceptionally complex personalities, who identify themselves with a wide diversity of moods, cravings and opinions. Saints, on the contrary, are neither double-minded nor half-hearted, but single and, however great their intellectual gifts, profoundly simple. The multiplicity of Legion has given place to one-pointedness not to any of those evil one-pointednesses of ambition or covetousness, or lust for power and fame, not even to any of the nobler, but still all too human one-pointednesses of art, scholarship and science, regarded as ends in themselves, but to the supreme, more than human one-pointedness that is the very being of those souls who consciously and consistently pursue mans final end, the knowledge of eternal Reality. In one of the Pali scriptures there is a significant anecdote about the Brahman Drona who, seeing the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a tree, asked him, Are you a deva? And the Exalted One answered, I am not. Are you a gandharva? I am not, Are you a yaksha? I am not. Are you a man? I am not a man. On the Brahman asking what he might be, the Blessed One replied, Those evil influences, those cravings, whose non-destruction would have individualized me as a deva, a gandharva, a yaksha (three types of supernatural being), or a man, I have completely annihilated. Know therefore that I am Buddha.
Here we may remark in passing that it is only the one-pointed, who are truly capable of worshipping one God. Monotheism as a theory can be entertained even by a person whose name is Legion. But when it comes to passing from theory to practice, from discursive knowledge about to immediate acquaintance with the one God, there cannot be monotheism except where there is singleness of heart. Knowledge is in the knower according to the mode of the knower. Where the knower is poly-psychic the universe he knows by immediate experience is polytheistic. The Buddha declined to make any statement in regard to the ultimate divine Reality. All he would talk about was Nirvana, which is the name of the experience that comes to the totally selfless and one-pointed. To this same experience others have given the name of union with Brahman, with Al Haqq, with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. Maintaining, in this matter, the attitude of a strict operationalist, the Buddha would speak only of the spiritual experience, not of the metaphysical entity presumed by the theologians of other religions, as also of later Buddhism, to be the object and (since in contemplation the knower, the known and the knowledge are all one) at the same time the subject and substance of that experience.
--
In the West, the mystics went some way towards liberating Christianity from its unfortunate servitude to historic fact. (or, to be more accurate, to those various mixtures of contemporary record with subsequent inference and phantasy, which have, at different epochs, been accepted as historic fact). From the writings of Eckhart, Tauler and Ruysbroeck, of Boehme, William Law and the Quakers, it would be possible to extract a spiritualized and universalized Christianity, whose narratives should refer, not to history as it was, or as someone afterwards thought it ought to be, but to processes forever unfolded in the heart of man. But unfortunately the influence of the mystics was never powerful enough to bring about a radical Mahayanist revolution in the West. In spite of them, Christianity has remained a religion in which the pure Perennial Philosophy has been overlaid, now more, now less, by an idolatrous preoccupation with events and things in timeevents and things regarded not merely as useful means, but as ends, intrinsically sacred and indeed divine. Moreover such improvements on history as were made in the course of centuries were, most imprudently, treated as though they themselves were a part of historya procedure which put a powerful weapon into the hands of Protestant and, later, of Rationalist controversialists. How much wiser it would have been to admit the perfectly avowable fact that, when the sternness of Christ the Judge had been unduly emphasized, men and women felt the need of personifying the divine Compassion in a new form, with the result that the figure of the Virgin, mediatrix to the mediator, came into increased prominence. And when, in course of time, the Queen of Heaven was felt to be too awe-inspiring, Compassion was re-personified in the homely figure of St. Joseph, who thus became me thator to the me thatrix to the me thator. In exactly the same way Buddhist worshippers felt that the historic Sakyamuni, with his insistence on recollectedness, discrimination and a total dying to self as the principal means of liberation, was too stern and too intellectual. The result was that the love and Compassion which Sakyamuni had also inculcated came to be personified in Buddhas such as Amida and Maitreyadivine characters completely removed from history, inasmuch as their temporal career was situated somewhere in the distant past or distant future. Here it may be remarked that the vast numbers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, of whom the Mahayanist theologians speak, are commensurate with the vastness of their cosmology. Time, for them, is beginningless, and the innumerable universes, every one of them supporting sentient beings of every possible variety, are born, evolve, decay and the, only to repeat the same cycleagain and again, until the final inconceivably remote consummation, when every sentient being in all the worlds shall have won to deliverance out of time into eternal Suchness or Buddhahood This cosmological background to Buddhism has affinities with the world picture of modern astronomyespecially with that version of it offered in the recently published theory of Dr. Weiszcker regarding the formation of planets. If the Weiszcker hypothesis is correct, the production of a planetary system would be a normal episode in the life of every star. There are forty thousand million stars in our own galactic system alone, and beyond our galaxy other galaxies, indefinitely. If, as we have no choice but to believe, spiritual laws governing consciousness are uniform throughout the whole planet-bearing and presumably life-supporting universe, then certainly there is plenty of room, and at the same time, no doubt, the most agonizing and desperate need, for those innumerable redemptive incarnations of Suchness, upon whose shining multitudes the Mahayanists love to dwell.
For my part, I think the chief reason which prompted the invisible God to become visible in the flesh and to hold converse with men was to lead carnal men, who are only able to love carnally, to the healthful love of his flesh, and afterwards, little by little, to spiritual love.
--
St. Bernards doctrine of the carnal love of Christ has been admirably summed up by Professor tienne Gilson in his book, The Mystical Theology of St Bernard. Knowledge of self already expanded into social carnal love of the neighbour, so like oneself in misery, is now a second time expanded into a carnal love of Christ, the model of Compassion, since for our salvation He has become the Man of Sorrows. Here then is the place occupied in Cistercian mysticism by the meditation on the visible Humanity of Christ. It is but a beginning, but an absolutely necessary beginning Charity, of course, is essentially spiritual, and a love of this kind can be no more than its first moment. It is too much bound up with the senses, unless we know how to make use of it with prudence, and to lean on it only as something to be surpassed. In expressing himself thus, Bernard merely codified the teachings of his own experience; for we have it from him that he was much given to the practice of this sensitive love at the outset of his conversion; later on he was to consider it an advance to have passed beyond it; not, that is to say, to have forgotten it, but to have added another, which outweighs it as the rational and spiritual outweigh the carnal. Nevertheless, this beginning is already a summit.
This sensitive affection for Christ was always presented by St. Bernard as love of a relatively inferior order. It is so precisely on account of its sensitive character, for charity is of a purely spiritual essence. In right the soul should be able to enter directly into union, in virtue of its spiritual powers, with a God Who is pure spirit. The Incarnation, moreover, should be regarded as one of the consequences of mans transgression, so that love for the Person of Christ is, as a matter of fact, bound up with the history of a fall which need not, and should not, have happened. St. Bernard furthermore, and in several places, notes-that this affection cannot stand safely alone, but needs to be supported by what he calls science. He had examples before him of the deviations into which even the most ardent devotion can fall, when it is not allied with, and ruled by, a sane theology.
1.03 - Tara, Liberator from the Eight Dangers, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
In asking Tara to save us from the danger of the lion of pride, we are actually calling upon our inner Tara the seeds of our own wisdom and Compassion. As these qualities gradually grow, they protect us from the damage that
pride can inict upon ourselves and others.
--
or suffering, is the antidote to anger. Patience does not mean passively giving in or foolishly condoning harm. Rather, it produces a certain mental stability so that our Compassion and open-mindedness remain steady. Patience
calms our mind so that with clarity and wisdom we can consider various
--
sometimes with peaceful strength, other times with assertive Compassion.
The Snake of Jealousy
--
developing benecial ones. Through familiarizing our mind with the Compassionate motivation of bodhichitta and the wisdom realizing emptiness,
we progress through the stages of the bodhisattva path to Buddhahood.
--
crazy? I dont want to help him! How can I have Compassion for people who
harm others? All sorts of doubts pop up. We even get involved in doubting
--
praying to Tara, we are invoking our internal wisdom and Compassion
through generating wonderful aspirations and directing our thought toward
virtuous aims. The more we open our hearts with love and Compassion to all
beings equally, the more Tara can inuence us. The greater our wisdom
1.03 - The House Of The Lord, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
This is the overall picture of Sri Aurobindo's outer life as we saw it and lived it together through his last twelve years. The programme remained, on the whole, constant till the end except for some minor variations due to exigencies of circumstances. I have said nothing about his inner life, for I was not given a vision or perception of that vast secret field; nor had I Arjuna's unique privilege of seeing his Vivarpa, except some glimpses of his God-like stature. Sri Aurobindo had reminded me again and again in his letters that my physical crust was too thick. All the same, the joy, peace, light and energy that constantly sustained us could come from his silent Presence alone. People used to remark that we seemed to be beings of another world. Unfortunately, that brightness and felicity gave place to a grave seriousness with the rolling of years and a shadow of gloom was over us all, though we could not account for it at the time. Besides, the dark underside of our human nature, I am talking particularly of myself also began to show its grisly face. "Mortality bears ill the Eternal's touch." Of course, Sri Aurobindo remained samam brahman. Our frailties and shortcomings he had already seen from above, and was prepared for them when he accepted us for his service; he had never shown any annoyance. On the contrary, he forgave us all. Though he was impersonal by nature, hardly looked at us while talking, rarely spoke our name while asking for something, there was an ineffable sweetness in his Presence. And during our pranam on our birthdays or Darshan days, he used to make up for all his want of expression by melting into fatherly or friendly love and affection. He would pat us on the head, press it long with his warm velvety hands and look into our eyes with the tenderness of his sweet personality. Satyendra told me that when on his birthday he used to rub some attar on Sri Aurobindo's hand, he would then put forward the other one. His constant silent love and Compassion shine ever bright in the depths of our hearts.
[1] A kind of pepper water with tamarind juice.
1.03 - To Layman Ishii, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Zen
I recently overheard several of Boku's comrades discussing him. "Boku hit on a truly splendid plan," they decided. "He is sure to return with a much deeper attainment." I wasn't so sure. "Boku," I said to myself. "This is not a good idea. Being a kind and deeply Compassionate man, when the
Layman sees how troubled you are, he is sure to be greatly concerned and want to help you. But whatever help you receive now, even though you may gain something from it, it is going to stick to your bones and cling to your hide, and will prevent you from experiencing the intense joy that should accompany the sudden entrance into satori. You will remain a humble little stable boy the rest of your life, your wisdom never completely clear, your attainment never truly alive and vital. b A most regrettable outcome!"
--
Before I had even finished speaking, Boku performed two prostrations. "Master," he said, "thank you for the great Compassion you have shown in giving me this teaching. Although I cannot hope to comprehend it all, I do not doubt it in the least. I do have a few questions about it, however.
"In the past when teachers engaged their students, there was no room for any hesitation-they dealt with them as if they had a naked sword blade raised over their heads. They were like the giant golden-winged Garuda, monarch of the feathered kingdom, cleaving through the whale-backed seas and deftly seizing live dragons beneath the waves. Zen monks are like red-finned carp when the peach trees are in blossom, butting their way upstream into the tremendous current, braving the perilous
--
Then one day he suddenly grabbed the master and hurried him to a secluded spot at the rear of the temple. He seated the master on the ground, spread out his prostration cloth before him, and performed three bows. 'I appeal to your great mercy and Compassion,' he said. 'Please teach me the principles of Zen. Guide me to sudden enlightenment.' The master ignored him, enraging the monk, who flew into a fit of passion, sprang to his feet and, eyes red with anger, broke off a large branch from a nearby tree. Brandishing it, he stood in front of the master glaring scornfully at him. 'Priest!' he cried. 'If you don't tell me what you know, I am going to club you to death, cast your body down the cliff, and leave this place for good.' 'If you want to beat me to death, go ahead,' replied the master. 'I'm not going to teach you any Zen.' What a pity. This monk was obviously gifted with special capacity and spiritual strength. He had what it takes to penetrate the truth and perish into the great death. But notice what great caution and infinite care these ancient teachers exercised when leading students to self-awakening.
"Zen Master Tao-wu responded to a monk with the words, 'I won't say living. I won't say dead.'
1.03 - VISIT TO VIDYASAGAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
PUNDIT ISWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR was born in the village of Beersingh, not far from Kamarpukur, Sri Ramakrishna's birthplace. He was known as a great scholar, educator, writer, and philanthropist. One of the creators of modern Bengali, he was also well versed in Sanskrit grammar and poetry. His generosity made his name a household word with his countrymen, most of his income being given in charity to widows, orphans, indigent students, and other needy people. Nor was his Compassion limited to human beings: he stopped drinking milk for years so that the calves should not be deprived of it, and he would not drive in a carriage for fear of causing discomfort to the horses. He was a man of indomitable spirit, which he showed when he gave up the lucrative position of principal of the Sanskrit College of Calcutta because of a disagreement with the authorities. His affection for his mother was especially deep. One day, in the absence of a ferryboat, he swam a raging river at the risk of his life to fulfil her wish that he should be present at his brother's wedding. His whole life was one of utter simplicity. The title Vidyasagar, meaning "Ocean of Learning", was given him in recognition of his vast erudition.
Master's visit to the scholar
--
Though they are rajasic, they are influenced by sattva. Compassion springs from sattva. Though work for the good of others belongs to rajas, yet this rajas has sattva for its basis, and is not harmful. Suka and other sages cherished Compassion in their minds to give people religious instruction, to teach them about God. You are distributing food and learning. That is good too. If these activities are done in a selfless spirit they lead to God. But most people work for fame or to acquire merit. Their activities are not selfless. Besides, you are already a siddha."
VIDYASAGAR: "How is that, sir?"
MASTER (laughing): "When potatoes and other vegetables are well cooked, they become soft and tender. And you possess such a tender nature! You are so Compassionate!"
(Laughter.)
--
MASTER: "But you don't belong to that class. Mere pundits are like diseased fruit that becomes hard and will not ripen at all. Such fruit has neither the freshness of green fruit nor the flavour of ripe. Vultures soar very high in the sky, but their eyes are fixed on rotten carrion on the ground. The book-learned are reputed to be wise, but they are attached to 'woman and gold'. Like the vultures, they are in search of carrion. They are attached to the world of ignorance. Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are the glories of true knowledge."
Vidyasagar listened to these words in silence. The others, too, gazed at the Master and were attentive to every word he said.
--
MASTER: "As the All-pervading Spirit He exists in all beings, even in the ant. But the manifestations of His Power are different in different beings; otherwise, how can one person put ten to flight, while another can't face even one? And why do all people respect you? Have you grown a pair horns? (Laughter.) You have more Compassion and learning. Therefore people honour you and come to pay you their respects. Don't you agree with me?"
Vidyasagar smiled.
--
"Man cannot really help the world. God alone does that - He who has created the sun and the moon, who has put love for their children in parents' hearts, endowed noble souls with Compassion, and holy men and devotees with divine love. The man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself.
"There is gold buried in your heart, but you are not yet aware of it. It is covered with a thin layer of clay. Once you are aware of it, all these activities of yours will lessen. After the birth of her child, the daughter-in-law in the family busies herself with it alone.
1.048 - Victory, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
29. Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those with him are stern against the disbelievers, yet Compassionate amongst themselves. You see them kneeling, prostrating, seeking blessings from God and approval. Their marks are on their faces from the effects of prostration. Such is their description in the Torah, and their description in the Gospel: like a plant that sprouts, becomes strong, grows thick, and rests on its stem, impressing the farmers. Through them He enrages the disbelievers. God has promised those among them who believe and do good deeds forgiveness and a great reward.
1.04 - ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"But one need not fear anything if one has received the grace of God. It is rather easy for a child to stumble if he holds his father's hand; but there can be no such fear if the father holds the child's hand. A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practised spiritual discipline. The mother feels Compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child."
"But why should God make us run about?" thought M
--
His holy name: when danger stares in your face, Call on Him, your Father Compassionate;
With His name's thunder, snap the fetters of sin!
1.04 - BOOK THE FOURTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Both Gods, and parents, with Compassion heard.
The whiteness of the mulberry soon fled,
1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
St. Bernard speaks in what seems a similar strain. What I know of the divine sciences and Holy Scripture, I learnt in woods and fields. I have had no other masters than the beeches and the oaks. And in another of his letters he says: Listen to a man of experience: thou wilt learn more in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach thee more than thou canst acquire from the mouth of a magister. The phrases are similar; but their inner significance is very different. In Augustines language, God alone is to be enjoyed; creatures are not to be enjoyed but usedused with love and Compassion and a wondering, detached appreciation, as means to the knowledge of that which may be enjoyed. Wordsworth, like almost all other literary Nature-worshippers, preaches the enjoyment of creatures rather than their use for the attainment of spiritual endsa use which, as we shall see, entails much self-discipline for the user. For Bernard it goes without saying that his correspondents are actively practising this self-discipline and that Nature, though loved and heeded as a teacher, is only being used as a means to God, not enjoyed as though she were God. The beauty of flowers and landscape is not merely to be relished as one wanders lonely as a cloud about the countryside, is not merely to be pleasurably remembered when one is lying in vacant or in pensive mood on the sofa in the library, after tea. The reaction must be a little more strenuous and purposeful. Here, my brothers, says an ancient Buddhist author, are the roots of trees, here are empty places; meditate. The truth is, of course, that the world is only for those who have deserved it; for, in Philos words, even though a man may be incapable of making himself worthy of the creator of the cosmos, yet he ought to try to make himself worthy of the cosmos. He ought to transform himself from being a man into the nature of the cosmos and become, if one may say so, a little cosmos. For those who have not deserved the world, either by making themselves worthy of its creator (that is to say, by non-attachment and a total self-naughting), or, less arduously, by making themselves worthy of the cosmos (by bringing order and a measure of unity to the manifold confusion of undisciplined human personality), the world is, spiritually speaking, a very dangerous place.
That Nirvana and Samsara are one is a fact about the nature of the universe; but it is a fact which cannot be fully realized or directly experienced, except by souls far advanced in spirituality. For ordinary, nice, unregenerate people to accept this truth by hearsay, and to act upon it in practice, is merely to court disaster. All the dismal story of antinomianism is there to warn us of what happens when men and women make practical applications of a merely intellectual and unrealized theory that all is God and God is all. And hardly less depressing than the spectacle of antinomianism is that of the earnestly respectable well-rounded life of good citizens who do their best to live sacramentally, but dont in fact have any direct acquaintance with that for which the sacramental activity really stands. Dr. Oman, in his The Natural and the Supernatural, writes at length on the theme that reconciliation to the evanescent is revelation of the eternal; and in a recent volume, Science, Religion and the Future, Canon Raven applauds Dr. Oman for having stated the principles of a theology, in which there could be no ultimate antithesis between nature and grace, science and religion, in which, indeed, the worlds of the scientist and the theologian are seen to be one and the same. All this is in full accord with Taoism and Zen Buddhism and with such Christian teachings as St. Augustines Ama et fac quod vis and Father Lallemants advice to theocentric contemplatives to go out and act in the world, since their actions are the only ones capable of doing any real good to the world. But what neither Dr. Oman nor Canon Raven makes sufficiently clear is that nature and grace, Samsara and Nirvana, perpetual perishing and eternity, are really and experientially one only to persons who have fulfilled certain conditions. Fac quod vis in the temporal world but only when you have learnt the infinitely difficult art of loving God with all your mind and heart and your neighbor as yourself. If you havent learnt this lesson, you will either be an antinomian eccentric or criminal or else a respectable well-rounded-lifer, who has left himself no time to understand either nature or grace. The Gospels are perfectly clear about the process by which, and by which alone, a man may gain the right to live in the world as though he were at home in it: he must make a total denial of selfhood, submit to a complete and absolute mortification. At one period of his career, Jesus himself seems to have undertaken austerities, not merely of the mind, but of the body. There is the record of his forty days fast and his statement, evidently drawn from personal experience, that some demons cannot be cast out except by those who have fasted much as well as prayed. (The Cur dArs, whose knowledge of miracles and corporal penance was based on personal experience, insists on the close correlation between severe bodily austerities and the power to get petitionary prayer answered in ways that are sometimes supernormal.) The Pharisees reproached Jesus because he came eating and drinking, and associated with publicans and sinners; they ignored, or were unaware of, the fact that this apparently worldly prophet had at one time rivalled the physical austerities of John the Baptist and was practising the spiritual mortifications which he consistently preached. The pattern of Jesus life is essentially similar to that of the ideal sage, whose career is traced in the Oxherding Pictures, so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolizing the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transformed from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time the ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the full-orbed moon, symbolizing Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world of men, riding on the back of his ox. Because he now loves, loves to the extent of being identified with the divine object of his love, he can do what he likes; for what he likes is what the Nature of Things likes. He is found in company with wine-bibbers and butchers; he and they are all converted into Buddhas. For him, there is complete reconciliation to the evanescent and, through that reconciliation, revelation of the eternal. But for nice ordinary unregenerate people the only reconciliation to the evanescent is that of indulged passions, of distractions submitted to and enjoyed. To tell such persons that evanescence and eternity are the same, and not immediately to qualify the statement, is positively fatalfor, in practice, they are not the same except to the saint; and there is no record that anybody ever came to sanctity, who did not, at the outset of his or her career, behave as if evanescence and eternity, nature and grace, were profoundly different and in many respects incompatible. As always, the path of spirituality is a knife-edge between abysses. On one side is the danger of mere rejection and escape, on the other the danger of mere acceptance and the enjoyment of things which should only be used as instruments or symbols. The versified caption which accompanies the last of the Oxherding Pictures runs as follows.
1.04 - SOME REFLECTIONS ON PROGRESS, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
bor is therefore not merely an act of worship and Compassion
superimposed on our other individual preoccupations. For the
1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
corruption of all things, as the cause of nihilism. Ours is the most honest and Compassionate age.
Distress, whether psychic, physical, or intellectual, need not at all produce nihilism (that is, the radical
1.04 - The Praise, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
SWIFT, moved by great Compassion, Tara, when she
- comes to help beings, does it without procrastinating
--
benefit of beings with Compassion is first the sign of
her love.
--
natural effect of Tara's Compassion is to provide joy
for the bodhisattvas, the Vajrayana followers having
--
of Compassion is such that it frees beings of inferior
realms and other worlds from their suffering, and
1.052 - The Mount, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
28. Before this, we used to pray to Him. He is the Good, the Compassionate.”
29. So remind. By the grace of your Lord, you are neither a soothsayer, nor a madman.
1.055 - The Compassionate, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
object:1.055 - The Compassionate
class:chapter
--
1. The Compassionate.
2. Has taught the Quran.
1.057 - Iron, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
9. It is He who sends down upon His servant clear revelations, to bring you out of darkness into the light. God is Gentle towards you, Most Compassionate.
10. And why is it that you do not spend in the cause of God, when to God belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth? Not equal among you are those who contributed before the conquest, and fought. Those are higher in rank than those who contributed afterwards, and fought. But God promises both a good reward. God is Well Experienced in what you do.
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27. Then We sent in their wake Our messengers, and followed up with Jesus son of Mary, and We gave him the Gospel, and instilled in the hearts of those who followed him Compassion and mercy. But as for the monasticism which they invented—We did not ordain it for them—only to seek God’s approval. But they did not observe it with its due observance. So We gave those of them who believed their reward, but many of them are sinful.
28. O you who believe! Fear God, and believe in His Messenger: He will give you a double portion of His mercy, and will give you a light by which you walk, and will forgive you. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
1.059 - The Mobilization, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
22. He is God. There is no god but He, the Knower of secrets and declarations. He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.
23. He is God; besides Whom there is no god; the Sovereign, the Holy, the Peace-Giver, the Faith-Giver, the Overseer, the Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Overwhelming. Glory be to God, beyond what they associate.
1.05 - Bhakti Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
13. Pray to the Lord thus; O Adorable Lord of Compassion and Love! Give me faith and devotion.
Let my mind be ever fixed On Thy Lotus Feet. Let me have constant remembrance of Thee. Let me sing Thy glory always.
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28. A realised Bhakta is free from lust, egoism, mine-ness, hatred, jealousy, greed. He is full of humility, Compassion and kindness. He sees God in all beings, in all objects. He has equal vision and a balanced mind.
29. Draupadi was an Arta-Bhaktini; Nachiketas was Jijnasu-Bhakta; Dhruva was an Arthar thee-Bhakta; Suka Deva was a Jnani-Bhakta; Prahlada was an absolutely Nishkama Bhakta.
1.05 - Buddhism and Women, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Zen
the mantra of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Time passed, and Gelongma Palmo, obtaining no
1.05 - Christ, A Symbol of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
My mercy may suppress My anger, and that My Compassion may
prevail over My other attri butes." 69 This tradition is borne out
1.05 - Hsueh Feng's Grain of Rice, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
midday-just this ordinary. Out of Compassion, Hsueh Tau
shatters (everything) with one hammer blow at the outset, and
1.05 - On painstaking and true repentance which constitute the life of the holy convicts; and about the prison., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
I saw there humble and contrite souls depressed by the weight of their burden. Their voices and outcries to God would have moved the very stones to Compassion. For, casting their gaze to the earth they would say: We know, we know that in all justice we deserve every punishment and torment. For how could we make satisfaction for the multitude of our debts even if we were to summon the whole world to weep for us? But this is our only petition, this our prayer, this our supplication, that He may not rebuke us in anger, nor chasten us in His wrath.1 Punish, but spare! It is sufficient for us if Thou deliverest us from Thy great threat, from the unknown and hidden torments. For we dare not ask for complete forgivenesshow could we? For we have not kept our vow but have defiled it, even Thy past loving kindness and forgiveness.
And there, friends, the fulfilment of the words of David could be clearly seen, men enduring hardship and bowed down to the end of their life, going about with a sad countenance all day long, the wounds in their body stinking of rottenness,2 and they took no notice of them, and they forgot to eat their bread, and they mingled their drink of water with weeping; they ate dust and ashes with their bread, and their bones cleaved to their flesh, and were withered like grass.3 You could hear from them nothing but the words: Woe, woe! Alas, alas! It is just, it is just! Spare us, spare us O Lord. Some were saying: Have mercy, have mercy, and others still more plaintively: Forgive, O Lord; forgive if it is possible.
--
Most terrible and pitiful was the sight of their last hour. When his fellow-defaulters learnt that one of their number was ready to precede them by finishing his course, they gathered round him while his mind was still active and with thirst, with tears, with love, with a tender look and sad voice, shaking their heads, they would ask the dying man, and would say to him, burning with Compassion: How are you, brother and fellow criminal? What will you say? What do you hope? What do you expect? Have you accomplished what you sought with such labour or not? Has the door been opened to you, or are you still under judgment? Have you attained your object, or not yet? Have you received any sort of assurance, or is your hope still uncertain? Have you obtained freedom, or is your thought clouded with doubt? Have you felt any enlightenment in your heart or is it still dark and ashamed? Has any inner voice said: Behold thou art made whole,1 or: Thy sins are forgiven thee, 2or: Thy faith has saved thee?3 Or, have you heard a voice like this: Let the sinners be turned into hell,4 and: Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness,5 and again: Let the wicked man be removed that he may not see the glory of the Lord?6 What, quite simply, can you say, brother? Tell us, we beg you, that we too may know in what state we shall be. For your time is already closed, and you will never find another opportunity. To this some of the dying would reply: Blessed is God who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me. 7Others again: Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us for a prey to their teeth.8 Others said dolefully: Will our soul pass through the impassable water9 of the spirits of the air?not having complete confidence, but looking to see what would happen in that rendering of accounts. Others still more dolefully would answer and say: Woe to the soul that has not kept its vow intact! In this hour, and in this only, it will know what is prepared for it.
But when I had seen and heard all this among them, I nearly despaired of myself, seeing my own indifference and comparing it with their suffering. For what a place and habitation theirs was! All dark, reeking, filthy and squalid. It was rightly called the prison and house of convicts. The very sight of the place was sufficient to teach all penitence and mourning. But what is hard and intolerable for others becomes easy and acceptable for those who have fallen away from virtue and spiritual riches. For the soul that has lost its former confidence; that has lost hope of dispassion; that has broken the seal of chastity; that has allowed its treasury of gifts to be robbed; that has become a stranger to divine consolation; that has rejected the commandment of the Lord; that has extinguished the beautiful fire of spiritual10 tears, and is wounded and pierced with sorrow by the remembrance of this will not only undertake the above-mentioned labours with all readiness, but will even devoutly resolve to kill itself
1.05 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice - The Psychic Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A wider formula has been provided by the secular mind of mall of which the basis is the ethical sense; for it distinguishes between the emotions sanctioned by the ethical sense and those that are egoistic and selfishly common and mundane. It is the works of altruism, philanthropy, Compassion, benevolence, humanitarianism, service, labour for the well-being of man and all creatures that are to be our Ideal; to shuffle off the coil of egoism and grow into a soul of self-abnegation that lives only or mainly for others or for humanity as a whole is the way of man's inner evolution according to this doctrine. Or if this is too secular and mental to satisfy the whole of our being, since there is a deeper religious and spiritual note there that is left out of account by the humanitarian formula, a religio-ethical foundation can be provided for it -and such was indeed its original basis. To the inner worship of the Divine or the Supreme by the devotion of the heart or to the pursuit of the Ineffable by the seeking of a highest knowledge can be added a worship through altruistic works or a preparation through acts of love, of benevolence, of service to mankind or to those around us. It is indeed by the religio-ethical sense that the law of universal goodwill or universal Compassion or of love and service to the neighbour, the Vedantic, the Buddhistic, the Christian ideal, was created; only by a sort of secular refrigeration extinguishing the fervour of the religious element in it could the humanitarian ideal disengage itself and become the highest plane of a secular system of mental and moral ethics. For in the religious system this law of works is a means that ceases when its object is accomplished or a side issue; it is a part of the cult by which one adores and seeks the Divinity or it is a penultimate step of the excision of self in the passage to Nirvana. In the secular ideal it is promoted into an object in itself; it becomes a sign of the moral perfection of the human being, or else it is a condition for a happier state of man upon earth, a better society, a more united life of the race. But none of these things satisfy the demand of the soul that is placed before us by the integral Yoga.
Altruism, philanthropy, humanitarianism, service are flowers of the mental consciousness and are at best the mind's cold and pale imitation of the spiritual flame of universal Divine Love. Not truly liberative from ego-sense, they widen it at most and give it higher and larger satisfaction; impotent in practice to change mall's vital life and nature, they only modify and palliate its action and daub over its unchanged egoistic essence. Or if they are intensely followed with an entire sincerity of the will, it is by an exaggerated amplification of one side of our nature; in that exaggeration there can be no clue for the full and perfect divine evolution of the many sides of our individualised being towards the universal and transcendent Eternal. Nor can the religio-ethical ideal be a sufficient guide, -- for this is a compromise or compact of mutual concessions for mutual support between a religious urge which seeks to get a closer hold on earth by taking into itself the higher turns of ordinary human nature and an ethical urge which hopes to elevate itself out of its own mental hardness and dryness by some touch of a religious fervour. In making this compact religion lowers itself to the mental level and inherits the inherent imperfections of mind and its inability to convert and transform life. The mind is the sphere of the dualities and, just as it is impossible for it to achieve any absolute Truth but only truths relative or mixed with error, so it is impossible for it to achieve any absolute good; for moral good exists as a counterpart and corrective to evil and has evil always for its shadow, complement, almost its reason for existence. But the spiritual consciousness belongs to a higher than the mental plane and there the dualities cease; for there falsehood confronted with the truth by which it profited through a usurping falsification of it and evil faced by the good of which it was a perversion or a lurid substitute, are obliged to perish for want of sustenance and to cease. The integral Yoga, refusing to rely upon the fragile stuff of mental and moral ideals, puts its whole emphasis in this field on three central dynamic processes -- the development of the true soul or psychic being to take the place of the false soul of desire, the sublimation of human into divine love, the elevation of consciousness from its mental to its spiritual and supramental plane by whose power alone both the soul and the life-force can be utterly delivered from the veils and prevarications of the Ignorance.
--
But the most intimate character of the psychic is its pressure towards the Divine through a sacred love, joy and oneness. It is the divine Love that it seeks most, it is the love of the Divine that is its spur, its goal, its star of Truth shining over the luminous cave of the nascent or the still obscure cradle of the new-born godhead within us. In the first long stage of its growth and immature existence it has leaned on earthly love, affection, tenderness, goodwill, Compassion, benevolence, on all beauty and gentleness and fineness and light and strength and courage, on all that can help to refine and purify the grossness and commonness of human nature; but it knows how mixed are these human movements at their best and at their worst how fallen and stamped with the mark of ego and self-deceptive sentimental falsehood and the lower self profiting by the imitation of a soul movement. At once, emerging, it is ready and eager to break all the old ties and imperfect emotional activities and replace them by a greater spiritual Truth of love and oneness. It may still admit the human forms and movements, but on condition that they are turned towards the One alone. It accepts only the ties that are helpful, the heart's reverence for the Guru, the union of the God-seekers, a spiritual Compassion for the ignorant human and animal world and its peoples, the joy and happiness and satisfaction of beauty that comes from the perception of the Divine everywhere. It plunges the nature inward towards its meeting with the immanent Divine in the heart's secret centre and, while that call is there, no reproach of egoism, no mere outward summons of altruism or duty or philanthropy or service will deceive or divert it from its sacred longing and its obedience to the attraction of the Divinity within it. It lifts the being towards a transcendent Ecstasy and is ready to shed all the downward pull of the world from its wings in its uprising to reach the One Highest; but it calls down also this transcendent Love and Beatitude to deliver and transform this world of hatred and strife and division and darkness and jarring Ignorance. It opens to a universal Divine Love, a vast Compassion, an intense and immense will for the good of all, for the embrace of the World-Mother enveloping or gathering to her her children, the divine Passion that has plunged into the night for the redemption of the world from the universal Ignorance. It is not attracted or misled by mental imitations or any vital misuse of these great deep-seated Truths of existence; it exposes them with its detecting search-ray and calls down the entire truth of divine Love to heal these malformations, to deliver mental, vital, physical love from their insufficiencies or their perversions and reveal to them their abounding share of the intimacy and the oneness and the ascending ecstasy and the descending rapture.
All true truths of Love and of the works of Love the psychic being accepts in their place; but its flame mounts always upward and it is eager to push the ascent from lesser to higher degrees of Truth, since it knows that only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed upon the throne; for the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns life into a state of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence.
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had Compassion on
him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews children.
--
and soon there is a crowd. He walks among them in silence, a gentle smile of infinite Compassion on His
lips. The sun of love burns in His heart; light, understanding, and spiritual power flow from His eyes and
--
wailing, If it is truly You, give me back my child! and she stretches out her hands to Him. The procession stops. They put the coffin down at His feet. He looks down with Compassion, His lips form the
words Talitha cumi arise, maiden and the maiden arises. The little girl sits up in her coffin, opens
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corrupted will to come near a diagnosis. Hence Jesus was not simply the Compassionate Jesus as Buddha
was the Compassionate Buddha. His work, though it includes teaching the ways of enlightenment, does
not stop there, but goes through a martyrdom and a descent into death. Two implications here are of
1.05 - The Magical Control of the Weather, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
appeal to the Compassion of higher powers.
Stones are often supposed to possess the property of bringing on
1.05 - The Second Circle The Wanton. Minos. The Infernal Hurricane. Francesca da Rimini., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Sad and Compassionate to weeping make me.
But tell me, at the time of those sweet sighs,
1.05 - The Ways of Working of the Lord, #Words Of The Mother II, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Surely He has deep Compassion for you, but His eyes are not of the kind that shed tears.
21 September 1964
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Divine law, the law of Compassion and mercy.
It is because of this law that the world is able to endure and progress towards Truth and Love.
1.067 - Sovereignty, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
3. He who created seven heavens in layers. You see no discrepancy in the creation of the Compassionate. Look again. Can you see any cracks?
4. Then look again, and again, and your sight will return to you dazzled and exhausted.
--
19. Have they not seen the birds above them, spreading their wings, and folding them? None holds them except the Compassionate. He is Perceiver of everything.
20. Or who is this who is a force for you to protect you against the Compassionate? The disbelievers are in nothing but delusion.
21. Or who is this that will provide for you, if He withholds His provision? Yet they persist in defiance and aversion.
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29. Say, “He is the Compassionate. We have faith in Him, and in Him we trust. Soon you will know who is in evident error.”
30. Say, “Have you considered? If your water drains away, who will bring you pure running water?”
1.06 - On Thought, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With your hearts overflowing with Compassion, go forth into this world torn by pain, be instructors, and wherever the darkness of ignorance rules, there light a torch.
15 December 1911
1.06 - The Four Powers of the Mother, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
7:Four great Aspects of the Mother four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible Compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness. Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force. A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several attributes and it is these powers that they bring with them into the world, manifest in a human disguise in their Vibhutis and shall found in the divine degree of their ascension in those who can open their earthly nature to the direct and living influence of the Mother To the four we give the four great names, Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati.
8:Imperial MAHESHWARI is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them. For she is the mighty and wise One who opens us to the supramental infinities and the cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the supreme Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mother s eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm for ever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. A strength is in her that meets everything and masters and none can prevail in the end against her vast intangible wisdom and high tranquil power. Equal, patient and unalterable in her will she deals with men according to their nature and with things and happenings according to their force and the truth that is in them. Partiality she has none, but she follows the decrees of the Supreme and some she raises up and some she casts down or puts away from her into the darkness. To the wise she gives a greater and more luminous wisdom; those that have vision she admits to her counsels; on the hostile she imposes the consequence of their hostility; the ignorant and foolish she leads according to their blindness. In each man she answers and handles the different elements of his nature according to their need and their urge and the return they call for, puts on them the required pressure or leaves them to their cherished liberty to prosper in the ways of the Ignorance or to perish. For she is above all, bound by nothing, attached to nothing in the universe. Yet has she more than any other the heart of the universal Mother For her Compassion is endless and inexhaustible; all are to her eyes her children and portions of the One, even the Asura and Rakshasa and Pisacha and those that are revolted and hostile. Even her rejections are only a postponement, even her punishments are a grace. But her Compassion does not blind her wisdom or turn her action from the course decreed; for the Truth of things is her one concern, knowledge her centre of power and to build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth her mission and her labour.
9:MAHAKALI is of another nature. Not wideness but height, not wisdom but force and strength are her peculiar power. There is in her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. All her divinity leaps out in a splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness, for the immediately effective process, the rapid and direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it. Terrible is her face to the Asura, dangerous and ruthless her mood against the haters of the Divine; for she is the Warrior of the Worlds who never shrinks from the battle. Intolerant of imperfection, she deals roughly with all in man that is unwilling and she is severe to all that is obstinately ignorant and obscure; her wrath is immediate and dire against treachery and falsehood and malignity, ill-will is smitten at once by her scourge. Indifference, negligence and sloth in the divine work she cannot bear and she smites awake at once with sharp pain, if need be, the untimely slumberer and the loiterer. The impulses that are swift and straight and frank, the movements that are unreserved and absolute, the aspiration that mounts in flame are the motion of Mahakali. Her spirit is tameless, her vision and will are high and far-reaching like the flight of an eagle, her feet are rapid on the upward way and her hands are outstretched to strike and to succour. For she too is the Mother and her love is as intense as her wrath and she has a deep and passionate kindness. When she is allowed to intervene in her strength, then in one moment are broken like things without consistence the obstacles that immobilise or the enemies that assail the seeker. If her anger is dreadful to the hostile and the vehemence of her pressure painful to the weak and timid, she is loved and worshipped by the great, the strong and the noble; for they feel that her blows beat what is rebellious in their material into strength and perfect truth, hammer straight what is wry and perverse and expel what is impure or defective. But for her what is done in a day might have taken centuries; without her Ananda might be wide and grave or soft and sweet and beautiful but would lose the flaming joy of its most absolute intensities. To knowledge she gives a conquering might, brings to beauty and harmony a high and mounting movement and imparts to the slow and difficult labour after perfection an impetus that multiplies the power and shortens the long way. Nothing can satisfy her that falls short of the supreme ecstasies, the highest heights, the noblest aims, the largest vistas. Therefore with her is the victorious force of the Divine and it is by grace of her fire and passion and speed if the great achievement can be done now rather than hereafter.
1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Generally the body does not remain alive after the attainment of samdhi. The only exceptions are such sages as Narada, who keep their bodies alive in order to bring spiritual light to others. It is also true of Divine Incarnations, like Chaitanya. After the well is dug, one generally throws away the spade and the basket. But some keep them in order to help their neighbours. The great souls who retain their bodies after samdhi feel Compassion for the suffering of others. They are not so selfish as to be satisfied with their own illumination. You are well aware of the nature of selfish people. If you ask them to spit at a particular place, they won't, lest it should do you good. If you ask them to bring a sweetmeat worth a cent from the store, they will perhaps lick it on the way back. (All laugh.)
"But the manifestations of Divine Power are different in different beings. Ordinary souls are afraid to teach others. A piece of worthless timber may itself somehow float across the water, but it sinks even under the weight of a bird. Sages like Narada are like a heavy log of wood, which not only floats on the water but also can carry men, cows, and even elephants.
--
MASTER: "Remember that daya, Compassion, and maya, attachment, are two different things. Attachment means the feeling of 'my-ness' toward one's relatives. It is the love one feels for one's parents, one's brother, one's sister, one's wife and children.
Compassion is the love one feels for all beings of the world. It is an attitude of equality.
If you see anywhere an instance of Compassion, as in Vidyasagar, know that it is due to the grace of God. Through Compassion one serves all beings. Maya also comes from God. Through maya God makes one serve one's relatives. But one thing should be remembered: maya keeps us in ignorance and entangles us in the world, whereas daya makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds.
"God cannot be realized without purity of heart. One receives the grace of God by subduing the passions-lust, anger, and greed. Then one sees God. I tried many things in order to conquer lust.
1.06 - Yun Men's Every Day is a Good Day, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
Because of his Compassion, at this point Hsueh Tou feared
that people would settle down within the realm of unconcern,
1.07 - A Song of Longing for Tara, the Infallible, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
From my heart I bow to Divine Mother Tara, essence of love and Compassion, the most precious objects of refuge gathered into one. From
now until I reach enlightenment, hook me with your great love and
--
Divine Mother, essence of love. Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
I take refuge in you, Tara; like you, no Buddha could ever deceive me.
--
have gone into the bliss of nirvana. Even though they have great Compassion, we have no connection. Since for me there are no other
deities, you are my principal deity. Bestow realizations upon me,
Divine Mother, essence of love. Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
Most Dharma protectors do not show their powers. Tired of those
--
arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
To ordinary view the names of objects are the same as their meaning.
--
Divine Mother, essence of love. Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
a song of longing for tara, the infallible
--
being. Inspire me to be able to develop this kind of Compassion to
benet all.
--
May the hook of your Compassion and your skillful means transform
my mind into Dharma and transform the minds of all beings, whoever
--
whose essence is Compassion, hold me dear until I reach enlightenment. May I quickly conquer the four negative forces.
If, as long as you live, you recite this prayer three times every day, not
--
From my heart I bow to Divine Mother Tara, essence of love and Compassion, the most precious objects of refuge gathered into one. From now until
I reach enlightenment, hook me with your great love and kindness to liberate me.
--
Rather, we know that as a Buddha, she wont judge us, so we are totally honest with Tara. This lets us be nourished by her wisdom and Compassion.
Symbolically, the right side of the body correlates with the method or
--
deities in union, the male represents Compassion and the female, wisdom.
This is the opposite of our usual associations in the West, where we think
of women as being Compassionate and men being knowledgeable. Switching the associations in this way is good for us. It prevents us from getting
stuck in preconceptions about gender. However, this tantric symbolism
--
The essence of love and Compassion is what Tara is all about. You may
wonder, I thought Tara, as a female, represents wisdom and male deities represent Compassion and now youre saying that Taras essence is Compassion.
Lets not make the symbolism concrete and fabricate more preconceptions.
All Buddhas have both wisdom and Compassion. Calling her the essence of
reflections on a song of longing for tara, the infallible
--
love and Compassion reminds us of the traits we admire in her so that we will
direct our energy into developing these qualities in our own mind.
--
change with Compassion.
reflections on a song of longing for tara, the infallible
--
involved with people and things, we are able to interact with them with Compassion and wisdom, viewing them in a more realistic light.
All phenomena are seless. All persons and phenomenoneverything that
--
hook with her wisdom and Compassion. We might ask, If Tara is a Buddha,
why do we have to request her to hook us? Why do we have to request her to
--
We cant say, Tara, please inspire me to develop love and Compassion
and, in the meantime, Im going to tell this guy off because hes making so
--
were also saying to ourselves, Having love and Compassion is important. I
need to make effort from my side to cultivate them.
--
That made me think. There is a purpose for becoming a Buddha. Someone who has developed unbiased love and Compassion toward all beings and
who directly perceives the nature of reality has abilities that the rest of us
--
to generate love and Compassion. World peace wont happen by ghting wars
to eliminate enemies or by passing laws. There has to be a transformation
--
the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
We live in an age of degeneration, a time in which people have strong and
--
arent yet sufciently prepared to hear. Other teachers give advanced teachings out of Compassion, because they want to plant good seeds in the students minds. But students do not always appreciate this. We want to take
initiations, but we dont want to keep the vows or do a daily practice. Or, if
--
make it sound as if we had a pure motivation and are very Compassionate.
We adeptly pretend that we dont have a certain fault that everybody knows
--
reputation wont keep us from a lower rebirth. It wont get us closer to enlightenment. It wont increase our wisdom and Compassion. It wont solve
starvation and conicts in the world. So why should we be so intent on having a good reputation and be so tremendously upset when we dont? In terms
--
of love. Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me. Here,
we ask Tara for her help and inspiration. We also say to ourselves, Im making myself ready to receive the enlightening inuence of Tara and of all the
--
the bliss of nirvana. Even though they have great Compassion, we have no
connection. Since for me there are no other deities, you are my principal deity.
--
power of your Compassion and think of me.
The previous verse concerned how to relate to gurus. This verse is about how
--
Even though they have great Compassion means that from their side,
theres connection, theres Compassion, theres the wish to help. But from
our side there is no connection because were too busy watching TV, going
--
Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me. As if Tara
is not already doing that! Here were talking to ourselves, saying, Hey, me!
--
Wisdom Mother, essence of love, arouse the great power of your Compassion
and think of me.
--
Buddhas wisdom and Compassion appear in the form of these wrathful
deities to demonstrate clean-clear wisdom and Compassion that act directly.
This active wisdom doesnt vacillate and pamper us. This wisdom doesnt
--
ignorance, anger, attachment, jealousy, pride, and selshness, they are Compassionate toward us sentient beings who are overwhelmed by our disturbing emotions.
Why would a high-level bodhisattva who is a transcendental protector
--
Tarawisdom and Compassionto protect us means were committing ourselves to developing these realizations in our own mind.
reflections on a song of longing for tara, the infallible
--
power of your Compassion and think of me. Again, this is saying, Me, this
person who sits around and procrastinates, may I arouse the great power of
my motivation and think of Tara, Compassion, and wisdom.
Verse 6: True Nature and Illusions
--
the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
To our ordinary vision, when we say the name of something we think that
--
desires, Divine Mother, essence of love. Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me. Illusions are our thoughts that these objects, people, and situations are of dramatic importance, that they have some inherent
essence, that they are the meaning of our life. We think that having money,
--
Arouse the great power of your Compassion and think of me.
Have you ever had a friend like thissomeone who pretends to be close
--
a Buddha can manifest as physical objects. Rather, it means we give up clinging to the eight worldly concerns and clo the ourselves in wisdom and Compassion. In other words, practicing Dharma is the meaning of my life;
Dharma is the focus of all my energy.
--
(yidams), and Dharma protectors. Like spiritual food, the wisdom and Compassion she represents nourish us. Like clothes, the six far-reaching attitudes
she embodies adorn us. Like possessions, the enlightened qualities provide
--
Verse 9: Compassion
Although I am overwhelmed by my habitual, uncontrolled mind, please cut
--
able to develop this kind of Compassion to benet all.
It may seem impossible to aspire to be able to give our own body and life
--
them and aspiring to be so Compassionate that my mind has no problem
beneting others in whatever way is necessary. For me, just thinking about
limitless Compassion brings a sense of purpose, meaning, and value in life. If
we think like this, then when looking at a sentient being, instead of thinking,
--
out of true love and Compassion for all sentient beings. Wow! Joe Schmoe has
that potential! I respect him.
--
that doesnt mean we endorse their horric actions. Instead, we view the situation with Compassion: Here are beings who have Buddha-potential but
whose minds are so overpowered by wrong views that they think killing others brings happiness. Thats a tragedy for them as well as for the people they
--
Seeing their situation with a broader view, well be able to have Compassion for them. We see that whats going on now is a temporary aberration.
While we dont let them continue killing and inciting violence, we also dont
--
love. Meditating on love and Compassion enables us to see the tremendous
potential in each and every living being; it helps us respect them and see
--
The mind of Compassion, non-dual understanding,
And the altruistic mind of enlightenment (bodhichitta)
--
when he came to the podium and started talking about Compassion and
equality among people, he came alive and lit up. Were the opposite: when
--
Full of pride in my newfound Compassion, I gave him a donut. He took it
and, without looking up, crumbled it in his hand. The delicious donut that I
--
trained, peaceful, stable, reliable, trustworthy, Compassionate, and openminded. To enter the tantric path, ideally one should be a bodhisattva. At the
very least, one should have trained in the bodhisattva path.
--
Arent I Compassionate? The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation talk about
doing these practices secretly, in a humble way, without declaring to others
--
Vajrayana is this very intense Compassion and bodhichitta.
Nowadays, in the West and also in Asia, many people lack that motivation
--
Tara. With this powerful thought, we give ourselves to Tara, that is, to wisdom and Compassion. This means that we make the development of these
and other spiritual qualities of foremost importance in our lives. We give not
--
them. Wisdom and Compassion will lead them to genuine happiness while
our grasping at them with attachment and jealousy wont. Entrusting them
--
May the hook of your Compassion and your skillful means transform my
mind into Dharma and transform the minds of all beings, whoever they are.
--
through gaining all the realizations of the path up to Buddhahood. The wisdom, Compassion, and skillful means we develop through practice will enable
us to benet sentient beings most effectively. The kindness others have
--
Dharma. With great Compassion, wishing all sentient beings to be free from
all obscurations and sufferings and to have all joy and bliss, we aspire that
--
essence is Compassion, hold me dear until I reach enlightenment. May I
quickly conquer the four negative forces.
1.07 - BOOK THE SEVENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
And, in Compassion, make a father bleed.
Yes, she who had the kindest, tend'rest heart,
1.07 - Hui Ch'ao Asks about Buddha, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
Hsueh Tou is extremely Compassionate in the third and
Seventh Case
1.07 - On mourning which causes joy., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
A characteristic of those who are still progressing in blessed mourning is temperance and silence of the lips, and of those who have made progressfreedom from anger and patient endurance of injuries; and of the perfecthumility, thirst for dishonours, voluntary craving for involuntary afflictions, non-condemnation of sinners, Compassion even beyond ones strength. The first are acceptable, the second laudable; but blessed are those who hunger for hardship and thirst for dishonour, for they shall have their fill of the food that does not cloy.
If you possess the gift of mourning, hold on to it with all your might. For it is easily lost when it is not firmly established. And just as wax melts in the presence of fire, so it is easily dissolved by noise and bodily cares, and by luxury, and especially by talkativeness and levity.
--
I have seen shameless petitioners and beggars with clever words soon incline even the hearts of kings to Compassion. And I have seen men poor and needy in virtue, with words not clever but rather humble, vague and stumbling, call shamelessly and persistently from the depths of a desperate heart upon the Heavenly King and by their violence force His inviolable nature and Compassion.2
. He who in his heart is proud of his tears, and secretly condemns those who do not weep, is like a man who asks the king for a weapon against his enemy, and then commits suicide with it.
--
Drive away the hell-dog that comes at the time of your deepest mourning, and suggests that God is not merciful or Compassionate. For if you watch it, you will find that before the sin he calls God loving, Compassionate and forgiving.
Practice3 produces habit, and perseverance grows into a feeling of the heart; and what is done with an ingrained feeling of the heart is not easily eradicated.
1.07 - Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
18:For, long after the individual has become partially free, a moral organism capable of conscious growth, aware of an inward life, eager for spiritual progress, society continues to be external in its methods, a material and economic organism, mechanical, more intent upon status and self-preservation than on growth and self-perfection. The greatest present triumph of the thinking and progressive individual over the instinctive and static society has been the power he has acquired by his thoughtwill to compel it to think also, to open itself to the idea of social justice and righteousness, communal sympathy and mutual Compassion, to feel after the rule of reason rather than blind custom as the test of its institutions and to look on the mental and moral assent of its individuals as at least one essential element in the validity of its laws. Ideally at least, to consider light rather than force as its sanction, moral development and not vengeance or restraint as the object even of its penal action, is becoming just possible to the communal mind. The greatest future triumph of the thinker will come when he can persuade the individual integer and the collective whole to rest their life-relation and its union and stability upon a free and harmonious consent and selfadaptation, and shape and govern the external by the internal truth rather than to constrain the inner spirit by the tyranny of the external form and structure.
19:But even this success that he has gained is rather a thing in potentiality than in actual accomplishment. There is always a disharmony and a discord between the moral law in the individual and the law of his needs and desires, between the moral law proposed to society and the physical and vital needs, desires, customs, prejudices, interests and passions of the caste, the clan, the religious community, the society, the nation. The moralist erects in vain his absolute ethical standard and calls upon all to be faithful to it without regard to consequences. To him the needs and desires of the individual are invalid if they are in conflict with the moral law, and the social law has no claims upon him if it is opposed to his sense of right and denied by his conscience. This is his absolute solution for the individual that he shall cherish no desires and claims that are not consistent with love, truth and justice. He demands from the community or nation that it shall hold all things cheap, even its safety and its most pressing interests, in comparison with truth, justice, humanity and the highest good of the peoples.
1.07 - THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"When one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn't feel the attraction of maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only Compassion for them. To such a man the world appears a strange land, a place where he has merely to perform his duties. It is like a man's having his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to rent a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops love of God, one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and worldly wisdom.
"One cannot see God if one has even the slightest trace of worldliness. Match-sticks, if damp, won't strike fire though you rub a thousand of them against the match-box. You only waste a heap of sticks. The mind soaked in worldliness is such a damp match-stick. Once Sri Radha said to her friends that she saw Krishna everywhere-both within and without. The friends answered: 'Why, we don't see Him at all. Are you delirious?'
--
As Vijay had brought medicine with him, the Master asked a devotee to give him some water. He was indeed a fountain of infinite Compassion. He had arranged for Vijay's boat fare, since the latter was too poor to pay it. Vijay, Balaram, M., and the other devotees left for Calcutta in a country boat.
Monday, January 1, 1883
--
PRANKRISHNA: "Yes, sir. It is said in the Mahanirvana Tantra: 'O Goddess, this religion enjoins it upon one to be truthful, self-controlled, devoted to the welfare of others, unagitated, and Compassionate.'"
MASTER: "Yes. But these ideas must be assimilated."
1.07 - The Psychic Center, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
understanding, absolute Compassion! And everything becomes lighter,
as if we had moved from life in a cave to life in high altitudes;
1.07 - TRUTH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
She said, moreover, that if one would attain to purity of mind it was necessary to abstain altogether from any judgment on ones neighbour and from all empty talk about his conduct. In creatures one should always seek only for the will of God. With great force she said: For no reason whatever should one judge the actions of creatures or their motives. Even when we see that it is an actual sin, we ought not to pass judgment on it, but have holy and sincere Compassion and offer it up to God with humble and devout prayer.
From the Testament of
1.08 - Adhyatma Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
28. Cultivate the divine qualities: humility, harmlessness, purity, steadfastness, self-control, dispassion, unostentatiousness, non-attachment, balance of mind, fearlessness, angerlessness, self-restraint, renunciation, straightforwardness, truthfulness, Compassion, non-covetousness, steadiness. You will attain Wisdom of the Self or Brahma-Jnana.
29. Be cautious. Be vigilant. Be diligent. Be alert. The senses are very turbulent. They will hurl you down into the abyss of ignorance at any moment. Always do Japa, do Kirtan. Meditate ceaselessly.
--
50. He who is alike to foe and friend, who is balanced in pleasure and pain, heat and cold, honour and dishonour, censure and praise, who is without attachment and egoism, who is ever content and harmonious, who is Compassionate, who does not hate any creature, is a devotee of God-realisation. He has crossed the three qualities.
51. A liberated Sage is free from passion, attachment, fear, anger, egoism. He has a balanced mind and equal vision.
1.08 - Attendants, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Purani was already known to Sri Aurobindo from the twenties and had enjoyed his closeness during those years. It was thus with him a resumption or the old relation after a lapse of many years. Compared with him, we were youngsters and had the passport of entry by virtue of our medical profession, but some individual contact was established with the Master through correspondence so that he knew each one of us by name at least. In my own case, perhaps, I can go a little further. Had our written contact not been so intimate and various, I do not know if I could have been so free with him and of use to him in diverse ways. I have always wondered at and failed to probe the mystery of that intimacy. I have even imagined that Sri Aurobindo must have seen in his timeless vision that one day this humble self might be physically of some service to him. He prepared me for that eventual day, initiated me into love for poetry that I might at least transcribe his epic Savitri from his dictation, gave some intellectual training that I might be useful to him in his literary work. He even made me familiar with his often baffling handwriting so that I could read his manuscripts and decipher them. These may be all weavings of fancy, but if I have been of any help in his intellectual pursuits, most of it was undoubtedly due to his previous coaching through voluminous letters, literary training and above all, his patient and persuasive manner. This long preparation had put out all fear of his awe-inspiring personality and made my approach to him free and almost unconventional, sometimes leading to an unpardonable abuse of that unstinted freedom. Things went on like a song and life would have made itself a transformed vision of the Supreme, but alas, after the novelty of the soul-contact had worn off, the other face of our nature, the subconscient, came to light and the pressure of the physical nearness began to tell. Work was no longer a joyous offering, but a duty; service alone was not a sufficient reward, it needed more concrete spiritual touches, failing which other lesser joys and satisfactions were regarded as legitimate recompense. My old maladies doubt and depression renewed their hold and transfused into the act of service their bitter stuff. The Master could at once feel the vibration, even though no word was uttered by the lips. Quite often by a look, by a quiet pressure of hands, he would communicate his understanding sympathy and the affliction would withdraw for a time. Never have I seen any displeasure or loss of temper at my delinquency, no harsh word of disapproval though he was quite aware of all inner and outer movements. A largeness, Compassionate forgiveness and divine consideration have made life's stream flow through an apparently trackless solitary journey towards the ultimate vastness.
I do not know if I have the right to speak of my other colleagues, but of Champaklal particularly I must write a few heart-felt words, for his spirit of service has left an indelible impression on my soul and taught me what true service is. Let me prelude it with the Mother's opinion about him when she introduced him to Andre, her son, in 1949. She said with great warmth: "He came here when he was very young. I taught him many kinds of work. He has himself taken up Sri Aurobindo's personal service. He looks into practically everything with regard to Sri Aurobindo. He is extremely careful, meticulous and very particular about details. He has no regular time for food; he takes it when he can. So it is with his sleep. That is why he cannot join the sports activities. He works with joy and devotion. He collects all our little things and keeps them with great care our clothes, nails, hair, etc."
--
To make the path easy to Heaven, or at least to get Heaven's blessings more easily, is also possible by his intervention. If the Mother is at times reluctant for some reason to give a birthday card to someone or write a person's name or "love and blessings" on it, if she refuses to see another on his birthday, Champaklal appeals to her divine Compassion and makes her rescind her decision. The Mother sometimes asks him, "What shall I write?" "Why, love and blessings, Mother!" is his reply. He says that he suffered a lot in his childhood because people could not understand his nature. He now wants to distribute the Divine's largesse whenever and wherever he can. Many people are grateful to him for procuring the Mother's blessings for them, especially her physical touch. Only one must be frank and straightforward. Sometimes he has gone out of his way to help even an unknown and unpresuming person to get the Mother's touch if he thought that he had been overlooked. To sum up, his soul's mission is to serve the Mother, to look after her and to make her love and Compassion available to all, rich or poor, worthy or unworthy, young or old, without any distinction. I shall now conclude my "rosy picture" of Champaklal by quoting Sri Aurobindo's estimate of him: "All have their defects, but Champaklal has great qualities to atone for them."
Mulshankar, youngest of the group, was the brother of Esculape, alias Dayashankar, at one time in charge of the Ashram Dispensary. He also worked as an assistant in the Dispensary after Esculape's retirement and came to serve Sri Aurobindo as a medical aid. An excellent worker, he had the privilege of massaging Sri Aurobindo's body for a certain period. He was no masseur and in fact knew nothing about it, but he picked it up from some casual lessons and was gifted with the natural lightness and suppleness of finger movements. During the short interval that Sri Aurobindo had to wait for the Mother to come, before he started walking, Mulshankar would sit behind and apply a good massage to his back. It was really as if an expert masseur was at work; his hands moved so lightly and fast, up and down the back and spine; sometimes using delicate finger strokes or the edge of the palms and swinging and bending the body as the various movements demanded and then finishing off with very gentle touches of the fingertips. One was tempted to take a photograph of his agile figure and beaming face visibly moved beyond measure by the unique privilege of touching the Lord's body, while Sri Aurobindo kept on sitting like a statue looking downwards as the massage proceeded, or in front, sometimes smiling by himself, perhaps oblivious of all the hundred kinds of fleeting, fluttering, striking movements being made on his back. Both the figures supplied us food for a good deal of merriment, the Guru sitting on the edge of the bed, the shishya briskly massaging his back. But the poor fellow had to miss his service because of an intractable headache that crippled him often. And every time that happened we would report to Sri Aurobindo; his comment would be: "Again?", or an exclamatory expression; we could feel at the same time that the inner help was being given.
--
"One day, however, a few days before His passing I found him looking at me very closely and intensely with such a love and Compassion that passes all description. I was alone with Him at the time. I did not know why He was looking at me so, but I was so carried away with joy by the love He showered on me in His look that I did not bother about the reason for it. It was only later, when comparing notes with the others who served Him personally, that I discovered that He was bidding me a physical good-bye. He had done the same to others to each differently and, it seems, each one was puzzled at the time. But when He left us physically soon after, we guessed the reason."
[1] Gita 4.11: As men approach Me, so I accept them to My love.
1.08 - BOOK THE EIGHTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
This pleads Compassion, and repents the fact.
He pleads in vain, and I pronounce his doom:
1.08 - RELIGION AND TEMPERAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
In the light of these descriptions we can understand more clearly the Bhagavad Gitas classification of paths to salvation. The path of devotion is the path naturally followed by the person in whom the viscerotonic component is high. His inborn tendency to externalize the emotions he spontaneously feels in regard to persons can be disciplined and canalized, so that a merely animal gregariousness and a merely human kindliness become transformed into charitydevotion to the personal God and universal good will and Compassion towards all sentient beings.
The path of works is for those whose extraversion is of the somatotonic kind, those who in all circumstances feel the need to do something. In the unregenerate somatotonic this craving for action is always associated with aggressiveness, self-assertion and the lust for power. For the born Kshatriya, or warrior-ruler, the task, as Krishna explains to Arjuna, is to get rid of those fatal accompaniments to the love of action and to work without regard to the fruits of work, in a state of complete non-attachment to self. Which is, of course, like everything else, a good deal easier said than done.
1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
And what has that to do with morality? Everything, according to Emerson and Schopenhauer, for in seeing that all sentient beings are expressions of one Self, then all beings are treated as one's Self. And that realization-a profound fruition of the decentering thrust of evolution-is the only source of true Compassion, a Compassion that does not put self first (egocentric) or a particular society first (sociocentric) or humans first (anthropocentric), nor does it try merely in thought to act as if we are all united (worldcentric), but directly and immediately breathes the common air and beats the common blood of a Heart and Body that is one in all beings.
The whole point of the moral sequence, its very ground and its very goal, its omega point, its chaotic Attractor, is the drive toward the Over-Soul, where treating others as one's Self is not a moral imperative that has to be enforced as an ought or a should or a difficult imposition, but comes as easily and as naturally as the rising of the sun or the shining of the moon.21
This moral oneness intensifies in the subtle and causal (as we will see), but it first becomes directly obvious here, in the psychic, and issues naturally in the spontaneous Compassion inherent in the Over-Soul, a Compassion on which all previous moral endeavors depended, but a Compassion of which all previous endeavors were but mere and partial glimmers.
In the light of the Over-Soul, it becomes perfectly obvious: all previous ethics were tried and found wanting, all previous struggles for the life Good and True were too partial and too limited and much too narrow to satisfy-all wanted to taste this, the universal Compassion through universal identity with the commonwealth of all beings: that
I would see in an Other my own Self, with love driving the embrace, and Compassion issuing in the tenderest of mercies. Schopenhauer:
The sort of act that I am here discussing is . . . Compassion, which is to say: immediate participation, released from all other considerations, first, in the pain of another, and then, in the alleviation or termination of that pain, which alone is the true ground of all autonomous righteousness and of all true human love. An act can be said to have genuine moral worth only in so far as it stems from this source [the common Self]; and conversely, an act from any other source has none. The weal and woe of another comes to lie directly in my heart in exactly the same way-though not always to the same degree-as otherwise only my own would lie, as soon as this sentiment of Compassion is aroused, and therewith, the difference between him and me is no longer absolute. And this really is amazing-even mysterious.22
The mystery, of course, is the mystery of the Over-Soul allowing us to recognize ourselves in each other, beyond the illusions of separation and duality. Schopenhauer:
For if plurality and distinction ["separate selves"] belong only to this world of appearances, and if one and the same Being is what is beheld in all these living things, well then, the experience that dissolves the distinction between the I and the Not-I cannot be false. On the contrary: its opposite must be false. The former experience underlies the mystery of Compassion, and stands, in fact, for the reality of which Compassion is the prime expression. That experience, therefore, must be the metaphysical ground of ethics and consist simply in this: that one individual should recognize in another, himself in his own true being.23
THE SUBTLE LEVEL
--
In that pure empty awareness, I-I am the rise and fall of all worlds, ceaselessly, endlessly. I-I swallow the Kosmos and span the centuries, untouched by time or turmoil, embracing each with primordial purity, fierce Compassion. It has never started, this nightmare of evolution, and therefore it will never end.
It is as it is, self-liberated at the moment of its very arising. And it is only this.
1.08 - The Supreme Discovery, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But how greatly the standpoint changes once we attain this deeper consciousness! How understanding widens, how Compassion grows!
On this a sage has said:
1.09 - ADVICE TO THE BRAHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"There was a monastery in a certain place. The monks residing there went out daily to beg their food. One day a monk, while out for his alms, saw a landlord beating a man mercilessly. The Compassionate monk stepped in and asked the landlord to stop. But the landlord was filled with anger and turned his wrath against the innocent monk. He beat the monk till he fell unconscious on the ground. Someone reported the matter to the monastery. The monks ran to the spot and found their brother lying there. Four or five of them carried him back and laid him on a bed. He was still unconscious. The other monks sat around him sad at heart; some were fanning him. Finally someone suggested that he should be given a little milk to drink. When it was poured into his mouth he regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and looked around. One of the monks said, 'Let us see whether he is fully conscious and can recognize us.' Shouting into his ear, he said, 'Revered sir, who is giving you milk?' 'Brother,' replied the holy man in a low voice, 'He who beat me is now giving me milk.'
"But one does not attain such a state of mind without the realization of God."
--
"There are certain signs of God-realization. The man in whom longing for God manifests its glories is not far from attaining Him. What are the glories of that longing? They are discrimination, dispassion, Compassion for living beings, serving holy men, loving their company, chanting the name and glories of God, telling the truth, and the like. When you see those signs of longing in an aspirant, you can rightly say that for him the vision of God is not far to seek.
"The state of a servant's house will tell you unmistakably whether his master has decided to visit it. First, the rubbish and jungle around the house are cleared up.
1.09 - Legend of Lakshmi, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Descending hastily from his elephant, Mahendra endeavoured to appease the sinless Durvāsas: but to the excuses and prostrations of the thousand-eyed, the Muni answered, "I am not of a Compassionate heart, nor is forgiveness congenial to my nature. Other Munis may relent; but know me, Śakra, to be Durvāsas. Thou hast in vain been rendered insolent by Gautama and others; for know me, Indra, to be Durvāsas, whose nature is a stranger to remorse. Thou hast been flattered by Vaśiṣṭha and other tender-hearted saints, whose loud praises (lave made thee so arrogant, that thou hast insulted me. But who is there in the universe that can behold my countenance, dark with frowns, and surrounded by my blazing hair, and not tremble? What need of words? I will not forgive, whatever semblance of humility thou mayest assume."
Having thus spoken, the Brahman went his way; and the king of the gods, remounting his elephant, returned to his capital Amarāvati. Thenceforward, Maitreya, the three worlds and Śakra lost their vigour, and all vegetable products, plants, and herbs were withered and died; sacrifices were no longer offered; devout exercises no longer practised; men were no more addicted to charity, or any moral or religious obligation; all beings became devoid of steadiness[4]; all the faculties of sense were obstructed by cupidity; and men's desires were excited by frivolous objects. Where there is energy, there is prosperity; and upon prosperity energy depends. How can those abandoned by prosperity be possessed of energy; and without energy, where is excellence? Without excellence there can be no vigour nor heroism amongst men: he who has neither courage nor strength, will be spurned by all: and he who is universally treated with disgrace, must suffer abasement of his intellectual faculties.
--
Thus prayed to, the supreme deity, the mighty holder of the conch and discus, shewed himself to them: and beholding the lord of gods, bearing a shell, a discus, and a mace, the assemblage of primeval form, and radiant with embodied light, Pitāmahā and the other deities, their eyes moistened with rapture, first paid him homage, and then thus addressed him: "Repeated salutation to thee, who art indefinable: thou art Brahmā; thou art the wielder of the Pināka bow (Śiva); thou art Indra; thou art fire, air, the god of waters, the sun, the king of death (Yama), the Vasus, the Māruts (the winds), the Sādhyas, and Viśvadevas. This assembly of divinities, that now has come before thee, thou art; for, the creator of the world, thou art every where. Thou art the sacrifice, the prayer of oblation, the mystic syllable Om, the sovereign of all creatures: thou art all that is to be known, or to be unknown: oh universal soul, the whole world consists of thee. We, discomfited by the Daityas, have fled to thee, oh Viṣṇu, for refuge. Spirit of all, have Compassion upon us; defend us with thy mighty power. There will be affliction, desire, trouble, and grief, until thy protection is obtained: but thou art the remover of all sins. Do thou then, oh pure of spirit, shew favour unto us, who have fled to thee: oh lord of all, protect us with thy great power, in union with the goddess who is thy strength[6]." Hari, the creator of the universe, being thus prayed to by the prostrate divinities, smiled, and thus spake: "With renovated energy, oh gods, I will restore your strength. Do you act as I enjoin. Let all the gods, associated with the Asuras, cast all sorts of medicinal herbs into the sea of milk; and then taking the mountain Mandara for the churning-stick, the serpent Vāsuki for the rope, churn the ocean together for ambrosia; depending upon my aid. To secure the assistance of the Daityas, you must be at peace with them, and engage to give them an equal portion of the fruit of your associated toil; promising them, that by drinking the Amrita that shall be produced from the agitated ocean, they shall become mighty and immortal. I will take care that the enemies of the gods shall not partake of the precious draught; that they shall share in the labour alone."
Being thus instructed by the god of gods, the divinities entered into alliance with the demons, and they jointly undertook the acquirement of the beverage of immortality. They collected various kinds of medicinal herbs, and cast them into the sea of milk, the waters of which were radiant as the thin and shining clouds of autumn. They then took the mountain Mandara for the staff; the serpent Vāsuki for the cord; and commenced to churn the ocean for the Amrita. The assembled gods were stationed by Kṛṣṇa at the tail of the serpent; the Daityas and Dānavas at its head and neck. Scorched by the flames emitted from his inflated hood, the demons were shorn of their glory; whilst the clouds driven towards his tail by the breath of his mouth, refreshed the gods with revivifying showers. In the midst of the milky sea, Hari himself, in the form of a tortoise, served as a pivot for the mountain, as it was whirled around. The holder of the mace and discus was present in other forms amongst the gods and demons, and assisted to drag the monarch of the serpent race: and in another vast body he sat upon the summit of the mountain. With one portion of his energy, unseen by gods or demons, he sustained the serpent king; and with another, infused vigour into the gods.
1.09 - Talks, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Yet they came so unexpectedly, for Sri Aurobindo, as we had come to know and see him during the Darshan, had succeeded in building in our minds a picture of him high-poised as his Life Divine, far-moving as his Synthesis of Yoga, unapproachable, except perhaps by the gods, not at all close and intimate like his Essays on the Gita or accessible to our mortal longings. Of course, few of us had the extraordinary good fortune of knowing his human side through his inestimable correspondence, on the strength of which I wrote to him, "You thrashed me for calling you grave and austere at the Darshan time. But see, when we go to the Mother, how seraphically she smiles, while your noble Self being near, appears still far away at some Olympian height. It is difficult to discern the gravity or the jollity of a face at such a height. I suppose our conception of the gods was formed from the vision of such a figure." He replied, "Neither gravity nor jollity, but a large, easy, quiet, amiable condition. The gods can't be amiable?" And it was this amiable aspect that came to the forefront in our talks. We came to know much later that Sri Aurobindo used to hold "table-talks" in the pre-Ashram days, with his few young followers. But I believe ours were an advance on those talks by the ease, the informality, the natural diversity and intimacy of communication due to the exceptional circumstances in which they were held. Sri Aurobindo had no need of vocal self-expression, either in our time or before. It is my conviction that the interchange with us was an act of Compassion to entertain us in return for the medical attendance we had been called upon to render him. I may add here that any personal service offered to the Divine, however small, brings an ample reward.
When after the first few days of discomfort and submission to medical rigours, he had adjusted himself to the new mode of life, the talks started. At first they were in the form of medical enquiries. Dr. Manilal would come up in the morning (for he was living outside the Ashram compound) and stand with folded hands before Sri Aurobindo who lay in bed. After pranam he would ask, smiling, "How are you, Sir? Did you sleep well?" to which Sri Aurobindo's answers were genially brief.
--
I have said that Sri Aurobindo rarely looked into our eyes except at Darshans when, he said, he gave a piercing look to everybody. Most often, he was gazing in front or looking down, and seldom were the eyes fully open. During our pranams in his room on our birthdays or on Darshan days, he looked deep and steadily into our eyes. At that time I could mark their colour: it was a dark brown. To see anything beyond the softness and Compassion in the expression was not given to me. But once, and once only, I saw a different pair of eyes, and that experience is unforgettable. He had finished lunch and I was attending on him. Just for a memorable moment, he half-opened his eyes and I saw two deep pools, intensely black, serene, inscrutable and unfathomable. It was as if on a hushed afternoon you entered a dense wood and suddenly came upon a deep pond and saw its still dark waters.
People who read our Correspondence were under the impression that our days bubbled with "jest and jollity, quips and cranks" all the while. In fact, a friend did not believe me when I said that the bubbling lasted only for a short time. Sri Aurobindo was, after all, a Yogi. All who knew him knew that. In one of his letters to Dilip, when Dilip complained that Sri Aurobindo would not laugh or even smile, he replied that since his childhood, he had been estranged from his family and accustomed to live a solitary life. His nature had therefore become reserved, somewhat remote and he felt shy of too much personal emotion. The English racial climate may have, I suppose, added its own large share to it. Moreover, the Yoga he had practised, beginning with the transcendental nirvanic experience, must have crowned the natural disposition. Buddha, I believe, for all his Compassion, could not but have been impersonal in his daily communication. This vast impersonality even in personal relations, is it not the basis of his Yoga? I have often wondered what his state of consciousness was, for instance, when he was talking with us or dictating Savitri. Now I have learnt that the three states of consciousness: transcendent, cosmic and individual can operate at the same time. I also used to wonder how he could take interest even in the most trivial, "unspiritual" amusing talk or incidents, and joke with us, say on snoring or baldness! He had found the rasa,the delight of Brahman in everything. So his jokes were never trivial; they could be playful but always had an intellectual element in them.
I have already given some examples of his humour in the previous chapters; let me now quote something to show his light mood. One day suddenly breaking his silence, he addressed Purani and said, "There is something nice for you, Purani." (For once he used his name!)
1.09 - Taras Ultimate Nature, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
practice with diligence and Compassion just as she did, we will attain the same
enlightened result.
11.01 - The Eternal Day The Souls Choice and the Supreme Consummation, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
O too Compassionate and eager Dawn,
690
1.10 - BOOK THE TENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
And silent, seem Compassionate to weep;
Ev'n Tantalus his flood unthirsty views,
1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
To think of God as mere Power, and not also, at the same time as Power, Love and Wisdom, comes quite naturally to the ordinary, unregenerate human mind. Only the totally selfless are in a position to know experimentally that, in spite of everything, all will be well and, in some way, already is well. The philosopher who denies divine providence, says Rumi, is a stranger to the perception of the saints. Only those who have the perception of the saints can know all the time and by immediate experience that divine Reality manifests itself as a Power that is loving, Compassionate and wise. The rest of us are not yet in a spiritual position to do more than accept their findings on faith. If it were not for the records they have left behind, we should be more inclined to agree with Job and the primitives.
Inspirations prevent us, and even before they are thought of make themselves felt; but after we have felt them it is ours either to consent to them, so as to second and follow their attractions, or else to dissent and repulse them. They make themselves felt without us, but they do not make us consent without us.
--
For those who take pleasure in theological speculations based upon scriptural texts and dogmatic postulates, there are the thousands of pages of Catholic and Protestant controversy upon grace, works, faith and justification. And for students of comparative religion there are scholarly commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, on the works of Ramanuja and those later Vaishnavites, whose doctrine of grace bears a striking resemblance to that of Luther; there are histories of Buddhism which duly trace the development of that religion from the Hinayanist doctrine that salvation is the fruit of strenuous self-help to the Mahayanist doctrine that it cannot be achieved without the grace of the Primordial Buddha, whose inner consciousness and great Compassionate heart constitute the eternal Suchness of things. For the rest of us, the foregoing quotations from writers within the Christian and early Taoist tradition provide, it seems to me, an adequate account of the observable facts of grace and inspiration and their relation to the observable facts of free will.
next chapter: 1.11 - GOOD AND EVIL
1.10 - Laughter Of The Gods, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
The old ide fixe that Sri Aurobindo was an anchorite who did not know how to smile or laugh is by now dead. A new fixed notion may swing to the other extreme that he smiled or laughed too much for a yogi. But a sensible estimate, after a reading of his letters, talks and creative works, will confirm the view that his Yoga instead of drying up the fountain of laughter made it flow like the Ganges. For his consciousness grew as vast as the universe; it sounded the uttermost depths and heights of existence. He read the "wonder-book of Common things" as well as the supernal mysteries of God and found the very rasa which is at the root of things. His love and Compassion flowed towards all men and creatures like a life-giving ocean. He said in one of his letters: "It is only divine Love which can bear the burden I have to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed everything else to the one aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine. The Gallio-like 'Je m'en fiche'-ism (I do not care) would not carry me one step; it would certainly not be divine. It is quite another thing that enables me to walk unweeping and unlamenting towards the goal." In his own Ashram which is composed, on the one hand, of unlettered villagers and, on the other, of the intellectual lite, with what patience and forbearance, love and sympathy he, like a grand patriarch, guided and led us all towards the goal! Humour that springs from a heart of sympathy made him smile at our follies and foibles and the numerous eccentricities of our human nature. The readers of Talks with Sri Aurobindo must have observed how Sri Aurobindo threw aside his mantle of gravity and enjoyed with us pure fun and frolic, as if we had been his close playmates. In the preceding chapter we have already touched upon one instance. In the period after the accident to his right leg, when he failed to carry out Dr. Manilal's instructions about hanging the leg, he would exclaim as if out of fear, "Oh, Manilal is coming, I must hang my leg." And one of us, piqued by his fear, would remark, "Sir, you seem to be afraid of Dr. Manilal." When Manilal arrived and enquired about the leg, he replied, "The leg is still hanging."
Yogis and great men there were, who used to joke with their disciples and friends; but it seems to me that there was always a barrier of awe and reverence between them. And though Sri Aurobindo allowed us to forget that and we cut jokes with him on equal terms, the sense of his being our Guru was there.
1.10 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Now, the first robber, who said: 'What's the good of keeping the man alive? Kill him', is tamas. It destroys. The second robber is rajas, which binds a man to the world and entangles him in a variety of activities. Rajas makes him forget God. Sattva alone shows the way to God. It produces virtues like Compassion, righteousness, and devotion. Again, sattva is like the last step of the stairs. Next to it is the roof. The Supreme Brahman is man's own abode. One cannot attain the Knowledge of Brahman unless one transcends the three gunas."
PREACHER: "You have given us a fine talk, sir."
--
O Rudra, and protect us evermore with Thy Compassionate Face.
As Sri Ramakrishna heard these hymns, he went into a spiritual mood. After this an chrya read a paper.
--
Thou art Compassionate, I know,
Who takest away our bitter grief.
1.10 - THE NEIGHBORS HOUSE, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
You are so kind, Compassionate.
MARGARET
1.10 - Theodicy - Nature Makes No Mistakes, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
acquiescence, Compassionate, consenting, helpful, a su-
preme knowledge that this thing must be, that having ap-
1.11 - The Change of Power, #On the Way to Supermanhood, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
And the seeker discovers on his own small scale, in the microcosm he represents that the Harmony of the new world, the new consciousness he has touched gropingly, is a tremendous transforming Power. In the past, it may have chanted up above, produced lovely poems and cathedrals of wisdom and beauty, but when it touches matter, it takes on the austere face of the angry Mother, thrashing her children and sculpting them mercilessly into the image of her own demanding Rectitude and Compassion, the infinite grace that stops just in time, administers just the necessary does and does not inflict one ounce of suffering more than is indispensable. When the seeker begins to open his eyes to this Compassion, this infinite wisdom in the minutest detail, these unbelievable detours to achieve a fuller and more encompassing perfection, these studied obscurities and concerted rebellions, these falls into a greater light, and the infinite march of a Beauty that leaves no hidden stain, no trace of imperfection, no refuge of weakness or disguised pettiness, no recess of falsehood, he is filled with a wonder that surpasses all sidereal measures and cosmic magic. For, truly, being able to attend to such a microscopic point of matter so futile under the stars, so complicated in its tangle of pain and revolt, its obscure resistance that threatens disaster at every instant, and those thousands of little disasters to ward off every day and at every step, those millions of little sufferings to transmute without blowing up the world requires a power such as the earth has never known before. Disease is breaking out everywhere, in every country, every consciousness, every atom of the great earthly body this is a merciless revolution, a relentless transmutation and yet, here and there, in each human consciousness, each country, each fragment of the great torn body, the catastrophe is avoided at the last minute, the best slowly comes out of the worst, consciousness awakens, and our stumbling steps take us despite themselves to the ultimate gate of deliverance. Such is the formidable Harmony, the imperative Power that the seeker discovers step by step and in his own substance.
We have therefore come to a new change of power. A new power such as there has never been since the first anthropoids, a tidal wave of power that has nothing to do with our little philosophical and spiritual meditations of past ages, a worldwide, collective and perhaps universal phenomenon as radically new as the first surge of thought upon the world, when mind took over from the simian order and overthrew all its laws and instinctual mechanisms. But here and this is really the characteristic of the new world being born the power is not a power of abstraction, not a talent for getting a bird's-eye view of things and reducing the scattered data of the world into an equation in order to make a synthesis, which is always wobbly the mind has turned everything into abstraction; it lives in an image of the world, a yellow or blue reflection of the great bubble, like a man inside a glass statue not a discursive and contingent power that only adds and subtracts, not a gathering of knowledge that never makes a whole. It is a direct power of the truth of each instant and each thing harmonized with the total truth of the millions of instants and things, a power to enter the truth of each gesture and each circumstance, which accords with all other gestures and circumstances because Truth is one and the Self is unique, and if this point is touched, everything else is instantly touched, like cell and cell of the same body. It is a tremendous power of concretization of Truth, acting directly upon the same Truth contained in each point of space and each second of time, or rather, compelling each moment, each circumstance, each gesture, each cell of matter to yield its truth, its right note, its own innate power buried under all the layers of our vital and mental accretions a tremendous truing of the world and each being. We could say a tremendous Movement of realization the world is not real! It is a distorted appearance, a mental approximation, which looks more like a nightmare, a black and white translation of something we still have not seized. We do not have our real eyes yet! For, in the end, there is only one reality, and that is the reality of Truth a truth that has grown, that had to protect itself behind walls, to limit and dim itself under one shell or another, one bubble or another, to make itself felt by a caterpillar or a man, then bursts open in its own Sunlight when the wings of the great Self we always were begin to open.
1.11 - The Soul or the Astral Body, #Initiation Into Hermetics, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
The melancholic temper in its active form: respectability, modesty, Compassion, devotion, seriousness, docility, fervour, cordiality, comprehension, meditation, calmness, quick to give ones confidence, forgiveness, tenderness, and so on. In the negative form: indifference, depression, apathy, shyness, laziness, etc.
The phlegmatic temper in its active form: respectability, reputation, endurance, consideration, resolution, firmness, seriousness, scrupulousness, thoroughness, concentration, sobriety, punctuality, reservedness, objectivity, infallibility, responsibility, reliability, circumspection, resistance, self-assurance, and so on. In the negative form: insipidity, unscrupulousness, misanthropy, dullness, tardiness, laziness, unreliability, laconism, and so on.
1.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
After a time Bhagavati, an old maidservant of the temple proprietor, entered the room and saluted the Master from a distance. Sri Ramakrishna bade her sit down. The Master had known her for many years. In her younger days she had lived a rather immoral life; but the Master's Compassion was great. Soon he began to converse with her.
MASTER: "Now you are pretty old. Have you been feeding the Vaishnavas and holy men, and thus spending your money in a noble way?"
--
Lying on the mat and resting his head on a pillow, Sri Ramakrishna continued the conversation. He said to M: "My legs are aching. Please stroke them gently." Thus, out of his infinite Compassion, the Master allowed his disciple to render him personal service.
June 8, 1883
--
MASTER: "Why should that be so? I have heard of a deputy magistrate named Pratap Singh. He is a great man. He has many virtues: Compassion and devotion to God. He meditates on God. Once he sent for me. Certainly there are people like him.
"The practice of discipline is absolutely necessary. Why shouldn't a man succeed if he practises sadhana? But he doesn't have to work hard if he has real faith-faith in his guru's words. Once Vyasa was about to cross the Jamuna, when the gopis also arrived there, wishing to go to the other side. But no ferryboat was in sight. They said to Vyasa, 'Revered sir, what shall we do now?' 'Don't worry', said Vyasa. 'I will take you across. But I am very hungry. Have you anything for me to eat?' The gopis had plenty of milk, cream, and butter with them. Vyasa ate it all. Then the gopis asked, 'Well, sir, what about crossing the river?' Vyasa stood on the bank of the Jamuna and said, 'O
--
"God has given to some greater power than to others. In one man you see it as the light of a lamp, in another, as the light of a torch. One word of Vidyasagar's revealed to me the utmost limit of his intelligence. When I told him of the different manifestations of God's Power in different beings, he said to me, 'Sir, has God then given greater power to some than to others?' At once I said: 'Yes, certainly He has; If there are not different degrees of manifestation of His Power, then why should your name be known far and wide? You see, we have come to you after hearing of your knowledge and Compassion.
You haven't grown two horns, have you?' With all his fame and erudition, Vidyasagar said such a childish thing as 'Has God given greater power to some than to others?' The truth is that when the fisherman draws his net, he first catches big fish like trout and carp; then he stirs up the mud with his feet, and small fish come out-minnows, mudfish, and so on. So also, unless a man knows God, 'minnows' and the like gradually come out from within him. What can one achieve through mere scholarship?"
1.1.2 - Commentary, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Mahayanist Buddhism which held Compassion and helpfulness
to be greater than Nirvana. As the virtues we practise must be
1.12 - Dhruva commences a course of religious austerities, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
All their delusive stratagems being thus foiled, the gods were more perplexed than ever. Alarmed at their discomfiture, and afflicted by the devotions of the boy, they assembled and repaired for succour to Hari, the origin of the world, who is without beginning or end; and thus addressed him: "God of gods, sovereign of the world, god supreme, and infinite spirit, distressed by the austerities of Dhruva, we have come to thee for protection. As the moon increases in his orb day by day, so this youth advances incessantly towards superhuman power by his devotions. Terrified by the ascetic practices of the son of Uttānapāda, we have come to thee for succour. Do thou allay the fervour of his meditations. We know not to what station he aspires: to the throne of Indra, the regency of the solar or lunar sphere, or to the sovereignty of riches or of the deep. Have Compassion on us, lord; remove this affliction from Our breasts; divert the son of Uttānapāda from persevering in his penance." Viṣṇu replied to the gods; "The lad desireth neither the rank of Indra, nor the solar orb, nor the sovereignty of wealth or of the ocean: all that he solicits, I will grant. Return therefore, deities, to your mansions as ye list, and be no more alarmed: I will put an end to the penance of the boy, whose mind is immersed in deep contemplation."
The gods, being thus pacified by the supreme, saluted him respectfully and retired, and, preceded by Indra, returned to their habitations: but Hari, who is all things, assuming a shape with four arms, proceeded to Dhruva, being pleased with his identity of nature, and thus addressed him: "Son of Uttānapāda, be prosperous. Contented with thy devotions, I, the giver of boons, am present. Demand what boon thou desirest. In that thou hast wholly disregarded external objects, and fixed thy thoughts on me, I am well pleased with thee. Ask, therefore, a suitable reward." The boy, hearing these words of the god of gods, opened his eyes, and beholding that Hari whom he had before seen in his meditations actually in his presence, bearing in his hands the shell, the discus, the mace, the bow, and scimetar, and crowned with a diadem, the bowed his head down to earth; the hair stood erect on his brow, and his heart was depressed with awe. He reflected how best he should offer thanks to the god of gods; what he could say in his adoration; what words were capable of expressing his praise: and being overwhelmed with perplexity, he had recourse for consolation to the deity. "If," he exclaimed, "the lord is contented with my devotions, let this be my reward, that I may know how to praise him as I wish. How can I, a child, pronounce his praises, whose abode is unknown to Brahmā and to others learned in the Vedas? My heart is overflowing with devotion to thee: oh lord, grant me the faculty worthily to lay mine adorations at thy feet."
1.12 - God Departs, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
We could not say then that this change of mood had any connection with the disease. Not only with us, but with the Mother too, he became very reticent. However, with regard to his work, there was no flagging. Even when a little time was at our disposal and I was reluctant to bring out the numerous files containing the Savitri manuscript, just for half an hour, he would say, "We shall work a little." This provoked my other colleagues, particularly Champaklal, to an impish mirth, for they loved work and I did not, at least I did not then. And almost till his withdrawal the miscellaneous literary works and the labour on Savitri were carried on in full swing in spite of the discomfort caused by the gradual increase of the symptoms. In addition to these, when at this stage an importunate call came from an outside sadhika in Northern India to save her life from a dreaded and strange illness, he took great pains to cure her, especially as she was an intimate friend of an old sadhak who had made a desperate appeal to Sri Aurobindo's Compassion. The story is rather long but intriguing. The doctors, as usual, differed about the diagnosis. Cancer, ulcer, T. B., none was found to be the case. One prominent symptom was profuse bleeding through the mouth but without any definite lesion of any organ. All kinds of tests and treatment failed. At last the patient gave up all treatment and said that she would depend entirely on Sri Aurobindo, even if she were to die. Sri Aurobindo then took up the responsibility at the supplication of the sadhak-bhakta, I believe, but on one condition that regular news must be supplied to him. The bhakta himself went from Pondicherry to the patient's place with a view to fulfil the condition. News began to stream in by letters, wires about her daily progress. Suddenly it stopped. Sri Aurobindo became anxious and enquired again and again if any news had come. I tried to plead on their behalf and give the usual excuses for the delay. At last he remarked, "How am I to save her if I have no news?" After two or three days, information began to flow in and very soon the patient recovered completely and came to settle in the Ashram. Her illness turned out to be a case of black magic. That is why the symptoms were erratic and there was no definite lesion in spite of their gravity. That was what probably made Sri Aurobindo so anxious about the case. We modern people may scoff at such unscientific superstition, but in this case, there was very solid ground in favour of such a belief. Though Sri Aurobindo took charge of the case, at each fresh arrival of news, he would ask me to keep the Mother informed. "Have you informed the Mother?" he would repeat. I did not understand why he was so insistent on the point; it was not his nature. Did he suspect that I might not, and I really felt no necessity, such was my human stupidity, trying to be wiser than the Guru! The reason for it became clear when he left the body. He had already taken the decision and wanted the Mother to know all about the case in anticipation of possible future developments.
The revision of Savitri was going on apace with regular unabated vigour. Book after Book was getting done and fascicules of them released for publication. Some 400-500 lines of The Book of Everlasting Day were dictated on successive days, since we could not spare more than an hour a day for the monumental work and that too had often to be cut short to meet other demands. We were, nevertheless, progressing quite steadily. I marvelled at the smooth spontaneous flow of verse after verse of remarkable beauty. Once I had complained to him in my correspondence why, having all the planes of inspiration at his command, should he still labour like us mortals at his Savitri.Why should not the inspiration burst out like the "champagne bottle"? Now I witnessed that miracle and imagined that it also must have been the way Valmiki composed his Ramayana. At this rate, I thought, Savitri would not take long to finish. On everyone's lips was the eager query, "How far are you with Savitri?"
--
The Darshan was on. A vast crowd had gathered. Unaware that it would be the last Darshan, some people were drawn in by an unknown force and later thought themselves specially blessed. There were others who missed it and nourished a lifelong regret. It was mooted at one time whether the Darshan should not be postponed, since it might cause a considerable strain and exhaustion leading to further aggravation of the disease; But the proposal was brushed aside out of Compassion for the devotees. Everybody, even persons quite ill, was given permission. Everything went off well, the atmosphere was charged with a solemn silence. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were love and Compassion incarnate; light, joy, peace, sweetness and strength emanated from them as from the sun and moon. After about two hour's an uneasy stir, a nervous tension was felt in the crowd. A whisper had gone round that the Master would like the Darshan to finish as soon as possible. Then in quick steps the long queue passed and everyone received the last memorable blessings from him.
He came back to his room somewhat tired. It was about 5 p.m. He had eaten practically nothing the whole day. The first utterance he made was, "I am very hungry." We had never heard such a frank personal note from him before. The meal was quickly served by the Mother and taken in grave silence.
1.12 - Love The Creator, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
And before it was in the pain, it was already a divine force of coherence and of organisation in the Matter in which life was germinating; it was the soul in unconscious forms before it became the soul in sensible forms; and it was loves power of attraction that, before it existed in the heart of mankind, was in the heart of the worlds, before it took the shape of tenderness, brotherhood and Compassion, was affinity in atoms and force of gravitation in the spheres. Without it how could any unity have been born in the infinite divisibility of substances? Whilst desire dispersed through space the ashes of its fires, was it not love that in that comic dust relighted the fires of life?
But in order that it might fertilise the germs of death, was it not inevitable that love should bury itself alive therein? Before anything could be, love had to make a holocaust of itself. Together with desire there was in the beginning sacrifice; and desire contained in its germ all the sorrows of the world, sacrifice all the joys of infinity.
1.12 - The Divine Work, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
the other hand, to love or have Compassion, to obey the highest
truth of our being, to follow the comm and of the Divine are not
1.12 - THE FESTIVAL AT PNIHTI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The activities that Vidyasagar is engaged in are good. Charity is very noble. There is a great deal of difference between daya, Compassion, and maya, attachment. Daya is good, but not maya. Maya is love for one's relatives-one's wife, children, brother, sister, nephew, father, and mother. But daya is the same love for all created beings without any distinction."
M: "Is daya also a bondage?"
1.12 - The Left-Hand Path - The Black Brothers, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
And this is the meaning of the Supper of the Passover, the spilling of the blood of the Lamb being a ritual of the Dark Brothers, for they have sealed up the Pylon with blood, lest the Angel of Death should enter therein. Thus do they shut themselves off from the company of the saints. Thus do they keep themselves from Compassion and from understanding. Accursed are they, for they shut up their blood in their heart.
They keep themselves from the kisses of my Mother Babylon, and in their lonely fortresses they pray to the false moon. And they bind themselves together with an oath, and with a great curse. And of their malice they conspire together, and they have power, and mastery, and in their cauldrons do they brew the harsh wine of delusion, mingled with the poison of their selfishness.
Thus they make war upon the Holy one, sending forth their delusion upon men, and upon everything that liveth. So that their false Compassion is called Compassion, and their false understanding is called understanding, for this is their most potent spell.
Yet of their own poison do they perish, and in their lonely fortresses shall they be eaten up by Time that hath cheated them to serve him, and by the mighty devil Choronzon, their master, whose name is the second Death, for the blood that they have sprinkled on their Pylon, that is a bar against the Angel Death, is the key by which he entereth in.[AC25]
1.12 - The Superconscient, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
But for a full and permanent overmental consciousness, such as was realized by the Vedic rishis, for instance, there are no more fluctuations. The consciousness is a mass of stable light. There results an unbroken universal vision; one knows universal joy, universal beauty, universal love; for all the contradictions of the lower planes came from a deficiency of light, or narrowness of light, which lit up only a limited field; while in this even light the contradictions, which are like small shadowy intervals between two flashes or dark frontiers at the end of our light, melt into a unified visual mass. And since there is light everywhere, there are also, necessarily, joy and harmony and beauty everywhere, because opposites are no longer felt as negations or shadowy gaps between two sparks of consciousness but as elements of varying intensity within a continuous cosmic Harmony. Not that the overmental consciousness fails to see what we call ugliness and evil and suffering, but everything is connected within a comprehensive universal play in which each thing has its place and purpose. This is a unifying consciousness, not a dividing one. The degree of unity gives an exact measure of the overmental perfection. Moreover, with the vision of this unity, which is necessarily divine (the Divine is no longer something hypothetical or theoretical, but seen and touched, something that we have become naturally, just as our consciousness has become materially luminous), the overmental being perceives the same light everywhere, in all things and in all beings, just as he perceives it within his own self. There are no more separate gaps, no more lapses of strangeness; everything is bathed continuously in a single substance. The seeker feels universal love, universal understanding, universal Compassion for all those other "selves" who are likewise moving toward their own divinity or, rather, gradually becoming the light that they are.
Therefore, we can attain the overmental consciousness in many different ways: through religious passion, through poetic, intellectual, artistic, or heroic zeal, or through anything that helps man to exceed himself. Sri Aurobindo assigned a special place to art, which he considered one of the major means of spiritual progress.
1.13 - BOOK THE THIRTEENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Her num'rous wrongs to just Compassion move.
Ev'n Juno's self forgets her ancient hate,
1.13 - Conclusion - He is here, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
The shock and desolation, however, that we felt can be more imagined than described. Though we could see the Master only four times a year, his Presence was vibrant in the very air we breathed, in our sleep, in every moment of our life; particularly after the accident, even physically he seemed to have come nearer. So the sudden absence was felt like a yawning abyss ready to engulf our very existence. I wonder what would have happened to the vast life qf the Ashram, if the Mother was not there to envelop all of us, the whole earth, in the embrace of her infinite love and Compassion. Yet, have we any measure of knowing what she must have felt, though she is the Divine? Just as he "worked, struggled, suffered", so did she suffer and bear. We witnessed it in the early period of the accident; but the command was upon her from the Lord to carry on his work. And the immense vacuum that was created could be filled by her alone. From these verses in Savitri in a different context we get such an indication:
The dubious godhead with his torch of pain
1.13 - Posterity of Dhruva, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
"The king is a speaker of truth, bounteous, an observer of his promises; he is wise, benevolent, patient, valiant, and a terror to the wicked; he knows his duties; he acknowledges services; he is Compassionate and kind-spoken; he respects the venerable; he performs sacrifices; he reverences the Brahmans; he cherishes the good; and in administering justice is indifferent to friend or foe."
The virtues thus celebrated by the Sūta and the Magadhā were chersed in the remembrance of the Rāja, and practised by him when occasion arose. Protecting this earth, the monarch performed many great sacrificial ceremonies, accompanied by liberal donations. His subjects soon approached him, suffering from the famine by which they were afflicted, as all the edible plants had perished during the season of anarchy. In reply to his question of the cause of their coming, they told him, that in the interval in which the earth was without a king all vegetable products had been withheld, and that consequently the people had perished. "Thou," said they, "art the bestower of subsistence to us; thou art appointed, by the creator, the protector of the people: grant us vegetables, the support of the lives of thy subjects, who are perishing with hunger."
1.13 - SALVATION, DELIVERANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
In the theologies of the various religions, salvation is also regarded as a deliverance out of folly, evil and misery into happiness, goodness and wisdom. But political and economic means are held to be subsidiary to the cultivation of personal holiness, to the acquiring of personal merit and to the maintenance of personal faith in some divine principle or person having power, in one way or another, to forgive and sanctify the individual soul. Moreover the end to be achieved is not regarded as existing in some Utopian future period, beginning, say, in the twenty-second century or perhaps even a little earlier, if our favourite politicians remain in power and make the right laws; the end exists in heaven. This last phrase has two very different meanings. For what is probably the majority of those who profess the great historical religions, it signifies and has always signified a happy posthumous condition of indefinite personal survival, conceived of as a reward for good behaviour and correct belief and a compensation for the miseries inseparable from life in a body. But for those who, within the various religious traditions, have accepted the Perennial Philosophy as a theory and have done their best to live it out in practice, heaven is something else. They aspire to be delivered out of separate selfhood in time and into eternity as realized in the unitive knowledge of the divine Ground. Since the Ground can and ought to be unitively known in the present life (whose ultimate end and purpose is nothing but this knowledge), heaven is not an exclusively posthumous condition. He only is completely saved who is delivered here and now. As to the means to salvation, these are simultaneously ethical, intellectual and spiritual and have been summed up with admirable clarity and economy in the Buddhas Eightfold Path. Complete deliverance is conditional on the following: first, Right Belief in the all too obvious truth that the cause of pain and evil is craving for separative, ego-centred existence, with its corollary that there can be no deliverance from evil, whether personal or collective, except by getting rid of such craving and the obsession of I, me, mine"; second, Right Will, the will to deliver oneself and others; third, Right Speech, directed by Compassion and charity towards all sentient beings; fourth, Right Action, with the aim of creating and maintaining peace and good will; fifth, Right Means of Livelihood, or the choice only of such professions as are not harmful, in their exercise, to any human being or, if possible, any living creature; sixth, Right Effort towards Self-control; seventh, Right Attention or Recollectedness, to be practised in all the circumstances of life, so that we may never do evil by mere thoughtlessness, because we know not what we do"; and, eighth, Right Contemplation, the unitive knowledge of the Ground, to which recollectedness and the ethical self-naughting prescribed in the first six branches of the Path give access. Such then are the means which it is within the power of the human being to employ in order to achieve mans final end and be saved. Of the means which are employed by the divine Ground for helping human beings to reach their goal, the Buddha of the Pali scriptures (a teacher whose dislike of footless questions is no less intense than that of the severest experimental physicist of the twentieth century) declines to speak. All he is prepared to talk about is sorrow and the ending of sorrow the huge brute fact of pain and evil and the other, no less empirical fact that there is a method, by which the individual can free himself from evil and do something to diminish the sum of evil in the world around him. It is only in Mahayana Buddhism that the mysteries of grace are discussed with anything like the fulness of treatment accorded to the subject in the speculations of Hindu and especially Christian theology. The primitive, Hinayana teaching on deliverance is simply an elaboration of the Buddhas last recorded words: Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out your own salvation with diligence. As in the well-known passage quoted below, all the stress is upon personal effort.
Therefore, Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the Truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, shall not look for refuge to anyone beside themselves it is they who shall reach the very topmost Height. But they must be anxious to learn.
1.13 - THE MASTER AND M., #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Maya and Compassion
MASTER: "Do you know what maya is? It is attachment to relatives-parents, brother and sister, wife and children, nephew and niece. Daya means love for all created beings.
--
MASTER: "You are right. After attaining samdhi, Nrada, Sukadeva, and others came down a few steps, as it were, to the plane of normal consciousness and broke their silence out of Compassion for the sufferings of others and to help them."
Narendra began to sing:
1.14 - ON THE FRIEND, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
Your Compassion should be a guess-to know first
whether your friend wants Compassion. Perhaps what
he loves in you is the unbroken eye and the glance of
eternity. Compassion for the friend should conceal itself under a hard shell, and you should break a tooth
on it. That way it will have delicacy and sweetness.
1.14 - The Secret, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Now the seeker will realize that each thing has its own inevitable place in the whole. Not only can nothing be left out, but nothing is more important or less important, as if the total problem were represented in the smallest incident or the slightest everyday gesture, as much as in cosmic upheavals; perhaps, too, the total Light and Joy are contained as much in the most infinitesimal atom as in the superconscious infinities. Now the dark half of the truth has become illuminated. Every stumbling or error kindles a flame of pain and seems to produce a breach of light below; every weakness summons up a corresponding force, as if the energy of the fall were the very energy of the ascent; every imperfection is a step toward a greater fulfillment. There are no sins, no errors, but only countless mishaps that compel us to attend to the full extent of our kingdom and to embrace everything in order to heal and fulfill everything. Through a tiny crack in our armor, a love and Compassion for the world have entered in, which none of the radiant purities can ever understand; purity is impregnable, self-contained, sealed off like a fortress; some fissure is needed for the Truth to come in!
[He] made error a door by which Truth could enter in.240
1.17 - Legend of Prahlada, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Again established in the dwelling of his preceptor, Prahlāda gave lessons himself to the sons of the demons, in the intervals of his leisure. "Sons of the offspring of Diti," he was accustomed to say to them, "hear from me the supreme truth; nothing else is fit to be regarded; nothing, else here is an object to be coveted. Birth, infancy, and youth are the portion of all creatures; and then succeeds gradual and inevitable decay, terminating with all beings, children of the Daityas, in death: this is manifestly visible to all; to you as it is to me. That the dead are born again, and that it cannot be otherwise, the sacred texts are warrant: but production cannot be without a material cause; and as long as conception and parturition are the material causes of repeated birth, so long, be sure, is pain inseparable from every period of existence. The simpleton, in his inexperience, fancies that the alleviation of hunger, thirst, cold, and the like is pleasure; but of a truth it is pain; for suffering gives delight to those whose vision is darkened by delusion, as fatigue would be enjoyment to limbs that are incapable of motion[3]. This vile body is a compound of phlegm and other humours. Where are its beauty, grace, fragrance, or other estimable qualities? The fool that is fond of a body composed of flesh, blood, matter, ordure, urine, membrane, marrow, and bones, will be enamoured of hell. The agreeableness of fire is caused by cold; of water, by thirst; of food, by hunger: by other circumstances their contraries are equally agreeable[4]. The child of the Daitya who takes to himself a wife introduces only so much misery into his bosom; for as many as are the cerished affections of a living creature, so many are the thorns of anxiety implanted in his heart; and he who has large possessions in his house is haunted, wherever he goes, with the apprehension that they may be lost or burnt or stolen. Thus there is great pain in being born: for the dying man there are the tortures of the judge of the deceased, and of passing again into 'the womb. If you conclude that there is little enjoyment in the embryo state, you must then admit that the world is made up of pain. Verily I say unto you, that in this ocean of the world, this sea of many sorrows, Viṣṇu is your only hope. If ye say, you know nothing of this; 'we are children; embodied spirit in bodies is eternal; birth, youth, decay, are the properties of the body, not of the soul[5].' But it is in this way that we deceive ourselves. I am yet a child; but it is my purpose to exert myself when I am a youth. I am yet a youth; but when I become old I will do what is needful for the good of my soul. I am now old, and all my duties are to be fulfilled. How shall I, now that my faculties fail me, do what was left undone when my strength was unimpaired?' In this manner do men, whilst their minds are distracted by sensual pleasures, ever propose, and never attain final beatitude: they die thirsting[6]. Devoted in childhood to play, and in youth to pleasure, ignorant and impotent they find that old age is come upon them. Therefore even in childhood let the embodied soul acquire discriminative wisdom, and, independent of the conditions of infancy, youth, or age, strive incessantly to be freed. This, then, is what I declare unto you; and since you know that it is not untrue, do you, out of regard to me, call to your minds Viṣṇu, the liberator from all bondage. What difficulty is there in thinking upon him, who, when remembered, bestows prosperity; and by recalling whom to memory, day and night, all sin is cleansed away? Let all your thoughts and affections be fixed on him, who is present in all beings, and you shall laugh at every care. The whole world is suffering under a triple affliction[7]. 'What wise man would feel hatred towards beings who are objects of Compassion? If fortune be propitious to them, and I am unable to partake of the like enjoyments, yet wherefore should I cerish malignity towards those who are more prosperous than myself: I should rather sympathise with their happiness; for the suppression of malignant feelings is of itself a reward[8]. If beings are hostile, and indulge in hatred, they are objects of pity to the wise, as encompassed by profound delusion. These are the reasons for repressing hate, which are adapted to the capacities of those who see the deity distinct from his creatures. Hear, briefly, what influences those who have approached the truth. This whole world is but a manifestation of Viṣṇu, who is identical with all things; and it is therefore to be regarded by the wise as not differing from, but as the same with themselves. Let us therefore lay aside the angry passions of our race, and so strive that we obtain that perfect, pure, and eternal happiness, which shall be beyond the power of the elements or their deities, of fire, of the sun, of the moon, of wind, of Indra, of the regent of the sea; which shall be unmolested by spirits of air or earth; by Yakṣas, Daityas, or their chiefs; by the serpent-gods or monstrous demigods of Swerga; which shall be uninterrupted by men or beasts, or by the infirmities of human nature; by bodily sickness and disease[9], or hatred, envy, malice, passion, or desire; which nothing shall molest, and which every one who fixes his whole heart on Keśava shall enjoy. Verily I say unto you, that you shall have no satisfaction in various revolutions through this treacherous world, but that you will obtain placidity for ever by propitiating Viṣṇu, whose adoration is perfect calm. What here is difficult of attainment, when he is pleased? Wealth, pleasure, virtue, are things of little moment. Precious is the fruit that you shall gather, be assured, from the exhaustless store of the tree of true wisdom."
Footnotes and references:
1.18 - M. AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Then mustn't one perform acts of Compassion, such as charity to the poor? I do not forbid it. If a man has money, he should give it to remove the sorrows and sufferings that come to his notice. In such an event the wise man says, 'Give the poor something.'
But inwardly he feels: 'What can I do? God alone is the Doer. I am nothing.'
1.18 - The Divine Worker, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
the cause of the good and just against the cause of the evil and oppressive. The liberated soul looks beyond these conflicting standards; he sees simply what the supreme Self demands from him as needful for the maintenance or for the bringing forward of the evolving Dharma. He has no personal ends to serve, no personal loves and hatreds to satisfy, no rigidly fixed standard of action which opposes its rock-line to the flexible advancing march of the progress of the human race or stands up defiant against the call of the Infinite. He has no personal enemies to be conquered or slain, but sees only men who have been brought up against him by circumstances and the will in things to help by their opposition the march of destiny. Against them he can have no wrath or hatred; for wrath and hatred are foreign to the divine nature. The Asura's desire to break and slay what opposes him, the Rakshasa's grim lust of slaughter are impossible to his calm and peace and his all-embracing sympathy and understanding. He has no wish to injure, but on the contrary a universal friendliness and Compassion, maitrah. karun.a eva ca: but this Compassion is that of a divine soul overlooking men, embracing all other souls in himself, not the shrinking of the heart and the nerves and the flesh which is the ordinary human form of pity: nor does he attach a supreme importance to the life of the body, but looks beyond to the life of the soul and attaches to the other only an instrumental value. He will not hasten to slaughter and strife, but if war comes in the wave of the Dharma, he will accept it with a large equality and a perfect understanding and sympathy for those whose power and pleasure of domination he has to break and whose joy of triumphant life he has to destroy.
For in all he sees two things, the Divine inhabiting every being equally, the varying manifestation unequal only in its temporary circumstances. In the animal and man, in the dog, the unclean outcaste and the learned and virtuous Brahmin, in the saint and the sinner, in the indifferent and the friendly and the hostile, in those who love him and benefit and those who hate him and afflict, he sees himself, he sees God and has at heart for all the same equal kindliness, the same divine affection.
1.19 - Dialogue between Prahlada and his father, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
On hearing this, Hiraṇyakaśipu started up from his throne in a fury, and spurned his son on the breast with his foot. Burning with rage, he wrung his hands, and exclaimed, "Ho Viprachitti! ho Rāhu! ho Bali[2]! bind him with strong bands[3], and cast him into the ocean, or all the regions, the Daityas and Dānavas, will become converts to the doctrines of this silly wretch. Repeatedly prohibited by us, he still persists in the praise of our enemies. Death is the just retribution of the disobedient." The Daityas accordingly bound the prince with strong bands, as their lord had commanded, and threw him into the sea. As he floated on the waters, the ocean was convulsed throughout its whole extent, and rose in mighty undulations, threatening to submerge the earth. This when Hiraṇyakaśipu observed, he commanded the Daityas to hurl rocks into the sea, and pile them closely on one another, burying beneath their iñcumbent mass him whom fire would not burn, nor weapons pierce, nor serpents bite; whom the pestilential gale could not blast, nor poison nor magic spirits nor incantations destroy; who fell from the loftiest heights unhurt; who foiled the elephants of the spheres: a son of depraved heart, whose life was a perpetual curse. "Here," he cried, "since he cannot die, here let him live for thousands of years at the bottom of the ocean, overwhelmed by mountains. Accordingly the Daityas and Dānavas hurled upon Prahlāda, whilst in the great ocean, ponderous rocks, and piled them over him for many thousand miles: but he, still with mind undisturbed, thus offered daily praise to Viṣṇu, lying at the bottom of the sea, under the mountain heap. "Glory to thee, god of the lotus eye: glory to thee, most excellent of spiritual things: glory to thee, soul of all worlds: glory to thee, wielder of the sharp discus: glory to the best of Brahmans; to the friend of Brahmans and of kine; to Kṛṣṇa, the preserver of the world: to Govinda be glory. To him who, as Brahmā, creates the universe; who in its existence is its preserver; be praise. To thee, who at the end of the Kalpa takest the form of Rudra; to thee, who art triform; be adoration. Thou, Achyuta, art the gods, Yakṣas, demons, saints, serpents, choristers and dancers of heaven, goblins, evil spirits, men, animals, birds, insects, reptiles, plants, and stones, earth, water, fire, sky, wind, sound, touch, taste, colour, flavour, mind, intellect, soul, time, and the qualities of nature: thou art all these, and the chief object of them all. Thou art knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, poison and ambrosia. Thou art the performance and discontinuance of acts[4]: thou art the acts which the Vedas enjoin: thou art the enjoyer of the fruit of all acts, and the means by which they are accomplished. Thou, Viṣṇu, who art the soul of all, art the fruit of all acts of piety. Thy universal diffusion, indicating might and goodness, is in me, in others, in all creatures, in all worlds. Holy ascetics meditate on thee: pious priests sacrifice to thee. Thou alone, identical with the gods and the fathers of mankind, receivest burnt-offerings and oblations[5]. The universe is thy intellectual form[6]; whence proceeded thy subtile form, this world: thence art thou all subtile elements and elementary beings, and the subtile principle, that is called soul, within them. Hence the supreme soul of all objects, distinguished as subtile or gross, which is imperceptible, and which cannot be conceived, is even a form of thee. Glory be to thee, Puruṣottama; and glory to that imperishable form which, soul of all, is another manifestation[7] of thy might, the asylum of all qualities, existing in all creatures. I salute her, the supreme goddess, who is beyond the senses; whom the mind, the tongue, cannot define; who is to be distinguished alone by the wisdom of the truly wise. Om! salutation to Vāsudeva: to him who is the eternal lord; he from whom nothing is distinct; he who is distinct from all. Glory be to the great spirit again and again: to him who is without name or shape; who sole is to be known by adoration; whom, in the forms manifested in his descents upon earth, the dwellers in heaven adore; for they behold not his inscrutable nature. I glorify the supreme deity Viṣṇu, the universal witness, who seated internally, beholds the good and ill of all. Glory to that Viṣṇu from whom this world is not distinct. May he, ever to be meditated upon as the beginning of the universe, have Compassion upon me: may he, the supporter of all, in whom every thing is warped and woven[8], undecaying, imperishable, have Compassion upon me. Glory, again and again, to that being to whom all returns, from whom all proceeds; who is all, and in whom all things are: to him whom I also am; for he is every where; and through whom all things are from me. I am all things: all things are in me, who am everlasting. I am undecayable, ever enduring, the receptacle of the spirit of the supreme. Brahma is my name; the supreme soul, that is before all things, that is after the end of all. ootnotes and references:
[1]: These are the four Upāyas, 'means of success,' specified in the Amera-koṣa.
1.20 - Equality and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
vanity of the world's differences and distinctions, the superiority of the inner calm, peace, light, self-dependence. It is an equality of philosophic indifference; it brings a high calm, but not the greater spiritual joy; it is an isolated freedom, a wisdom like that of the Lucretian sage high in his superiority upon the cliff-top whence he looks down on men tossed still upon the tempestuous waters from which he has escaped, - in the end something after all aloof and ineffective. The Gita admits the philosophic motive of indifference as a preliminary movement; but the indifference to which it finally arrives, if indeed that inadequate word can be at all applied, has nothing in it of the philosophic aloofness. It is indeed a position as of one seated above, udasnavat, but as the Divine is seated above, having no need at all in the world, yet he does works always and is present everywhere supporting, helping, guiding the labour of creatures. This equality is founded upon oneness with all beings. It brings in what is wanting to the philosophic equality; for its soul is the soul of peace, but also it is the soul of love. It sees all beings without exception in the Divine, it is one self with the Self of all existences and therefore it is in supreme sympathy with all of them. Without exception, ases.en.a, not only with all that is good and fair and pleases; nothing and no one, however vile, fallen, criminal, repellent in appearance, can be excluded from this universal, this whole-souled sympathy and spiritual oneness. Here there is no room, not merely for hatred or anger or uncharitableness, but for aloofness, disdain or any petty pride of superiority. A divine Compassion for the ignorance of the struggling mind, a divine will to pour forth on it all light and power and happiness there will be, indeed, for the apparent man; but for the divine Soul within him there will be more, there will be adoration and love. For from all, from the thief and the harlot and the outcaste as from the saint and the sage, the Beloved looks forth and cries to us, "This is I." "He who loves Me in all beings," - what greater word of power for the utmost intensities and profundities of divine and universal love, has been uttered by any philosophy or any religion?
Resignation is the basis of a kind of religious equality, submission to the divine will, a patient bearing of the cross, a
--
conflict with personal wills which seek rather their own egoistic satisfaction. Therefore Arjuna is bidden to resist, to fight, to conquer; but, to fight without hatred or personal desire or personal enmity or antagonism, since to the liberated soul these feelings are impossible. To act for the lokasangraha, impersonally, for the keeping and leading of the peoples on the path to the divine goal, is a rule which rises necessarily from the oneness of the soul with the Divine, the universal Being, since that is the whole sense and drift of the universal action. Nor does it conflict with our oneness with all beings, even those who present themselves here as opponents and enemies. For the divine goal is their goal also, since it is the secret aim of all, even of those whose outward minds, misled by ignorance and egoism, would wander from the path and resist the impulsion. Resistance and defeat are the best outward service that can be done to them. By this perception the Gita avoids the limiting conclusion which might have been drawn from a doctrine of equality impracticably overriding all relations and of a weakening love without knowledge, while it keeps the one thing essential unimpaired. For the soul oneness with all, for the heart calm universal love, sympathy, Compassion, but for the hands freedom to work out impersonally the good, not of this or that person only without regard to or to the detriment of the divine plan, but the purpose of the creation, the progressing welfare and salvation of men, the total good of all existences.
Oneness with God, oneness with all beings, the realisation of the eternal divine unity everywhere and the drawing onwards of men towards that oneness are the law of life which arises from the teachings of the Gita. There can be none greater, wider, more profound. Liberated oneself, to live in this oneness, to help mankind on the path that leads towards it and meanwhile to do all works for God and help man also to do with joy and acceptance all the works to which he is called, kr.tsna-karma-kr.t, sarvakarman.i jos.ayan, no greater or more liberal rule of divine works can be given. This freedom and this oneness are the secret goal of our human nature and the ultimate will in the existence of the race. It is that to which it must turn for the happiness all
1.20 - ON CHILD AND MARRIAGE, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
man-oh, that it were Compassion for suffering and
shrouded godsl But, for the most part, two beasts find
1.20 - The Fourth Bolgia Soothsayers. Amphiaraus, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, Eryphylus, Michael Scott, Guido Bonatti, and Asdente. Virgil reproaches Dante's Pity., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Who feels Compassion at the doom divine?
Lift up, lift up thy head, and see for whom
1.21 - A DAY AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
She is Compassionate and affectionate to Her devotees: to those who are submissive and helpless. It is also true that She is terrible, the "Consort of Death". She alone knows why She assumes two aspects at the same time.
M. remembered this interpretation of Kli given by the Master. He said to himself, "I have heard that Keshab accepted Kli in Sri Ramakrishna's presence. Is this, as Keshab used to say, the Goddess, all Spirit and Consciousness; manifesting Herself through a clay image?"
1.21 - Chih Men's Lotus Flower, Lotus Leaves, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
Hsueh Tou is extremely Compassionate, breaking up
people's emotional interpretations, so he comes out with his
1.23 - FESTIVAL AT SURENDRAS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"To love these objects, regarding them as one's own, is my. But to love all things is daya, Compassion. To love only the members of the Brahmo Samaj or of one's own family is my; to love one's own countrymen is my. But to love the people of all countries, to love the members of all religions, is daya. Such love comes from love of God, from daya.
"My entangles a man and turns him away from God. But through daya one realizes God. Sages like Sukadeva and Nrada always cherished daya in their hearts."
--
"May I ask you one thing? Does a man watching magic really feel Compassion when he sees suffering in the performance? Does he feel, at that time, any sense of responsibility? One thinks of Compassion only when one feels responsibility. Isn't that so?"
How a Jnni looks on the illusory world
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"The idea of responsibility! Goodness gracious! Men like Sankaracharya and Sukadeva kept the 'ego of Knowledge'. It is not for man to show Compassion, but for God. One feels Compassion as long as one has the 'ego of Knowledge'. And it is God Himself who has become the 'ego of Knowledge'.
Supreme power of dyakti in the relative world "You may feel a thousand times that it is all magic; but you are still under the control of the Divine Mother. You cannot escape Her. You are not free. You must do what She makes you do. A man attains Brahmajnana only when it is given to him by the dyakti, the Divine Mother. Then alone does he see the whole thing as magic; otherwise not.
1.23 - On mad price, and, in the same Step, on unclean and blasphemous thoughts., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
1. Pride is denial of God, an invention of the devil, the despising of men, the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of sterility, flight from divine assistance, the precursor of madness, the herald of falls, a foothold for satanic possession, source of anger, door of hypocrisy, the support of demons, the guardian of sins, the patron of unsympathy, the rejection of Compassion, a bitter inquisitor, an inhuman judge, an opponent of God, a root of blasphemy.
2. The beginning of pride is the consummation of vainglory; the middle is the humiliation of our neighbour, the shameless parade of our labours, complacency in the heart, hatred of exposure; and the end is denial of Gods help, the extolling of ones own exertions, fiendish character.
1.24 - PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "One day some Sikh soldiers came to the temple garden at Dakshineswar. I met them in front of the Kli temple. One of them referred to God as very Compassionate. 'Indeed!' I said. 'Is that true? But how do you know?' He answered, 'Because, sir, God gives us food and takes every care of us.' I said: 'Why should that surprise you? God is the Father of us all. Who will look after the child if the father doesn't? Do you mean to say that the people of the neighbouring village should look after the child?"
NARENDRA: "Then shouldn't we call God kind?"
1.24 - RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The value of this practice (repetition of the name of Amitabha Buddha) is this. So long as one person practises his method (of spirituality) and another practises a different method, they counterbalance one another and their meeting is just the same as their not meeting. Whereas if two persons practise the same method, their mindfulness tends to become deeper and deeper, and they tend to remember each other and to develop affinities for each other, life after life. Moreover, whoever recites the name of Amitabha Buddha, whether in the present time or in future time, will surely see the Buddha Amitabha and never become separated from him. By reason of that association, just as one associating with a maker of perfumes becomes permeated with the same perfumes, so he will become perfumed by Amitabhas Compassion, and will become enlightened without resort to any other expe thent means.
Surangama Sutra
1.25 - ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Pray to God. He is full of Compassion. Will He not listen to the words of His devotee? He is the Kalpataru. You will get whatever you desire from Him."
PUNDIT: "I haven't thought deeply about these things before. But now I understand."
1.25 - SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The extract which follows is taken from the translation by Waitao and Goddard of the Chinese text of The Awakening of Faith, by Ashvaghoshaa work originally composed in Sanskrit during the first century of our era, but of which the original has been lost. Ashvaghosha devotes a section of his treatise to the expedient means, as they are called in Buddhist terminology, whereby unitive knowledge of Thusness may be achieved. The list of these indispensable means includes charity and Compassion towards all sentient beings, sub-human as well as human, self-naughting or mortification, personal devotion to the incarnations of the Absolute Buddha-nature, and spiritual exercises designed to free the mind from its infatuating desires for separateness and independent selfhood and so make it capable of realizing the identity of its own essence with the universal Essence of Mind. Of these various expedient means I will cite only the last two the Way of Tranquillity, and the Way of Wisdom.
The Way of Tranquillity. The purpose of this discipline is twofold: to bring to a standstill all disturbing thoughts (and all discriminating thoughts are disturbing), to quiet all engrossing moods and emotions, so that it will be possible to concentrate the mind for the purpose of meditation and realization. Secondly, when the mind is tranquillized by stopping all discursive thinking, to practise reflection or meditation, not in a discriminating, analytical way, but in a more intellectual way (cp. the scholastic distinction between reason and intellect), by realizing the meaning and significances of ones thoughts and experiences. By this twofold practice of stopping and realizing ones faith, which has already been awakened, will be developed, and gradually the two aspects of this practice will merge into one another the mind perfectly tranquil, but most active in realization. In the past one naturally had confidence in ones faculty of discrimination (analytical thinking), but this is now to be eradicated and ended.
1.26 - Continues the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts. Describes means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for those who are beginning prayer., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
and Compassionate eyes, full of tears, and in comforting your grief will forget His own because
you are bearing Him company in order to comfort Him and turning your head to look upon Him.
--
speak to Him, not using forms of prayer, but words issuing from the Compassion of your heart,
which means so much to Him: "Art Thou so needy, my Lord and my Good, that Thou wilt accept
1.26 - On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
A good scheme for the advanced, and evidence of their progress is: absence of vainglory, freedom from anger, good hope, silence, discernment, firm remembrance of the judgment, Compassion, hospitality, moderation in reproof, passionless prayer, disregard of self.
And here is a standard, rule and law for those in the flesh who are piously aiming at perfection in spirit and body:
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Vice or passion is not originally planted in nature, for God is not the Creator of passions. But there are in us many natural virtues from Him, among which are certainly the following: mercy, for even the pagans are Compassionate; love, for even dumb animals often weep at the loss of one another; faith, for we all give birth to it of ourselves; hope, for we lend, and sail, and sow, hoping for the best.2 So if, as has been shown, love is a natural virtue in us, and is the bond3 and fulfilment of the law,4 then it follows that the virtues are not far from nature. And those who plead their inability to practise them ought to be ashamed.
Above nature are chastity, freedom from anger, humility, prayer, vigil, fasting, constant compunction. Some of them men teach us, others angels, and of others the Teacher and Giver is God the Word Himself.
1.27 - On holy solitude of body and soul., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
temper (for how can it not decrease as the gall is exhausted?), dissipation of darkness, access of love, estrangement from passions, deliverance from hatred, diminution of lust through continual scrutiny, ignorance of despondency, increase of zeal, Compassionate love, banishment of pride. This is the achievement which all should seek, but few attain. A well without water does not deserve the name. And what follows, he who is capable of thought already knows.1
41. A young wife who has not been faithful to her marriage bed has defiled her body; and a soul who has not been faithful to his vow has defiled his spirit. Reproach, hatred, thrashings and, most wretched of all, separation will befall the first. The other will have to face: pollution, forgetfulness of death, insatiability of stomach, lack of control of the eyes, working for vainglory, pining for sleep, hardening of the heart, deadness and insensibility, rank growth of wrong thoughts and an inclination to allow them, captivity of the heart, disturbance of spirit, disobedience, contradiction, attachment, unbelief, scepticism, talkativeness and, worst of all, free familiarity; and still more wretched, a heart without compunction which in the negligent is followed by in difference, the mother of devils and falls.
1.29 - Continues to describe methods for achieving this Prayer of Recollection. Says what little account we should make of being favoured by our superiors., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
you have, the [much] greater the joy He will give you. He is full of Compassion and never fails
those who are afflicted and out of favour if they trust in Him alone. Thus David tells us that he
1.29 - Geri del Bello. The Tenth Bolgia Alchemists. Griffolino d' Arezzo and Capocchino. The many people and the divers wounds, #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Which with Compassion had their arrows barbed,
Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands.
1.37 - Oriential Religions in the West, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
tender Compassion of their noble Founders, two of those beautiful
spirits who appear at rare intervals on earth like beings come from
1.4.01 - The Divine Grace and Guidance, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But it is not that. Also it is not a universal Divine Compassion either, acting impartially on all who approach it and acceding to all prayers. It does not select the righteous and reject the sinner.
The Divine Grace came to aid the persecutor (Saul of Tarsus), it came to St. Augustine the profligate, to Jagai and Madhai of infamous fame, to Bilwamangal and many others whose conversion might well scandalise the puritanism of the human moral intelligence; but it can come to the righteous also - curing them of their self-righteousness and leading to a purer consciousness beyond these things. It is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law - for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate
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Cosmic Law, of Karma or what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach through the nets of the Law and giving them their chance; and (3) the Divine Grace which
The Divine Grace and Guidance
--
Divine Grace - and that something must be not a mental and vital movement but an inner somewhat which can well be seen by the inner eye. If it is there and when it becomes active in front, then the Compassion can act, though the full action of the Grace may still wait attending the decisive decision or change; for this may be postponed to a future hour, because some portion or element of the being may still come between, something that is not yet ready to receive.
Each mind can have its own way of approaching the supreme
1.4.03 - The Guru, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I think this saying of Ramakrishna's2 expresses a certain characteristic happening in sadhana and cannot be interpreted in a general and absolute sense; for in that sense it is hard for it to be true. All difficulties disappearing in a minute? Well, Vivekananda had the grace of Ramakrishna from the beginning, but I think his difficulty of doubt lasted for some time and to the end of his life the difficulty of the control of anger was there - making him say that all that was good in him was his Guru's gift but these things (anger etc.) were his own property. But what could be true is that the central difficulty may disappear by a certain touch between the Guru and the disciple. But what is meant by the kr.pa? If it is the general Compassion and grace of the Guru, that, one would think, is always there on the disciple; his acceptance itself is an act of grace and the help is there for the disciple to receive. But the touch of grace, divine grace coming directly or through the Guru is a special phenomenon having two sides to it, - the grace of the Guru or the Divine, in fact both together, on one side and a "state of grace" in the disciple on the other. This "state of grace" is often prepared by a long tapasya or purification in which nothing decisive seems to happen, only touches or glimpses or passing experiences at the most, and it comes suddenly without warning. If this is what is spoken of in Ramakrishna's saying, then it is true that when it comes, the fundamental difficulties can in a moment and generally do disappear. Or at the very least something happens which makes the rest of the sadhana - however long it may take - sure and secure.
This decisive touch comes most easily to the "baby cat" people, those who have at some point between the psychic and the emotional vital a quick and decisive movement of surrender to the Guru or the Divine. I have seen that when that is there and there is the conscious central dependence compelling the mind also and the rest of the vital, then the fundamental difficulty disappears. If others remain they are not felt as difficulties, but simply as things that have just to be done and need cause no worry. Sometimes no tapasya is necessary - one just refers things to the Power that one feels guiding or doing the sadhana and assents to its action, rejecting all that is contrary to it, and the Power removes what has to be removed or changes what has to be changed, quickly or slowly - but the quickness or slowness does not seem to matter since one is sure that it will be done. If tapasya is necessary, it is done with so much feeling of a strong support that there is nothing hard or austere in the tapasya.
1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Sankara, being the avatar of Siva, was full of Compassion for fallen beings.
He wanted all of them to realise their blissful Self. He could not reach them all with His Silence. So he composed the Dakshinamurti stotra in the form of a hymn so that people might read it and understand the Truth.
1.46 - Selfishness, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
"We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. ..."
That sets up a standard, with a vengeance!
1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Sankara, being the avatar of Siva, was full of Compassion for fallen beings.
He wanted all of them to realise their blissful Self. He could not reach them all with His Silence. So he composed the Dakshinamurti stotra in the form of a hymn so that people might read it and understand the Truth.
17.09 - Victory to the World Master, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
pours out his Compassion, to him who routs the Hostiles.
***
18.05 - Ashram Poets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The magic of her Compassion flowers in hand,
And the thunder-roar that booms the world's end is hushed suddenly;
1913 08 08p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All is to me beautiful, harmonious, silent, despite the outer turmoil. And in this silence it is Thou, O Lord, whom I see; and I see Thee in so unique a way that I can express this perception only as that of an unvarying smile. In truth, the real nature of the feeling experienced in the presence of the sweetest, most calm, most Compassionate smile has a poor resemblance to what I feel when I see Thee in this way.
May Thy Peace be with all.
1913 12 29p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
May our mistakes, acknowledged and rectified within us, be no more than vain mirages powerless to bring any consequences and, pressing our foot down firmly upon all that no longer should exist, on all ignorance, all obscurity, all egoism, may we take our flight boldly towards wider horizons and intenser light, a more perfect Compassion, a more disinterested love. towards Thee.
I hail Thee, O Lord, Master of our life, and I want to proclaim Thy reign over all the earth.
1914 01 13p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And in that great love which enveloped me and that consciousness of perfect renunciation there was an immense serenity vaster than the universe and a sweetness so intense and so full of infinite Compassion that tears began to flow slowly from my eyes. Nothing could have been more remote from both suffering and happiness, it was unutterable peace.
O sublime Love, centre of our life, Marvel of marvels, at last I find Thee again and live anew in Thee, but how much more powerfully, how much more consciously than before! How much better I know Thee, understand Thee! Each time I find Thee anew, my communion with Thee grows more integral, more complete, more definitive.
1914 02 01p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But from time to time Thy sublime light shines in a being and radiates through him over the world, and then a little wisdom, a little knowledge, a little disinterested faith, heroism and Compassion penetrates mens hearts, transforms their minds and sets free a few elements from that sorrowful and implacable wheel of existence to which their blind ignorance subjects them.
But how much greater a splendour than all that have gone before, how marvellous a glory and light would be needed to draw these beings out of the horrible aberration in which they are plunged by the life of cities and so-called civilisations! What a formidable and, at the same time, divinely sweet puissance would be needed to turn aside all these wills from the bitter struggle for their selfish, mean and foolish satisfactions, to snatch them from this vortex which hides death behind its treacherous glitter, and turn them towards Thy conquering harmony!
1914 02 02p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Grant my prayer: Transform me into a brazier of pure love and boundless Compassion.
***
1914 04 10p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is as though all were energy, courage, force, will, infinite sweetness, incomparable Compassion.
Even more forcibly than during these last days the past is dead and as though buried under the rays of a new life. The last glance that I have just thrown backward as I read a few pages of this book definitely convinced me of this death, and lightened of a great weight I present myself before Thee, O my divine Master, with all the simplicity, all the nudity of a child And still the one only thing I perceive is that calm and pure immensity.
1914 05 19p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This mental being which throughout my individual existence had the power to set all my faculties working: deep devotion for Thee, infinite Compassion for men, ardent aspiration for knowledge, effort for self-perfectionseems to have fallen into a deep sleep and no longer sets anything at all in movement. All the individual faculties slumber and the consciousness is not yet fully awake in the transcendent states; that is, its wakefulness in them is intermittent and in between there is sleep. Something in this being aspires for solitude and absolute silence for a little while, so as to come out of this unsatisfactory transition; and something else knows that it is Thy will that this instrument be consecrated to the service of all, even if this must apparently be harmful to its self-perfecting.
Something in this being tells Thee, O Lord:
1914 05 29p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
O my sweet Lord, those who are in Thy head, that is, to speak more intellectually, those who have identified their consciousness with the absolute Consciousness, those who have become Thy supreme Knowledge, can no longer have any love for Thee, since they are Thyself. They enjoy that infinite bliss characteristic of all awareness of Thy supreme Essence, but the devotion of the adorer who turns with ecstasy to that which is higher and above him can no longer exist. So, to him whose mission upon earth is to manifest Thy love, Thou teachest to have this pure and infinite love for all the manifested universe; the love which at first was made of adoration and admiration is transformed into a love all made of Compassion and devotedness.
Oh, the divine splendour of Thy eternal Unity!
1916 12 20p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
As thou art contemplating me, I shall speak to thee this evening. I see in thy heart a diamond surrounded by a golden light. It is at once pure and warm, something which may manifest impersonal love; but why dost thou keep this treasure enclosed in that dark casket lined with deep purple? The outermost covering is of a deep lustreless blue, a real mantle of darkness. It would seem that thou art afraid of showing thy splendour. Learn to radiate and do not fear the storm: the wind carries us far from the shore but shows us over the world. Wouldst thou be thrifty of thy tenderness? But the source of love is infinite. Dost thou fear to be misunderstood? But where hast thou seen man capable of understanding the Divine? And if the eternal truth finds in thee a means of manifesting itself, what dost thou care for all the rest? Thou art like a pilgrim coming out of the sanctuary; standing on the threshold in front of the crowd, he hesitates before revealing his precious secret, that of his supreme discovery. Listen, I too hesitated for days, for I could foresee both my preaching and its results: the imperfection of expression and the still greater imperfection of understanding. And yet I turned to the earth and men and brought them my message. Turn to the earth and menisnt this the comm and thou always hearest in thy heart?in thy heart, for it is that which carries a blessed message for those who are athirst for Compassion. Henceforth nothing can attack the diamond. It is unassailable in its perfect constitution and the soft radiance that flashes from it can change many things in the hearts of men. Thou doubtest thy power and fearest thy ignorance? It is precisely this that wraps up thy strength in that dark mantle of starless night. Thou hesitatest and tremblest as on the threshold of a mystery, for now the mystery of the manifestation seems to thee more terrible and unfathomable than that of the Eternal Cause. But thou must take courage again and obey the injunction from the depths. It is I who am telling thee this, for I know thee and love thee as thou didst know and love me once. I have appeared clearly before thy sight so that thou mayst in no way doubt my word. And also to thy eyes I have shown thy heart so that thou canst thus see what the supreme Truth has willed for it, so that thou mayst discover in it the law of thy being. The thing still seems to thee quite difficult: a day will come when thou wilt wonder how for so long it could have been otherwise.
Skyamuni
1916 12 26p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thou biddest me strive without cease, and I could wish to have the indomitable ardour that prevails over every difficulty. But Thou hast put in my heart a peace so smiling that I fear I no longer know even how to strive. Things develop in me, faculties and activities, as flowers bloom, spontaneously and without effort, in a joy to be and a joy to grow, a joy to manifest Thee, whatever the mode of Thy manifestation. If struggle there is, it is so gentle and easy that it can hardly be given the name. But how small is this heart to contain so great a love! and how weak this vital and physical being to carry the power to distribute it! Thus Thou hast placed me on the threshold of the marvellous Way, but will my feet have the strength to advance upon it? But Thou repliest to me that my movement is to soar and it would be an error to wish to walk. O Lord, how infinite is Thy Compassion! Once more Thou hast taken me in Thy omnipotent arms and cradled me on Thy unfathomable heart, and Thy heart said to me, Torment not thyself at all, be confident like a child: art thou not myself crystallised for my work?
***
19.21 - Miscellany, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
They are fully awake in perfect wakefulness who follow Gautama and have their mind fixed upon Compassion.
[12]
1954-05-26 - Symbolic dreams - Psychic sorrow - Dreams, one is rarely conscious, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is from a state of deep Compassion that the Divine acts in Matter and this deep Compassion is translated in Matter precisely by this psychic sorrow which is spoken about here.1 We read that this evening. That is as though something were reversed, it is the same thing but reversed in this way (Mother joins her hands and then opens them as in an offering).
Well, the Divines state of Compassion is translated in the psychic consciousness by a sorrow that is not egoistic, a sorrow that is the expression of the identification through sympathy with universal sorrow. In the Prayers and Meditations I have said this (in one of the later ones), I have described at length an experience in which way I say, I wept the sweetest tears of my life,2 because it was not over myself that I wept, you understand. Well, that is it. You know, human beings always suffer because of egoistic causes, humanly. Even when, for instance (I have explained this often), they lose someone they loved, and suffer and weep, it is not over the state of that person they weep, for most of the time, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they do not know the state of the person, they cannot even know whether that person is happy or unhappy, whether he is suffering or in peace, but it is over the see of separation they themselves experience, because they loved to have that person near them and he has gone. So, always at the root of human sorrow there is a turning back upon oneself, more or less conscious, more or lesshow to put it?acknowledged, but it is always that. Even when one weeps over anothers misery, there is always a mixture. There is a mixture, but as soon as the psychic gets mingled in the sorrow, there is an element of reversed Compassion (thats what I was trying to explain a moment ago) which comes into the being and, if one can disentangle the two, concentrate upon that, come out of ones ego and unite with this reversed Compassion, through this one can come into contact with the great universal Compassion which is something immense, vast, calm, powerful, deep, full of perfect peace and an infinite sweetness. And this is what I mean when I say that if one just knows how to deepen ones sorrow, go right to its very heart, rise beyond the egoistic and personal part and go deeper, one can open the door of a great revelation. That does not mean that you must seek sorrow for sorrows sake, but when it is there, when it comes upon you, always if you can manage to rise above the egoism of your sorrowseeing first which is the egoistic part, what it is that makes you suffer, what the egoistic cause of your suffering is, and then rising above that and going beyond, towards something universal, towards a deep fundamental truth, then you enter that infinite Compassion, and there, truly it is a psychic door that opens. So, if someone sees me shedding tears, if at that moment one tries to unite completelyyou understand, to enter into these tears, melt in themthis can open the door. One can open the door and have the full experience, a very exceptional experience, which leaves a very deep mark upon your consciousness. Usually it is never effaced. But if the door closes again, if once again you become what you are in your ordinary movements, that still remain somewhere behind and you can go back to it in moments of intense concentration; you can go back to it and you feel once again that immensity of an infinite sweetness, a great peace, which understands everything but not intellectually, which has Compassion for all things, which can embrace all things and so heal all things.
Naturally, it is always the same thing: one must must sincerely want to be healed, for otherwise it does not work. If one wants to have the experience solely for the experiences sake and then the next minute one returns to what one was before, this does not work. But if sincerely one wants to be healed, if one has a real aspiration to overcome the obstacle, to riserise above oneself, to give up all that pulls one back, to break the limits, become clear, purify oneself of all that blocks the way, if truly one has the intense will not to fall back into past errors, to surge up from the darkness and ignorance, to rise into the light, stripped of all that is too human, too small, too ignorant then that works. It works, works powerfully. At times it works definitively and totally. But there must be nothing that clings to the old movements, keeps quiet at the moment, hides itself, and then later shows its face and says, Yes, yes, it is very fine, your experience, but now it is my turn! Then, when that happen, I do not answer for anything, because sometimes, as a reaction it becomes worse. That is why I always come back to the same thing, say always the same thing: one must be truly sincere, truly.
1954-08-18 - Mahalakshmi - Maheshwari - Mahasaraswati - Determinism and freedom - Suffering and knowledge - Aspects of the Mother, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ah, my child! (Silence) It is a disgust that is full of a total Compassion.
It is something that takes upon itself the bad vibration in order to cure others of it. The consequences (silence) of a wrong and low movementinstead of throwing it back with cold justice upon the one who has committed the mistake, it absorbs it, in order to transform it within itself, and diminishes as far as possible the material consequences of the fault committed. I believe that the old story about Shiva who had a black stain on his neck because he had swallowed all that was bad in the world, is an imaginative way of expressing this divine disgust. It made a black stain on his neck.
1955-11-16 - The significance of numbers - Numbers, astrology, true knowledge - Divines Love flowers for Kali puja - Desire, aspiration and progress - Determining ones approach to the Divine - Liberation is obtained through austerities - ..., #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There may be an effort which is not at all selfish and is yet egoistic, because the moment it becomes personal it is egoistic that means, it is based on the ego. But this does not mean that it is not generous, Compassionate, unselfish nor that it is for narrow personal ends. It is not like that. It may be for a very unselfish work. But so long as an ego is there it is egoistic. And so long as the sense of ones own personality is there, it is naturally something egoistic; it is founded on the presence of the ego.
And this must last for a fairly long time, because it must last until the individuality is completely formed, until it has reached a certain state of individual perfection; then the presence of the ego is no longer necessary but not before one has attained the maximum individual development.
1956-06-20 - Hearts mystic light, intuition - Psychic being, contact - Secular ethics - True role of mind - Realise the Divine by love - Depression, pleasure, joy - Heart mixture - To follow the soul - Physical process - remember the Mother, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He writes: It is indeed by the religio-ethical sense that the law of universal goodwill or universal Compassion or of love and service to the neighbour, the Vedantic, the Buddhistic, the Christian ideal, was created; only by a sort of secular refrigeration extinguishing the fervour of the religious element in it could the humanitarian ideal disengage itself and become the highest plane of a secular system of mental and moral ethics.
The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 142
1956-10-17 - Delight, the highest state - Delight and detachment - To be calm - Quietude, mental and vital - Calm and strength - Experience and expression of experience, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I dont need to tell you that this is not delight as it is understood in the ordinary human consciousness. Indeed, that delight is beyond the states which are generally considered as the highest from the yogic point of view, as for instance, the state of perfect serenity, of perfect equality of soul, of absolute detachment, of identity with the infinite and eternal Divine, which necessarily raises you above all contingencies. Parallel to this state there can be another which is the state of perfect, integral, universal love, which is the very essence of Compassion and the most perfect expression of the Grace which wipes out the consequences of all error and all ignorance. These two states have always been considered as the summit of consciousness; they are what could be called the frontier, the extreme limit of what the individual consciousness can attain in its union with the Divine.
But there is something which lies beyond; it is precisely a state of perfect delight which is not static: delight in a progressive manifestation, a perfect unfolding of the supreme Consciousness.
--
One can experience, on the pathwhen one has made some progress, when there is a greater understanding, a more total opening, a more intimate union with the divine Consciousness, one can experience this Delight as something that passes by and colours life and gives it its true meaning, but as long as one is in the human consciousness, this Delight is very easily deformed and changes into something which no longer resembles it at all. Therefore, one could hardly say that if one loses the delight, ones consciousness is lowered, for the Delight I am speaking about is something which cannot ever be lost. If one has reached beyond the two states I spoke about a while ago, that is to say, the state of perfect detachment and close union, and the state of perfect love and Compassion, if one has gone beyond these two states and found the divine Delight, it is practically impossible to come down from there. But in practical life, that is, on the path of yoga, if you are touched, even in sing, by this divine Delight, it is obvious that, should it leave you, you are bound to feel that you have come down from a peak into a rather dark valley.
But Delight without detachment would be a very dangerous gift which could very easily be perverted. So, to seek Delight before having acquired detachment does not seem to be very wise. One must first be above all possible opposites: indeed, above pain and pleasure, suffering and happiness, enthusiasm and depression. If one is above all that, then one may safely aspire for Delight.
1957-03-13 - Our best friend, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Indeed, you should choose as friends only those who are wiser than yourself, those whose company ennobles you and helps you to master yourself, to progress, to act in a better way and see more clearly. And finally, the best friend one can haveisnt he the Divine, to whom one can say everything, reveal everything? For there indeed is the source of all Compassion, of all power to efface every error when it is not repeated,1 to open the road to true realisation; it is he who can understand all, heal all, and always help on the path, help you not to fail, not to falter, not to fall, but to walk straight to the goal. He is the true friend, the friend of good and bad days, the one who can understand, can heal, and who is always there when you need him. When you call him sincerely, he is always there to guide and uphold youand to love you in the true way.
In 1961 when this talk was first published, Mother commented on this phrase: "So long as one repeats one's mistakes, nothing can be abolished, for one recreates them every minute. When someone makes a mistake, serious or not, this mistake has consequences in his life, a 'Karma' which must be exhausted, but the Divine Grace, if one turns to It, has the power of cutting off the consequences; but for this the fault must not be repeated. One shouldn't think one can continue to commit the same stupidities indefinitely and that indefinitely the Grace will cancel all the consequences, it does not happen like that! The past may be completely purified, cleansed, to the point of having no effect on the future, but on condition that one doesn't change it again into a perpetual present; you yourself must stop the bad vibration in yourself, you must not go on reproducing the same vibration indefinitely."
1958-10-22 - Spiritual life - reversal of consciousness - Helping others, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But this is not the standpoint from which the true significance of the spiritual evolution in man or the value of spirituality can be judged or assessed; for its real work is not to solve human problems on the past or present mental basis, but to create a new foundation of our being and our life and knowledge. The ascetic or other-worldly tendency of the mystic is an extreme affirmation of his refusal to accept the limitations imposed by material Nature: for his very reason of being is to go beyond her; if he cannot transform her, he must leave her. At the same time the spiritual man has not stood back altogether from the life of humanity; for the sense of unity with all beings, the stress of a universal love and Compassion, the will to spend the energies for the good of all creatures, are central to the dynamic outflowering of the spirit: he has turned therefore to help, he has guided as did the ancient Rishis or the prophets, or stooped to create and, where he has done so with something of the direct power of the Spirit, the results have been prodigious. But the solution of the problem which spirituality offers is not a solution by external means, though these also have to be used, but by an inner change, a transformation of the consciousness and nature.
If no decisive but only a contri butory result, an accretion of some new finer elements to the sum of the consciousness, has been the general consequence and there has been no life-transformation, it is because man in the mass has always deflected the spiritual impulsion, recanted from the spiritual ideal or held it only as a form and rejected the inward change. Spirituality cannot be called upon to deal with life by a non-spiritual method or attempt to cure its ills by the panaceas, the political, social or other mechanical remedies which the mind is constantly attempting and which have always failed and will continue to fail to solve anything. The most drastic changes made by these means change nothing; for the old ills exist in a new form: the aspect of the outward environment is altered, but man remains what he was; he is still an ignorant mental being misusing or not effectively using his knowledge, moved by ego and governed by vital desires and passions and the needs of the body, unspiritual and superficial in his outlook, ignorant of his own self and the forces that drive and use him. Only a spiritual change, an evolution of his being from the superficial mental towards the deeper spiritual consciousness, can make a real and effective difference. To discover the spiritual being in himself is the main business of the spiritual man and to help others towards the same evolution is his real service to the race; till that is done, an outward help can succour and alleviate, but nothing or very little more is possible.
1958-11-12 - The aim of the Supreme - Trust in the Grace, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Indeed, a great courage is necessary to go farther; this soul one discovers must be an intrepid warrior soul which does not at all rest satisfied with its own inner joy while comforting itself for the unhappiness of others with the idea that sooner or later everybody will reach that state and that it is good for others to make the same effort that one has made or, at best, that from this state of inner wisdom one can, with great benevolence and deep Compassion help others to reach it, and that when everybody has attained it, well, that will be the end of the world and thats so much the better for those who dont like suffering!
But there is a but. Are you sure that this was the aim and intention of the Supreme when he manifested?
1966 09 14, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, intervention is justified only when you are absolutely sure that you have the vision of truth. Not only that, but also a clear vision of the consequences. To intervene in someone elses actions, one must be a propheta prophet. And a prophet with total goodness and Compassion. One must even have the vision of the consequences that the intervention will have in the destiny of the other person. People are always giving each other advice: Do this, dont do that. I see it: they have no idea how much confusion they create, how they increase confusion and disorder. And sometimes they impair the normal development of the individual.
I consider that opinions are always dangerous and most often absolutely worthless.
1970 05 25, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
525Indiscriminate Compassion is the noblest gift of temperament, not to do even the least hurt to one living thing is the highest of all human virtues; but God practises neither. Is man therefore nobler and better than the All-loving?
526To find that saving a mans body or mind from suffering is not always for the good of either soul, mind or body, is one of the bitterest of experiences for the humanly Compassionate.
To be conscious of the Divine Consciousness is the supreme fulfilment offered to human realisation; all the rest are only inessentials.
1970 05 28, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
527Human pity is born of ignorance and weakness; it is the slave of emotional impressions. Divine Compassion understands, discerns and saves.
528Pity is sometimes a good substitute for love; but it is always no more than a substitute.
1970 06 01, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
529Self-pity is always born of self-love; but pity for others is not always born of love for its object. It is sometimes a self-regarding shrinking from the sight of pain; sometimes the rich mans contemptuous dole to the pauper. Develop rather Gods divine Compassion than human pity.
530Not pity that bites the heart and weakens the inner members, but a divine masterful and untroubled Compassion and helpfulness is the virtue that we should encourage.
Can there be any greater misfortune than to live without knowing the Supreme Lord? And yet this almost universal ill rarely excites any pity. Because one who knows that he is suffering from it also knows that the cure depends on him alone for the Lords Compassion is infinite.
1 June 1970
1.anon - The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI The Story of the Flood, #Anonymous - Poems, #unset, #Zen
but be Compassionate lest (mankind) be cut off,
be patient lest they be killed.
1.dd - As many as are the waves of the sea, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by K. N. Upadhyaya As many as are the waves of the sea, so many are the desires of the mind. Stilling them all, one sits with contentment holding the thought of the One in his self. As in the presence of a magnet the iron is drawn, So do thou attach thy senses, mind and dispositions to the One alone. When one discovers the true seat of the mind, then all regions come to his sight. When he brings back all five senses to that one point, then the secrets of the holy scriptures are revealed to him. The fickle mind wanders in the four directions. Bind it with the instructions of the Master, And bring it into the company of the Saint, then will it be united with the Supreme Lord, O Dadu. Making millions of efforts, many were consumed by death, but the mind continued to run in all ten directions. Only with God's Name as the barrier will it stop; no other way is there. Let the mind be the horse, the vigilant aspirant the rider, and one-pointed attention the bridle; Using the Word as a whip, some wise, holy aspirant will reach the goal. Vanquish the mind by means of the Name; discipline it through the teachings of the Saints. Remove whatever duality is there, then will there be bliss within, O Dadu. Once the mind is attached to God, how can it go anywhere else? Like salt dissolves in water, it enters into the Lord, O Dadu. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Dadu: The Compassionate Mystic, Translated by K. N. Upadhyaya
1.dd - So priceless is the birth, O brother, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by K. N. Upadhyaya So priceless is the birth, O brother, That in it, the Supreme Lord can be met. The human body is the Door to salvation. If the meeting is not accomplished while alive, If the contact is not made while alive, If the Lord of the universe is not found while alive, Then one is simply drowned. The One who has made this temple of our hearts, He alone dwells in this temple. None else but our Beloved is in our hearts. With thee is thy Friend. Let thyself recognize Him. Look not at a distance. Know Him as thy reflection, O Dadu. God is within all beings. He accompanies all and is close by. Musk is in the musk deer, and yet it goes around smelling grass. The self knows not God, although God is with the self. Being deaf to the Holy Sound of the Master, sadly does he wander. He for whom thou searchest in the world dwells within thyself. Thou knowest Him not, because the veil of 'mine' and 'thine' is there. He dwells within all beings, yet rarely anyone knows Him. He alone who is a devotee of God will know Him. A true Master unites us with God And shows all within the body. Within the body is the Creator, And within the body is Onkar [divinity of the second heaven]. The sky is within the body, and close by Is the earth within the body. Air and light are within the body. So is water contained within the body. Within the body are the Sun and the Moon. And the Bagpipe is played within the body. By rendering service within the heart, See thou the One who is indestructible and boundless, Having no limit either on this end or on that end, sayeth Dadu. After entering within, let one, O Dadu, bolt the doors of the house. Let one, O Dadu, serve the Lord at the Door of Eternity. God is within the self, His worship alone is to be done. Search thou for the Beloved close to the place Wherefrom the Sound emerges, and thou shalt find Him, sayeth Dadu. There is solitude there, and there is luster of Light. One who, turning the attention inward, Brings it within the self, And fixes it on the Radiant Form of the Master, Is indeed wise, O Dadu. Where the self is, there is God; all is filled with Him. Fix thine attention within, O valiant servant. So does Dadu proclaim. Fix thine attention within, and sing always within the self. This mind then dances with ecstasy, and beats with pleasure the rhythm. God is within the self; He is close to the worshipper. But leaving Him aside, men serve external constructions, lamenteth Dadu. This is the true mosque, this is the true temple. So hath the Master shown. The service and worship are performed within. Destroy delusion, O mind, by means of the Name of God and the Word bestowed by the Guru. The mind is then united with the One untouched by karmas. Liquidate thereby thy karmas, O Dadu. If the mind stays with the Name of the Supreme Lord even for a moment, O Dadu, All its karmas will be destroyed then and there, within the twinkling of an eye. The aspirant who fills his pot with drops of Celestial Melody, alone survives. How can he die, O Dadu? He drinks the divine Nectar. The artistic Creator is playing the instrument in perfect harmony. Melody is the essence of the five [elements], and through the self is the Melody expressed, O Dadu. By enabling people to hear the Sound, the Master can awaken them at His will. He may, at His pleasure, speak within them, and merge them in his own form. The knowledge of the Sound Current imparted by the Guru merges one easily into Truth. It carries me to the abode of my Beloved, says Dadu. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Dadu: The Compassionate Mystic, Translated by K. N. Upadhyaya <
1.dd - The Creator Plays His Cosmic Instrument In Perfect Harmony, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by K. N. Upadhyaya Destroy delusion, O mind, by means of the Name of God and the Word bestowed by the Guru. The mind is then united with the One untouched by karmas. Liquidate thereby thy karmas, O Dadu. If the mind stays with the Name of the Supreme Lord even for a moment, O Dadu, All its karmas will be destroyed then and there, within the twinkling of an eye. The aspirant who fills his pot with drops of Celestial Melody, alone survives. How can he die, O Dadu? He drinks the divine Nectar. The artistic Creator is playing the instrument in perfect harmony. Melody is the essence of the five elements, and through the self is the Melody expressed, O Dadu. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Dadu: The Compassionate Mystic, Translated by K. N. Upadhyaya <
1f.lovecraft - The Beast in the Cave, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Then fear left, and wonder, awe, Compassion, and reverence succeeded in
its place, for the sounds uttered by the stricken figure that lay
1.fs - The Artists, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
She, the Compassionate, alone
Took up her dwelling in that house of clay,
1.fs - The Driver, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
Who for thee with tender Compassion doth pray."
Then a force, as from Heaven, descends on him there,
1.fs - The Eleusinian Festival, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
"Does no god Compassion feel?
Will none of the blissful race,
1.fs - The Lay Of The Bell, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
From all his wild Compassions flown;
Tears, strange till then, his eyes bedim;
1.hcyc - 16 - When I consider the virtue of abusive words (from The Shodoka), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Robert Aitken Original Language Chinese When I consider the virtue of abusive words, I find the scandal-monger is my good teacher. If we do not become angry at gossip, We have no need for powerful endurance and Compassion. To be mature in Zen is to be mature in expression, And full-moon brilliance of dhyana and prajna Does not stagnate in emptiness. Not only can I take hold of complete enlightenment by myself, But all Buddha-bodies, like sands of the Ganges, Can become awakened in exactly the same way. <
1.hcyc - 55 - When all is finally seen as it is, (from The Shodoka), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Ivan M. Granger Original Language Chinese When all is finally seen as it is, nothing hidden behind the fantasies of the mind-- That is Tathagata. That alone is the state of Compassionate knowledge. Once this is realized, karma and its obstacles disappear into emptiness. But until that moment, one's debts must be paid. [2720.jpg] -- from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.hs - Rubys Heart, #Hafiz - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Master is he who bears Compassion to his thrall.
Now comes the time when blood gushes into the ruby's heart
1.hs - To Linger In A Garden Fair, #Hafiz - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Else Pardon and Compassionate Mercy were
But empty syllables and meaningless.
1.jk - Lamia. Part I, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
I took Compassion on her, bade her steep
Her hair in weird syrops, that would keep
--
(line 48): Originally, "Cerulean-spotted." Leigh Hunt says of this passage, "The admiration, pity, and horror, to be excited by humanity in a brute shape, were never perhaps called upon by a greater mixture of beauty and deformity than in the picture of this creature. Our pity and suspicions are begged by the first word: the profuse and vital beauties with which she is covered seem proportioned to her misery and natural rights; and lest we should lose sight of them in this gorgeousness, the 'woman's mouth' fills us at once with shuddering and Compassion."
(line 158): The manuscript reads "vulcanian," the first edition "volcanian." It seems to me more likely that the manuscript accords with the poet's intention than that printed text does, for this old orthography is the more characteristic of the vocabulary of this particular poem, as introducing the more conspicuously the mythic personal origin of the common noun "volcano" or "vulcano."
1.jk - Otho The Great - Act II, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
Any Compassion for that Emperor's niece,
Who, for your bright sword and clear honesty,
1.jm - I Have forgotten, #Milarepa - Poems, #Jetsun Milarepa, #Buddhism
Accustomed long to contemplating love and Compassion,
I have forgotten all difference between myself and others.
1.jm - Response to a Logician, #Milarepa - Poems, #Jetsun Milarepa, #Buddhism
the nectar of heartfelt Compassion.
Oh, this self-realizing awareness
1.jm - The Song of Food and Dwelling, #Milarepa - Poems, #Jetsun Milarepa, #Buddhism
I cannot help but feel a great Compassion for them,
I cannot help but practice more diligently,
--
As I hear it, I cannot but think of it with Compassion.
The voice of the cuckoo is so moving,
1.jm - The Song of Perfect Assurance (to the Demons), #Milarepa - Poems, #Jetsun Milarepa, #Buddhism
Flowing from my great Compassion,
I now sing this song
--
Listen closely to the teaching of Compassion.
I, the Yogi who developed by his practices,
1.jr - I Will Beguile Him With The Tongue, #Rumi - Poems, #Jalaluddin Rumi, #Poetry
hand; I will not beguile his Compassion with sickness or fluttering.
Hair by hair he sees my crookedness and feigning; whats
1.jr - Not Here, #Rumi - Poems, #Jalaluddin Rumi, #Poetry
sharp Compassion in this group? What's the
use of old and frozen thought?
1.jwvg - Prometheus, #Goethe - Poems, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
To feel Compassion for distress.
Who help'd me
1.kbr - What Kind Of God?, #Songs of Kabir, #Kabir, #Sufism
that speaks so clearly with Compassions elegant tongue,
saying, eternally saying:
1.kt - A Song on the View of Voidness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Thupten Jinpa & Jas Elsner Original Language Tibetan Homage to the Adamantine Mind! Dharma king, you who have realized the essence; you who expound the way of being, out of Compassion: king Buddha Samdrup, I bow to you in my heart, pray listen to me. Through your kind and skillful means, by a habit long formed, and as a fruit of long practice in this life, I have realized the nature of ever-presence. When the secret of appearance is revealed, everything arises in a tone of voidness, undefined by the marks of identity. Like a sky that is nothing but an image. When the secret of thoughts is revealed, though active, they are but mind's sport, naked reflections of transcendent mind unsullied by deliberation and correction. When the secret of recollection is revealed, every memory is but an illumination of self-knowledge in the ever-present state, untainted by ego consciousness. When the secret of illusions is revealed, they seem nothing but the primordial state, appearing in the visual field of rikpa, untouched by the dualism of mind and things. When the secret of abiding is revealed, you are in the state of self-cognition, however long you remain, free of elaboration, the expanse unstained by laxity and torpor. When the secret of mobility is revealed, however much you move, you remain within clear light, unstained by distraction, excitement, and so on, a true self-recognizer. When the secret of samsara is revealed, however often one may circle, the cycles are illusion unaffected by joy and pain. This is the realization of Buddha's four bodies. When the secret of peace is revealed, however tranquil one's attainments, they are but an image; this is the natural pure space, free of the signs of being and nonbeing. When the secret of birth is revealed, however one's reborn, it's but an emanation; meditation's vision of pure self-generation free of clinging and apprehensions. When the secret of death is revealed, however often one may die, it's but the vision of the ultimate, the stages of completion perfect, free of any karmic deeds. When the secret of bliss is revealed, its intensity cannot be bettered; this is the state of spontaneous bliss, free of all traces of contamination. When the secret of luminosity is revealed, however bright, it's but an empty form -- mother image of the void in space, free of every multiplicity. When the secret of emptiness is revealed, though empty, it is the unsurpassed, devoid of every contingent stain, and free from every deception. When the secret of the view is revealed, however much one looks and sees, the world remains beyond thought and word -- the expanse beyond dichotomies. When the secret of meditation is revealed, however much one meditates, it's but a state -- undistracted, and in natural restfulness, free of exertion and constraint. When the secret of action is revealed, whatever one does are the six perfections -- spontaneous, free, and to the point, uncolored by strictures and moral codes. When the secret of fruition is revealed, achievements are but the cognition of mind as dharmakaya, the mind itself free of hope and fear. This is the profound innermost secret; guru's blessings have entered my heart; naked nonduality dawns within; the secret of samsara and nirvana is revealed! I have beheld the face of the ordinary mind; I have arrived at the view that is free of extremes; even if the Buddha came in person now, I have no queries that require his advice! This song on the view of voidness expounding the nature of the being of all, spoken in words inspired by conviction, was sung in a voice echoing itself, unobstructed, in between meditation sessions. [1585.jpg] -- from Songs of Spiritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight & Awakening, Translated by Thupten Jinpa / Translated by Jas Elsner
1.ms - At the Nachi Kannon Hall, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by W. S. Merwin Original Language Japanese The Milky Way pours waterfalls over this human world the cold rushing tumbling sounds echo through the blue sky Veneration to the Great Compassionate Avilokiteshvara How lucky I am to have no trouble hearing [2206.jpg] -- from Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki - Poems and Sermons, Translated by W. S. Merwin / Translated by Soiku Shigematsu
1.ms - The Gate of Universal Light, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by W. S. Merwin Original Language Japanese The great light of Compassion illuminates this world in every part As a boy Sudhana stood before the gates When your eyelids have fallen across the whole of the empty world the gate will open at the snap of a finger as it did then to let him pass [2205.jpg] -- from East Window: Poems from Asia, Translated by W. S. Merwin <
1.pbs - Julian and Maddalo - A Conversation, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Who, for thou art Compassionate and wise,
Wouldst pity me from thy most gentle eyes
1.pbs - Oedipus Tyrannus or Swellfoot The Tyrant, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
And sink us in the waves of thy Compassion!
Alas! the Pigs are an unhappy nation!
1.pbs - On An Icicle That Clung To The Grass Of A Grave, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Not for THEE soft Compassion celestials did know,
But if ANGELS can weep, sure MAN may repine,
1.pbs - The Mask Of Anarchy, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Where some few feel such Compassion
For those who groan, and toil, and wail
1.pbs - The Revolt Of Islam - Canto I-XII, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Majestic, yet most mildcalm, yet Compassionate.
Wonder and joy a passing faintness threw
--
I drew, and, of his change Compassionate,
With words of sadness soothed his rugged mood.
1.rmpsd - Kulakundalini, Goddess Full of Brahman, Tara, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
a Compassionate glance --
I keep being reborn!
1.rt - At The Last Watch, #Tagore - Poems, #Rabindranath Tagore, #Poetry
Bound by the thin fabric of a little Compassion
Would even that have been too much for you to bear?
1.snt - The Light of Your Way, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Ivan M. Granger Original Language Greek Holy are you, O Lord, holy, blessed and One. Holy are you, and generous for you have flooded my heart with the light of your way, and you have raised up in me the Tree of Life. You have shown me a new heaven upon the earth. You have shown me a secret Garden, unseen within the seen. Now am I joined soul and spirit present in your Presence -- your Presence that has waited long in me, your Presence, the true Tree of Life, planted in whatever this earth is, planted in whatever it is that men are, planted, and rooted in the heart, your Presence all at once revealing your Paradise alive with every good green thing: grasses and trees and the fruiting bounty, a world of flowers! sweet-scented lilies! Each little flower speaks a truth: humility and joy, peace, oh peace! kindness, Compassion, the turning of the soul, and the flood of tears and the strange ecstasy of those bathed in your light. [2652.jpg] -- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.srh - The Royal Song of Saraha (Dohakosa), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Kunzang Tenzin HOMAGE TO ARYAMANJUSRI! Homage to the destroyer of demonic power! The wind lashes calm waters into rollers and breakers; The king makes multifarious forms out of unity, Seeing many faces of this one Archer, Saraha. The cross-eyed fool sees one lamp as two; The vision and the viewer are one, You broken, brittle mind! Many lamps are lit in the house, But the blind are still in darkness; Sahaja is all-pervasive But the fool cannot see what is under his nose. Just as many rivers are one in the ocean All half-truths are swallowed by the one truth; The effulgence of the sun illuminates all dark corners. Clouds draw water from the ocean to fall as rain on the earth And there is neither increase nor decrease; Just so, reality remains unaltered like the pure sky. Replete with the Buddha's perfections Sahaja is the one essential nature; Beings are born into it and pass into it, Yet there is neither existence nor non-existence in it. Forsaking bliss the fool roams abroad, Hoping for mundane pleasure; Your mouth is full of honey now, Swallow it while you may! Fools attempt to avoid their suffering, The wise enact their pain. Drink the cup of sky-nectar While others hunger for outward appearances. Flies eat filth, spurning the fragrance of sandalwood; Man lost to nirvana furthers his own confusion, Thirsting for the coarse and vulgar. The rain water filling an ox's hoof-print Evaporates when the sun shines; The imperfections of a perfect mind, All are dissolved in perfection. Salt sea water absorbed by clouds turns sweet; The venom of passionate reaction In a strong and selfless mind becomes elixir. The unutterable is free of pain; Non-meditation gives true pleasure. Though we fear the dragon's roar Rain falls from the clouds to ripen the harvest. The nature of beginning and end is here and now, And the first does not exist without the last; The rational fool conceptualising the inconceivable Separates emptiness from Compassion. The bee knows from birth That flowers are the source of honey; How can the fool know That samsara and nirvana are one? Facing himself in a mirror The fool sees an alien form; The mind with truth forgotten Serves untruth's outward sham. Flowers' fragrance is intangible Yet its reality pervades the air, Just as mandala circles are informed By a formless presence. Still water stung by an icy wind Freezes hard in starched and jagged shapes; In an emotional mind agitated by critical concepts The unformed becomes hard and intractable. Mind immaculate by nature is untouched By samsara and nirvana's mud; But just like a jewel lost in a swamp Though it retains its lustre it does not shine. As mental sloth increases pure awareness diminishes; As mental sloth increases suffering also grows. Shoots sprout from the seed and leaves from the branches. Separating unity from multiplicity in the mind The light grows dim and we wander in the lower realms; Who is more deserving of pity than he Who walks into fire with his eyes wide open? Obsessed with the joys of sexual embrace The fool believes he knows ultimate truth; He is like someone who stands at his door And, flirting, talks about sex. The wind stirs in the House of Emptiness Exciting delusions of emotional pleasure; Fallen from celestial space, stung, The tormented yogin faints away. Like a brahmin taking rice and butter Offering sacrifice to the flame, He who visualises material things as celestial ambrosia Deludes himself that a dream is ultimate reality. Enlightening the House of Brahma in the fontanelle Stroking the uvala in wanton delight, Confused, believing binding pleasure to be spiritual release, The vain fools calls himself a yogin. Teaching that virtue is irrelevant to intrinsic awareness, He mistakes the lock for the key; Ignorant of the true nature of the gem The fool calls green glass emerald. His mind takes brass for gold, Momentary peak experience for reality accomplished; Clinging to the joy of ephemeral dreams He calls his short-thrift life Eternal Bliss. With a discursive understanding of the symbol EVAM, Creating four seals through an analysis of the moment, He labels his peak experience sahaja: He is clinging to a reflection mistaken for the mirror. Like befuddled deer leaping into a mirage of water Deluded fools in their ignorance cling to outer forms And with their thirst unslaked, bound and confined, They idealise their prison, pretending happiness. The relatively real is free of intellectual constructs, And ultimately real mind, active or quiescent, is no-mind, And this is the supreme,the highest of the high, immaculate; Friends, know this sacred high! In mind absorbed in samadhi that is concept-free, Passion is immaculately pure; Like a lotus rooted in the slime of a lake bottom, This sublime reality is untouched by the pollution of existence. Make solid your vision of all things as visionary dream And you attain transcendence, Instantaneous realisation and equanimity; A strong mind binding the demons of darkness Beyond thought your own spontaneous nature is accomplished. Appearances have never ceased to be their original radiance, And unformed, form never had a substantial nature to be grasped; It is a continuum of unique meditation, In an inactive, stainless, meditative mind that is no-mind. Thus the I is intellect, mind and mind-forms, I the world, all seemingly alien show, I the infinite variety of vision-viewer, I the desire, the anger, the mental sloth - And bodhicitta. Now there is a lamp lit in spiritual darkness Healing the splits riven by the intellect So that all mental defilements are erased. Who can define the nature of detachment? It cannot be denied nor yet affirmed, And ungraspable it is inconceivable. Through conceptualisation fools are bound, While concept-free there is immaculate sahaja. The concepts of unity and multiplicity do not bring integration; Only through awareness do sentient beings reach freedom. Cognition of radiance is strong meditation; Abide in a calm, quiescent mind. Reaching the joy swollen land Powers of seeing expand, And there is joy and laughter; Even chasing objects there is no separation. From joy, buds of pure pleasure emerge, Bursting into blooms of supreme pleasure, And so long as outflow is contained Unutterable bliss will surely mature. What, where and by whom are nothing, Yet the entire event is imperative. Whether love and attachment or desirelessness The form of the event is emptiness. Like pigs we wallow in this sensual mire But what can stain our pearly mind? Nothing can ever contaminate it, And by nothing can we ever be bound.
1.srmd - The ocean of his generosity has no shore, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Isaac A. Ezekiel Original Language Persian/Farsi The ocean of his generosity has no shore. The tongue is powerless to thank, the heart too bewildered to understand. Though my sins are many his Compassion is greater still-- I swim in the sea of disobedience but I do not drown. [2365.jpg] -- from Sarmad: Martyr to Love Divine, by Isaac A. Ezekiel <
1.stav - You are Christs Hands, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Original Language Spanish Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, Yours are the eyes through which to look out Christ's Compassion to the world Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now. [2652.jpg] -- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.whitman - Salut Au Monde, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
My spirit has pass'd in Compassion and determination around the whole
earth;
1.whitman - So Long, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
affectionate, Compassionate, fully armed.
I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold;
1.whitman - Song of Myself, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Stands amused, complacent, Compassionating, idle, unitary,
Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
1.whitman - Song Of Myself- IV, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Stands amused, complacent, Compassionating, idle, unitary,
Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,
1.ww - 0- The White Doe Of Rylstone, Or, The Fate Of The Nortons - Dedication, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
And the tear precious in Compassion shed
For Her, who, pierced by sorrow's thrilling dart,
1.ww - 4 - Trippers and askers surround me, #Song of Myself, #unset, #Zen
Original Language English Trippers and askers surround me, People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation, The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new, My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues, The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love, The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations, Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events; These come to me days and nights and go from me again, But they are not the Me myself. Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am, Stands amused, complacent, Compassionating, idle, unitary, Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest, Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next, Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it. Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders, I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait. [2720.jpg] -- from This Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World, Edited by Ivan M. Granger <
1.ww - Character Of The Happy Warrior, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Her feeling, rendered more Compassionate;
Is placablebecause occasions rise
1.ww - Guilt And Sorrow, Or, Incidents Upon Salisbury Plain, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
In pure Compassion she her steps retraced
Far as the cottage. "A sad sight is here,"
1.ww - The Excursion- V- Book Fouth- Despondency Corrected, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
While we sate listening with Compassion due.
A pause of silence followed; then, with voice
--
He is Compassionate; and has no thought,
No feeling, which can overcome his love.
1.ww - The Excursion- X- Book Ninth- Discourse of the Wanderer, and an Evening Visit to the Lake, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
A wide Compassion which with you I share.
When, heretofore, I placed before your sight
--
Beheld without Compassion, yea with praise!
I spake of mischief by the wise diffused
1.yt - The Supreme Being is the Dakini Queen of the Lake of Awareness!, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Keith Dowman The Supreme Being is the Dakini Queen of the Lake of Awareness! I have vanished into fields of lotus-light, the plenum of dynamic space, To be born in the inner sanctum of an immaculate lotus; Do not despair, have faith! When you have withdrawn attachment to this rocky defile, This barbaric Tibet, full of war and strife, Abandon unnecessary activity and rely on solitude. Practice energy control, purify your psychic nerves and seed-essence, And cultivate mahamudra and Dsokchen. The Supreme Being is the Dakini Queen of the Lake of Awareness! Attaining humility, through Guru Pema Jungne's Compassion I followed him, And now I have finally gone into his presence; Do not despair, but pray! When you see your karmic body as vulnerable as a bubble, Realising the truth of impermanence, and that in death you are helpless, Disabuse yourself of fantasies of eternity, Make your life a practice of sadhana, And cultivate the experience that takes you to the place where Ati ends. [1484.jpg] -- from The Shambhala Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, Edited by Aliki Barnstone <
1.yt - This self-sufficient black lady has shaken things up, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Tarthang Tulku Listen, faithful Tibetans! I am merging with the fundamental, the ground of all that is--- physical pain and suffering are disappearing.... The son, the inner elements of my body, is reuniting with the mother, the outer elements. Her physical remains will disappear into earth and stone. The Compassion of the Guru has never left me; his manifestations fill all the world and call out to welcome me. This wild lady has done everything; Many times have I come and gone, but now, no longer. I am a Tibetan wife sent back to her family. I shall now appear as the Queen, the All-good, the Dharmakaya. This self-sufficient black lady has shaken things up far and wide; now the shaking will carry me away into the southwest. I have finished with intrigues, with the fervent cascades of schemes and deceptions; I am winding my way into the expanse of the Dharma. I have mourned many men of Tibet who have left me behind--- but now I am the one who will go to the land of the Buddhas. <
20.01 - Charyapada - Old Bengali Mystic Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
My own body is the Compassion, the dwelling
inside is emptiness.42
--
flashes forth the Compassion
Vowels and consonants form the twin rows of cadence,
--
The Buddha consciousness: within, it is nothingness, outside it is Compassion incarnate.
luminous beings = illumined senses.
--
The creation is a stringed musical instrument. Knowledge is its base, the delight is the row of strings tied to the base, the inner silence is the body (rod) on which the strings are laid. The woman is the inspiration of the inner soul, creating the music, she is the mate of the singer, the poet himself. What kind of music is it? It is the music of the Void pouring out the light of Compassion all over the creation. The strings are in two layers; the vowels (beginning with aalpha series) are the top series, the consonants the series below (Indian K series, European beta series). That marks the echoing and the re-echoing of the melody, also the right hand and the left hand movements of the consciousness (Knowledge and Power) according to the occultistsit means the total encircling consciousness, the global music. The bridge tightens and maintains the poise of the strings. We may remember here the two subtle nervous lines of 'Ida' and 'Pingala' and the middle one, 'Sushumna' that balances the two. The psychological sense is that the dualities of the world-experience are resolved in the consciousness of the sadhak by a supreme sense of equality. The elephant may mean the strength of physical resolution. The fingers pressing indicate the same thing, the pressure of almost physical consciousness to bring out the vast music that is Nirvana. The Gods and Goddesses are all happy for the curtain is rung down on the play, it is the endNirvana.
You have to cross the three worldsphysical, vital and mental, pass through the three states of consciousness jgrat (waking), swapna (dreaming) and suupta (sleeping)-to enjoy the transcendent delight. It is the ecstasy of union with one's soul, the divine Beloved secreted within our inner heart. This divinity, this beloved deity is utter freedomno mental reservations or restrictions, no vital preferences or prejudices, no physical rules or regulations.
2.01 - AT THE STAR THEATRE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Sri Ramakrishna remained standing. As the carriage rolled away, the devotees looked back at the Master's face beaming with Compassion and love.
Sunday, September 21, 1884
2.01 - Habit 1 Be Proactive, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
Many times over the years, I have asked groups of people how many have ever experienced being in the presence of a dying individual who had a magnificent attitude and communicated love and Compassion and served in unmatchable ways to the very end. Usually, about one-fourth of the audience respond in the affirmative. I then ask how many of them will never forget these individuals
-- how many were transformed, at least temporarily, by the inspiration of such courage, and were deeply moved and motivated to more noble acts of service and Compassion. The same people respond again, almost inevitably.
Viktor Frankl suggests that there are three central values in life -- the experiential, or that which happens to us; the creative, or that which we bring into existence; and the attitudinal, or our response in difficult circumstances such as terminal illness.
--
Circle of Influence with the field laborers. A ground swell of support, of trust, of confidence followed him through the countryside. Though he held no office or political position, through Compassion, courage, fasting, and moral persuasion he eventually brought England to its knees, breaking political domination of 300 million people with the power of his greatly expanded Circle of Influence.
--- The "Have's" and the "Be's"
--
Look at the weaknesses of others with Compassion, not accusation. It's not what they're not doing or should be doing that's the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is "out there," stop yourself. That thought is the problem.
People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day will, little by little, expand that freedom.
2.01 - The Object of Knowledge, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
2:The traditional systems, whatever their other differences, all proceed on the belief or the perception that the Eternal and Absolute can only be or at least can only inhabit a pure transcendent state of non-cosmic existence or else a non-existence. All cosmic existence or all that we call existence is a state of ignorance. Even the highest individual perfection, even the blissful cosmic condition is no better than a supreme ignorance. All that is individual, all that is cosmic has to be austerely renounced by the seeker of the absolute Truth. The supreme quiescent Self or else the absolute Nihil is the sole Truth, the only object of spiritual knowledge. The state of knowledge, the consciousness other than this temporal that we must attain is Nirvana, an extinction of ego, a cessation of all mental, vital and physical activities, of all activities whatsoever, a supreme illumined quiescence, the pure bliss of an impersonal tranquillity self-absorbed and ineffable. The means are meditation, concentration excluding all things else, a total loss of the mind in its object. Action is permissible only in the first stages of the search in order to purify the seeker and make him morally and temperamentally a fit vessel for the knowledge. Even this action must either be confined to the performance of the rites of worship and the prescribed duties of life rigorously ordained by the Hindu Shastra or, as in the Buddhistic discipline, must be guided along the eight-fold path to the supreme practice of the works of Compassion which lead towards the practical annihilation of self in the good of others. In the end, in any severe and pure Jnanayoga, all works must be abandoned for an entire quiescence. Action may prepare salvation, it cannot give it. Any continued adherence to action is incompatible with the highest progress and may be an insuperable obstacle to the attainment of the spiritual goal. The supreme state of quiescence is the very opposite of action and cannot be attained by those who persist in works. And even devotion, love, worship are disciplines for the unripe soul, are at best the best methods of the Ignorance. For they are offered to something other, higher and greater than ourselves; but in the supreme knowledge there can be no such thing, since there is either only one self or no self at all and therefore either no one to do the worship and offer the love and devotion or no one to receive it. Even thought-activity must disappear in the sole consciousness of identity or of nothingness and by its own quiescence bring about the quiescence of the whole nature. The absolute Identical alone must remain or else the eternal Nihil.
3:This pure Jnanayoga comes by the intellect, although it ends in the transcendence of the intellect and its workings. The thinker in us separates himself from all the rest of what we phenomenally are, rejects the heart, draws back from the life and the senses, separates from the body that he may arrive at his own exclusive fulfilment in that which is beyond even himself and his function. There is a truth that underlies, as there is an experience that seems to justify, this attitude. There is an Essence that is in its nature a quiescence, a supreme of Silence in the Being that is beyond its own development and mutations, immutable and therefore superior to all activities of which it is at most a Witness. And in the hierarchy of our psychological functions the Thought is in a way nearest to this Self, nearest at least to its aspect of the all-conscious knower who regards all activities but can stand back from them all. The heart, will and other powers in us are fundamentally active, turn naturally towards action, find through it their fulfilment, -although they also may automatically arrive at a certain quiescence by fullness of satisfaction in their activities or else by a reverse process of exhaustion through perpetual disappointment and dissatisfaction. The thought too is an active power, but is more capable of arriving at quiescence by its own conscious choice and will. The thought is more easily content with the illumined intellectual perception of this silent Witness Self that is higher than all our activities and, that immobile Spirit once seen, is ready, deeming its mission of truth-finding accomplished, to fall at rest arid become itself immobile. For in its most characteristic movement it is itself apt to be a disinterested witness, judge, observer of things more than an eager participant and passionate labourer in the work and can arrive very readily at a spiritual or philosophic calm and detached aloofness. And since men are mental beings, thought, if not truly their best and highest, is at least their most constant, normal and effective means for enlightening their ignorance. Armed with its functions of gathering and reflection, meditation, fixed contemplation, the absorbed dwelling of the mind on its object, sravana, manana, hididhyasana, it stands at our tops as an indispensable aid to our realisation of that which we pursue, and it is not surprising that it should claim to be the leader of the journey and the only available guide or at least the direct and innermost door of the temple.
2.01 - The Sefirot, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
for example: dominion, Compassion, anger, justice,
graciousness, knowledge, and numerous other traits
2.01 - War., #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
4.: These souls hear our Lord calling them, for as they approach nearer to where His Majesty dwells He proves a loving Neighbour, though they may still be engaged in the amusements and business, the pleasures and vanities of this world. While in this state we continually fall into sin and rise again, for the creatures amongst whom we dwell are so venomous, so vicious, and so dangerous, that it is almost impossible to avoid being tripped up by them. Yet such are the pity and Compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him. So sweet is His voice, that the poor soul is disconsolate at being unable to follow His bidding at once, and therefore, as I said, suffers more than if it could not hear Him.
5.: I do not mean that divine communications and inspirations received in this mansion are the same as those I shall describe later on; God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways. Sometimes He calls souls by means of sickness or troubles, or by some truth He teaches them during prayer, for tepid as they may be in seeking Him, yet God holds them very dear.
2.02 - Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with Compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of us be Contemporaries, and make our appearance together.
Although Habit 2 applies to many different circumstances and levels of life, the most fundamental
--
They are extremely powerful in rescripting and reprogramming, into writing deeply committed-to purposes and principles into one's heart and mind. I believe that central to all enduring religions in society are the same principles and practices clothed in different language -- meditation, prayer, covenants, ordinances, scripture study, empathy, Compassion, and many different forms of the use of both conscience and imagination.
But if these techniques become part of the personality ethic and are severed from a base of character and principles, they can be misused and abused in serving other centers, primarily the self center.
2.02 - On Letters, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: In the letter you can explain to K what the psychic feelings are. They are not the same as what ordinary men experience as sentiments and feelings. For example, the ordinary sentimental pity is not the same as what is called 'psychic Compassion'. The latter is a much deeper Compassion than pity. So also 'psychic love' is not the same as what generally passes for love. There is an unselfishness in psychic love; it is always free from all demands it has no vital claims. Even psychic 'unselfishness,' is not the same as the ordinary unselfishness. There is an unselfishness which plays on the surface and shows itself off. It becomes philanthropy paropakra. But the psychic counterpart of it sees the need of the other person and just satisfies it.
Lastly, lest he should think that the psychic being is something weak and inert, let him understand that the presiding Deity the adhiht devat of the psychic plane is Agni. It is the Divine Fire of aspiration. When the psychic being is awakened the God of the plane is also awakened. And even if the whole being is impure it is this Agni which intervenes, removes the obstacles in the way and consumes all the impurities of the being.
2.02 - THE DURGA PUJA FESTIVAL, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Yet is He the Fount of Compassion,
The Ocean of Mercy brimming with Love;
2.02 - The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Therefore according to their nature, as they approach him, he accepts their bhakti and answers to it with the reply of divine love and Compassion. These forms are after all a certain kind of
The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge
2.04 - ADVICE TO ISHAN, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
God is Compassionate."
MASTER: "The Sikhs, too, said that God was Compassionate. I asked, 'How is He Compassionate?' 'Why,' they answered, 'He has begotten us; He has created so many things for us; He has brought us up to be men; and He protects us from danger at every step.' Thereupon I said: 'After begetting us, God looks after us and feeds us. Is there much credit in that? Suppose a son is born to you. Do you expect a man from another part of the city to bring him up?' "
Tendencies from previous births
2.04 - ON PRIESTS, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
I am moved by Compassion for these priests. I also
find them repulsive; but that matters least of all to me
2.05 - Apotheosis, #The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #Joseph Campbell, #Mythology
called because he regards with Compassion all sentient creatures
suffering the evils of existence. To him goes the millionfoldrepeated prayer of the prayer wheels and temple gongs of Tibet:
--
of Compassion. The word bodhisattva (Sanskrit) means: "whose being or
essence is enlightenment."
--
If ye realize the Emptiness of All Things, Compassion
will arise within your hearts;
--
tions, and knowledge ride. And he is filled with Compassion for
the self-terrorized beings who live in fright of their own night
2.05 - Renunciation, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
For the Sadhaka of an integral Yoga none of these reasons are valid. With weakness and selfishness, however spiritual in their guise or trend, he can have no dealings; a divine strength and courage and a divine Compassion and helpfulness are the very stuff of that which he would be, they are that very nature of the Divine which he would take upon himself as a robe of spiritual light and beauty. The revolvings of the great wheel bring to him no sense of terror or giddiness; he rises above it in hia soul and knows from above their divine law and their divine purpose. The difficulty of harmonising the divine life with human living, of being in God and yet living in man is the very difficulty that he is set here to solve and not to shun. He has learned that the joy, the peace and the deliverance are an imperfect crown and no real possession if they do not form a state secure in itself, inalienable to the soul, not dependent on aloofness and inaction but firm in the storm and the race and the battle, unsullied whether by the joy of the world or by its suffering. The ecstasy of the divine embrace will not abandon him because he obeys the impulse of divine love for God in humanity; or if it seems to draw back from him for a while, he knows by experience that it is to try and test him still farther so that some imperfection in his own way of meeting it may fall away from him. Personal salvation he does not seek except as a necessity for the human fulfilment and because he who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others, -- though to God nothing is impossible; for a heaven of personal joys he has no hankerings even as a hell of personal sufferings has for him no terrors. If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. If life is an insanity, then there are so many million souls to whom there must be brought the light of divine reason; if a dream, yet is it real within itself to so many dreamers who must be brought either to dream nobler dreams or to awaken; or if a lie, then the truth has to be given to the deluded. Nor, if it be said that only by the luminous example of escape from the world can we help the world, shall we accept that dogma, since the contrary example of great Avataras is there to show that not only by rejecting the life of the world as it is can we help, but also and more by accepting and uplifting it. And if it is a play of the All-Existence, then we may well consent to play out our part in it with grace and courage, well take delight in the game along with our divine Playmate.
But, most of all, the view we have taken of the world forbids the renunciation of world-existence so long as we can be anything to God and man in their working-out of its purposes. We regard the world not as an invention of the devil or a self-delusion of the soul, but as a manifestation of the Divine, although as yet a partial because a progressive and evolutionary manifestation. Therefore for us renunciation of life cannot be the goal of life nor rejection of the world the object for which the world was created. We seek to realise our unity with God, but for us that realisation involves a complete and absolute recognition of our unity with man and we cannot cut the two asunder. To use Christian language, the Son of God is also the Son of Man and both elements are necessary to the complete Christhood; or to use an Indian form of thought, the divine Narayana of whom the universe is only one ray is revealed and fulfilled in man; the complete man is Nara-Narayana and in that completeness he symbolises the supreme mystery of existence.
--
We see in the teaching of the Gita how subtle a thing is the freedom from egoism which is demanded. Arjuna is driven to fight by the egoism of strength, the egoism of the Kshatriya; he is turned from the battle by the contrary egoism of weakness, the shrinking, the spirit of disgust, the false pity that overcomes the mind, the nervous being and the senses, -- not that divine Compassion which streng thens the arm and clarifies the knowledge. But this weakness comes garbed as renunciation, as virtue : "Better the life of the beggar than to taste these blood-stained enjoyments; I desire not the rule of all the earth, no, nor the kingdom of the gods." How foolish of the Teacher, we might say, not to confirm this mood, to lose this sublime chance of adding one more great soul to the army of Sannyasins, one more shining example before the world of a holy renunciation. But the Guide sees otherwise, the Guide who is not to be deceived by words; "This is weakness and delusion and egoism that speak in thee. Behold the Self, open thy eyes to the knowledge, purify thy soul of egoism." And afterwards? "Fight, conquer, enjoy a wealthy kingdom." Or to take another example from ancient Indian tradition. It was egoism, it would seem, that drove Rama, the Avatara, to raise an army and destroy a nation in order to recover his wife from the King of Lanka. But would it have been a lesser egoism to drape himself in indifference and misusing the formal terms of the knowledge to say, "I have no wife, no enemy, no desire; these are illusions of the senses; let me cultivate the Brahman-knowledge and let Ravana do what he will with the daughter of Janaka"?
The criterion is within, as the Gita insists. It is to have the soul free from craving and attachment, but free from the attachment to inaction as well as from the egoistic impulse to action, free from attachment to the forms of virtue as well as from the attraction to sin. It is to be rid of "I-ness" and "my-ness" so as to live in the one Self and act in the one Self; to reject the egoism of refusing to work through the individual centre of the universal Being as well as the egoism of serving the individual mind and life and body to the exclusion of others. To live in the Self is not to dwell for oneself alone in the Infinite immersed and oblivious of all things in that ocean of impersonal self-delight; but it is to live as the Self and in the Self equal in this embodiment and all embodiments and beyond all embodiments. This is the integral knowledge.
2.05 - The Cosmic Illusion; Mind, Dream and Hallucination, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
political and social gospels, the illusion of his ethical efforts at perfection, the illusion of philanthropy and service, the illusion of works, the illusion of fame, power, success, the illusion of all achievement. Human social and political endeavour turns always in a circle and leads nowhere; man's life and nature remain always the same, always imperfect, and neither laws nor institutions nor education nor philosophy nor morality nor religious teachings have succeeded in producing the perfect man, still less a perfect humanity, - straighten the tail of the dog as you will, it has been said, it always resumes its natural curve of crookedness. Altruism, philanthropy and service, Christian love or Buddhist Compassion have not made the world a whit happier, they only give infinitesimal bits of momentary relief here and there, throw drops on the fire of the world's suffering. All aims are in the end transitory and futile, all achievements unsatisfying or evanescent; all works are so much labour of effort and success and failure which consummate nothing definitive: whatever changes are made in human life are of the form only and these forms pursue each other in a futile circle; for the essence of life, its general character remains the same for ever. This view of things may be exaggerated, but it has an undeniable force; it is supported by the experience of man's centuries and it carries in itself a significance which at one time or another comes upon the mind with an overwhelming air of self-evidence. Not only so, but if it is true that the fundamental laws and values of terrestrial existence are fixed or that it must always turn in repeated cycles,
- and this has been for long a very prevalent notion, - then this view of things in the end is hardly escapable. For imperfection, ignorance, frustration and suffering are a dominant factor of the existing world-order, the elements contrary to them, knowledge, happiness, success, perfection are constantly found to be deceptive or inconclusive: the two opposites are so inextricably mixed that, if this state of things is not a motion towards a greater fulfilment, if this is the permanent character of the world-order, then it is hard to avoid the conclusion that all here is either the creation of an inconscient Energy, which would account for the incapacity of an apparent consciousness to arrive at anything, or
2.05 - The Holy Oil, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
4:This oil is compounded of four substances. The basis of all is the oil of the olive. The olive is, traditionally, the gift of Minerva, the Wisdom of God, the Logos. In this are dissolved three other oils; oil of myrrh, oil of cinnamon, oil of galangal. The Myrrh is attributed to Binah, the Great Mother who is both the understanding of the Magician and that sorrow and Compassion which results from the contemplation of the Universe. The Cinnamon represents Tiphereth, the Sun-the Son, in whom Glory and Suffering are identical. The Galangal represents both Kether and Malkuth, the First and the Last, the One and the Many, since in this Oil they are One.
5:These oils taken together represent therefore the whole Tree of Life. The ten Sephiroth are blended into the perfect gold.
2.05 - VISIT TO THE SINTHI BRAMO SAMAJ, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
But there are different manifestations of His Power in different beings. If all are the same, then why have we come here to see you, attracted by your renown? Have you grown a pair of horns? Oh, no! It is not that. You have Compassion; you have scholarship; there is a greater degree of these virtues in you than in others. That is the reason you are so well known.' Don't you see that there are men who, single-handed, can defeat a hundred persons? Again, one man takes to his heels in fear of another; you see such a person, too. If there are not different manifestations of power in different beings, then why did people respect Keshab Sen so much?
"It is said in the Git that if a man is respected and honoured by many, whether it be for his scholarship or his music or his oratory or anything else, then you may know for certain that he is endowed with a special divine power."
--
MASTER: "Surely you have duties to perform. You must bring up your children, support your wife, and provide for her in case of your death. If you don't, then I shall call you unkind. Sages like Sukadeva had Compassion. He who has no Compassion is no man."
SUB-JUDGE: "How long should one support one's children?"
--
"You too must force your demand on the Divine Mother. She will come to you without fail. I once said the same thing to some Sikhs when they visited the temple at Dakshineswar. We were conversing in front of the Kli temple. They said, 'God is Compassionate.' 'Why Compassionate?' I asked. They said, 'Why, revered sir, He constantly looks after us, gives us righteousness and wealth, and provides us with our food.' 'Suppose', I said, 'a man has children. Who will look after them and provide them with food-their own father, or a man from another village?'
SUB-JUDGE: "Is not God, then, Compassionate, sir?"
MASTER: "Why should you think that? I just made a remark. What I mean to say is that God is our very own. We can exert force on Him. With one's own people one can even go so far as to say, 'You rascal! Won't you give it to me?'
--
Sri Ramakrishna alighted from the carriage. With Baburam he proceeded on foot to the house of his host, M. leading the way. They saw the courtyard of the house filled with big bales of clothes which were being loaded into bullock-carts for shipment. The Mrwri host greeted the Master and led him to the third floor of the house. A painting of Kli hung on the wall. Sri Ramakrishna bowed before it. He sat down and became engaged in conversation with the devotees. One of the Mrwris began to stroke his feet. The Master asked him to stop. After reflecting a minute he said, "All right, you can stroke them a little." His words were full of Compassion.
MASTER (to M.): "What about your school?"
2.06 - The Wand, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
65:Love, sorrow, and Compassion are three sisters who, if they seem freed from this curse, are only so because of their relation to The Unsatisfied.
66:Beauty is itself so unattainable that it escapes altogether; and the true artist, like the true mystic, can never rest. To him the Magician is but a servant. His wand is of infinite length; it is the creative Mahalingam.
2.06 - WITH VARIOUS DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
It was ten or eleven o'clock at night. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch, resting against a pillow. M. sat on the floor. The Master was conversing with him. A lamp burnt on a stand near the wall. The Master felt great Compassion for his devotees. He wanted to bless M. by accepting his personal service.
MASTER: "My feet ache. Please rub them gently."
2.07 - BANKIM CHANDRA, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
The love that you see in parents is God's love: He has given it to them to preserve His creation. The Compassion that you see in the kind-hearted is God's Compassion: He has given it to them to protect the helpless. Whether you are charitable or not, He will have His work done somehow or other. Nothing can stop His work.
"What then is man's duty? What else can it be? It is just to take refuge in God and to pray to Him with a yearning heart for His vision.
2.07 - The Supreme Word of the Gita, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
tification of their being and their nature. From this need arise the religions of love and works, whose strength is that they satisfy and lead Godwards the most active and developed powers of our humanity, - for only by starting from these can knowledge be effective. Even Buddhism with its austere and uncompromising negation both of subjective self and objective things had still to found itself initially on a divine discipline of works and to admit as a substitute for bhakti the spiritualised emotionalism of a universal love and Compassion, since so only could it become an effective way for mankind, a truly liberating religion. Even illusionist Mayavada with its ultralogical intolerance of action and the creations of mentality had to allow a provisional and practical reality to man and the universe and to God in the world in order to have a first foothold and a feasible starting-point; it had to affirm what it denied in order to give some reality to man's bondage and to his effort for liberation.
But the weakness of the kinetic and the emotional religions is that they are too much absorbed in some divine Personality and in the divine values of the finite. And, even when they have a conception of the infinite Godhead, they do not give us the full satisfaction of knowledge because they do not follow it out into its most ultimate and supernal tendencies. These religions fall short of a complete absorption in the Eternal and the perfect union by identity, - and yet to that identity in some other way, if not in the abstractive, since there all oneness has its basis, the spirit that is in man must one day arrive. On the other hand, the weakness of a contemplative quietistic spirituality is that it arrives at this result by a too absolute abstraction and in the end it turns into a nothing or a fiction the human soul whose aspiration was yet all the time the whole sense of this attempt at union; for without the soul and its aspiration liberation and union could have no meaning. The little that this way of thinking recognises of his other powers of existence, it relegates to an inferior preliminary action which never arrives at any full or satisfying realisation in the Eternal and Infinite. Yet these things too which it restricts unduly, the potent will, the strong yearning of love, the positive light and all-embracing intuition
2.08 - On Non-Violence, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: I do not understand why one should. Very few people realise the true meaning of Samata. By Samata, is meant a certain attitude of the whole being towards the world and its happenings. This world is full of so many things which are horrible and terrible. Samata means that one should be able to look at them from a certain poise without being perplexed or moved. It does not mean that one will go on killing others indiscriminately or out of a personal motive. That would be untruth. But it means that one must be able to look at things without being moved. What X calls 'pity' is something quite different from Compassion and both are different from Samata which is an attitude of the whole being. Pity and sentimentalism are results of nervous repulsion, some movement in the vital being. I myself, when I was young, could not read anything related to cruelty wihout feeling that repulsion and a feeling of hatred for those who practised it. I could not kill even a bug or a mosquito. This was not because I believed in Ahimsa but because I had a nervous repulsion. Later, even when I had no mental objection, I could not harm anything because the body rejected the act. When I was in jail I was subjected to all sorts of mental tortures for the first fifteen days. I had to look upon scenes of all kinds of suffering and then the nervous repulsion passed away.
Compassion is something different. It comes from Above. It is a state of sympathy for the suffering of man and the suffering that is on earth and there is an idea of helping it as far as one can, whenever one can in his own way. It is not like pity. It is like the Gods who look upon human suffering from above, unmoved. That Compassion can also destroy and it destroys with Compassion as Durga does the Rakshasas. There can be no pity there. Many times the Rakshasa may come and ask you to save him, he may even ask you to transform him as some beings asked the Mother in her vision by your spiritual power. If you try that, all the power goes to the Rakshasa and you may become powerless. When these vital beings incarnate in men then true Compassion would not prevent you from killing them.
That the vegetable kingdom has got life is not something new to know, and it is not necessary to acquire Samata to take fish. I used to take it when I was a child and when I had no Samata. What is required is: one should have no repulsion. As a matter of fact I cannot take fish nowadays, but that means nothing. I give it to the cats all right.
2.08 - The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
What takes their place ? It may be, if we will, an entire calm, silence and indifference. But although this is a stage through which the soul has usually to pass, it is not the final aim we have placed before us. Therefore the Purusha becomes also the master who wills and whose will it is to replace wrong by right enjoyment of the psychic existence. What he wills. Nature executes. What was fabric-stuff of desire and passion, is turned into reality of pure, equal and calmly intense love and joy and oneness. The real soul emerges and takes the place left vacant by the desire-mind. The cleansed and emptied cup is filled with the wine of divine love and delight and no longer with the sweet and bitter poison of passion. The passions, even the passion for good, misrepresent the divine nature. The passion of pity with its impure elements of physical repulsion and emotional inability to bear the suffering of others has to be rejected and replaced by the higher divine Compassion which sees, understands, accepts the burden of others and is strong to help and heal, not with self-will and revolt against the suffering in the world and with ignorant accusation of the law of things and their source, but with light and knowledge and as an instrument of the Divine in its emergence. So too the love that desires and grasps and is troubled with joy and shaken with grief must be rejected for the equal, all-embracing love that is free from these things and has no dependence upon circumstances and is not modified by response or absence of response. So we shall deal with all the movements of the soul; but of these things we shall speak farther when we consider the Yoga of self-perfection.
As with action and inaction, so it is with this dual possibility of indifference and calm on the one side and active joy and love on the other. Equality, not indifference is the basis. Equal endurance, impartial indifference, calm submission to the causes of joy and grief without any reaction of either grief or joy are the preparation and negative basis of equality; but equality is not fulfilled till it takes its positive form of love and delight. The sense-mind must find the equal rasa of the All-Beautiful, the heart the equal love and Ananda for all, the psychic Prana the enjoyment of this rasa, love and Ananda. This, however, is the positive perfection that comes by liberation; our first object on the path of knowledge is rather the liberation that comes by detachment from the desire-mind and by the renunciation of its passions.
2.0 - THE ANTICHRIST, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
Oh, what a humble, chaste and Compassionate kind of falsity! "Virtue
itself shall bear us testimony." ... Only read the gospels as books
--
behold, even man begins to be bored. God's Compassion for the only
form of misery which is peculiar to all paradises, exceeds all bounds:
2.1.02 - Love and Death, #Collected Poems, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
With those Compassionate and lethal eyes,
Who many names, who many natures holds;
2.10 - THE MASTER AND NARENDRA, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
O Great God! Compassionate One! O Benign Deity!
O Byomakesa! Blue-throated One! O Lord of hosts!
--
O Thou adored by all! Compassionate One! O Friend of the poor!
Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable world.
2.12 - The Way and the Bhakta, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Purushottama is one who has a universal heart and mind which has broken down all the narrow walls of the ego. A universal love dwells in his heart, a universal Compassion flows from it like an encompassing sea. He will have friendship and pity for all beings and hate for no living thing: for he is patient, longsuffering, enduring, a well of forgiveness. A desireless content is his, a tranquil equality to pleasure and pain, suffering and happiness, the steadfast control of self and the firm unshakable will and resolution of the Yogin and a love and devotion which gives up the whole mind and reason to the Lord, to the Master of his consciousness and knowledge. Or, simply, he will be one who is freed from the troubled agitated lower nature and from its waves of joy and fear and anxiety and resentment and desire, a spirit of calm by whom the world is not afflicted or troubled, nor is he afflicted or troubled by the world, a soul of peace with whom all are at peace.
Or he will be one who has given up all desire and action to the Master of his being, one pure and still, indifferent to whatever comes, not pained or afflicted by any result or happening, one who has flung away from him all egoistic, personal and mental initiative whether of the inner or the outer act, one who lets the divine will and divine knowledge flow through him undeflected by his own resolves, preferences and desires, and yet for that very reason is swift and skilful in all action of his nature, because this flawless unity with the supreme will, this pure instrumentation is the condition of the greatest skill in works. Again, he will be one who neither desires the pleasant and rejoices at its touch nor abhors the unpleasant and sorrows at its burden. He has abolished the distinction between fortunate and unfortunate happenings, because his devotion receives all things equally as good from the hands of his eternal Lover and
2.13 - Kingdom-The Seventh Sefira, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
such a degree that all the gates of Compassion are opened
and all goodness flows forth.
--- Overview of noun compassion
The noun compassion has 2 senses (first 2 from tagged texts)
1. (2) compassion, compassionateness ::: (a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering)
2. (1) compassion, pity ::: (the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun compassion
2 senses of compassion
Sense 1
compassion, compassionateness
=> sympathy, fellow feeling
=> feeling
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 2
compassion, pity
=> mercifulness, mercy
=> humaneness
=> quality
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun compassion
1 of 2 senses of compassion
Sense 1
compassion, compassionateness
=> heartstrings
=> tenderness, tenderheartedness
=> mercifulness, mercy
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun compassion
2 senses of compassion
Sense 1
compassion, compassionateness
=> sympathy, fellow feeling
Sense 2
compassion, pity
=> mercifulness, mercy
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun compassion
2 senses of compassion
Sense 1
compassion, compassionateness
-> sympathy, fellow feeling
=> concern
=> kindheartedness, kind-heartedness
=> compassion, compassionateness
=> commiseration, pity, ruth, pathos
=> compatibility
=> empathy
Sense 2
compassion, pity
-> mercifulness, mercy
=> compassion, pity
=> forgivingness, kindness
=> lenience, leniency, mildness, lenity
--- Grep of noun compassion
compassion
compassionate leave
compassionateness
Wikipedia - Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion
Wikipedia - Aloha -- Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy
Wikipedia - AvalokiteM-EM-^[vara -- Buddhist bodhisattva embodying the compassion of all buddhas
Wikipedia - Charter for Compassion
Wikipedia - Collapse of compassion
Wikipedia - Compassion & Choices -- Nonprofit organization
Wikipedia - Compassionate conservatism
Wikipedia - Compassion > Choices
Wikipedia - Compassion fatigue -- Condition characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion
Wikipedia - Compassion focused therapy
Wikipedia - Compassion-focused therapy
Wikipedia - Compassion in Action
Wikipedia - Compassion -- Moved or motivated to help others
Wikipedia - Great Stupa of Universal Compassion -- Buddhist monument under construction near Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Wikipedia - Movement for Compassionate Living
Wikipedia - Universal Compassion
Wikipedia - Without Compassion -- 1994 film
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23150503-practical-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23150993-circles-of-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23217053-the-moon-has-no-compassion-for-the-dead-and-other-poems
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23326565-radical-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2413704.A_Woman_of_Compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25029113-compassion-and-emptiness-in-early-buddhist-meditation
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25293506-the-moon-has-no-compassion-for-the-dead-and-other-poems
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/253909.The_Heart_of_Compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25846365-walking-the-path-of-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26780233-compassion-the-only-way-to-peace
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28687043-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28862372-the-science-of-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29587930-the-compassionate-chick-s-guide-to-diy-beauty
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3113306-compassionate-carnivore
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31747190-compassionate-soldier
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33776111-the-self-compassion-workbook-for-teens
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33892906-awakening-compassion-at-work
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/361874.Cultivating_A_Compassionate_Heart
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36286717-the-oxford-handbook-of-compassion-science
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36408711-the-mindful-self-compassion-workbook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/402267.Compassionate_Child_Rearing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/403033.Creating_a_Life_of_Meaning_and_Compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40630102-the-science-of-mindfulness-and-self-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41545238-teaching-the-mindful-self-compassion-program
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43973579-the-yin-and-yang-of-self-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44098343-mr-darcy-s-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44143556-i-fill-my-cup-a-journal-for-compassionate-helpers
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44178155-self-compassion-the-mindful-self-compassion-workbook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44178156-self-compassion-headspace-guide-to-meditation-and-mindfulness-medita
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45012353-compassion-fountain
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45168555-la-self-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5501343-strength-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6455182-the-compassionate-instinct
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6518809-compassion-and-meditation
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6577970-the-compassionate-life
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71732.Raising_Children_Compassionately
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7885668-field-of-compassion
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/847407.The_Compassionate_Cook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/965015.River_Of_Compassion
http://it.religion.wikia.com/wiki/Compassione_(Buddhismo)
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Dharma_is_the_son_of_compassion
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Mahayana#Compassion
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Where_is_your_compassion
Integral World - My Response to Erdmann, Compassionate Philosophy is Needed, Elliot Benjamin
Integral World - Reply to to Benjamin, Clarity and Compassion Can Go Together, Martin Erdmann
Integral World - Busting Boomeritis and the Role of Compassion, Karin Swann
How to Have More Compassionate Conversations
Integral Justice Warrior: Compassionate Conversations
Compassionate Exchange
An Inside Look at the Life and Work of the Dalai Lama
Psychology Wiki - Compassion
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CompassionateCritic
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CondescendingCompassion
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Theatre/LoveValourCompassion
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tropers/CompassionateSadist
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Compassion
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Compassionate
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Paris_(75017)_Notre-Dame-de-Compassion_Chapelle_royale_Saint-Ferdinand_Vitrail_35.JPG
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Spirit_of_Compassion.jpg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1825-1905)_-_Compassion_(1897).jpg
The Equalizer (1985 - 1989) - Robert McCall is "The Equalizer", a private detective with a lot of contacts who is available for hire if you have a problem that you don't know how to solve. His no-nonsense attitude, compassion, and experience with dealing with a wide variety of situations makes him a powerful and useful detective...
Hermans Head (1991 - 1994) - Herman Brooks is an aspiring writer working as a fact-checker at a publisher. While dealing with life in the big city, his inner thoughts are played out by four characters representing his intellect, fear, compassion, and lust. His "outer world" consists of a trivia-trove boss, two female co-workers...
Solo(1996) - Solo is an android designed as a military killing machine. He is sent to Central America by General Haynes to battle guerrilla insurgents, but a flaw develops in his programming and he develops a conscience and compassion. His developers try to take him back for deprogramming, but he flees to the ju...
Go Toward the Light(1988) - Compassionate true story about the struggle of a family who must cope with the knowledge that their 8-year-old hemophiliac son has contracted the AIDS virus. Richard Thomas, Linda Hamilton, Piper Laurie, and Ned Beatty star. 93 min.
Anne Frank: The Whole Story(2001) - When the war began, she was only a little girl. When it ended, she was the voice of a generation... A compassionate and sensitive televisual portrait of the Holocaust's greatest diarist.
Prophecy(1979) - This schlock horror classic from the 1970s is a product of the career ebb experienced by director John Frankenheimer. Robert Foxworth stars as Dr. Robert Verne, an inner-city physician renowned for his compassion and fairness. So he's asked by the EPA to mediate a dispute between Native American tri...
https://myanimelist.net/manga/45191/Ties_of_Compassion
A Christmas Carol (1984) ::: 7.8/10 -- PG | 1h 40min | Drama, Family, Fantasy | TV Movie 17 December 1984 -- An old bitter miser who rationalizes his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three spirits visit him on Christmas Eve. Director: Clive Donner Writers: Charles Dickens (novel), Roger O. Hirson (screenplay) Stars:
A Christmas Carol (1999) ::: 7.4/10 -- PG | 1h 35min | Drama, Fantasy | TV Movie 5 December 1999 -- An old bitter miser who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve. Director: David Hugh Jones (as David Jones) Writers: Peter Barnes (written for television by), Charles Dickens (novel)
A Christmas Carol (1999) ::: 7.4/10 -- PG | 1h 35min | Drama, Fantasy | TV Movie 5 December 1999 -- An old bitter miser who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.
Gimme Shelter (2013) ::: 6.5/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 41min | Drama | 29 October 2014 (France) -- A pregnant teenager flees her abusive mother in search of her father, only to be rejected by her stepmother and forced to survive on the streets until a compassionate stranger offers a hopeful alternative. Director: Ron Krauss Writer:
Jesus' Son (1999) ::: 6.9/10 -- R | 1h 47min | Drama | 7 July 2000 (USA) -- A young man turns from drug addiction and petty crime to a life redeemed by a discovery of compassion. Director: Alison Maclean
Jesus' Son (1999) ::: 6.9/10 -- R | 1h 47min | Drama | 7 July 2000 (USA) -- A young man turns from drug addiction and petty crime to a life redeemed by a discovery of compassion. Director: Alison Maclean Writers: Denis Johnson (book), Elizabeth Cuthrell (screenplay) | 2 more credits Stars:
Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) ::: 7.0/10 -- R | 1h 48min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 16 May 1997 (USA) -- Gregory invites seven friends to spend the summer at his large, secluded 19th-century home in upstate New York. The seven are: Bobby, Gregory's "significant other," who is blind but who ... S Director: Joe Mantello Writers:
Marriage Story (2019) ::: 7.9/10 -- R | 2h 17min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 6 December 2019 (USA) -- Noah Baumbach's incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together. Director: Noah Baumbach Writer: Noah Baumbach
Nicholas Nickleby (2002) ::: 7.1/10 -- PG | 2h 12min | Adventure, Drama, Romance | 27 June 2003 (UK) -- A young, compassionate man struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his cold-heartedly grasping uncle. Director: Douglas McGrath Writers: Charles Dickens (novel), Douglas McGrath (screenplay)
Run Hide Fight (2020) ::: 6.4/10 -- 1h 49min | Action, Thriller | 14 January 2021 (Canada) -- 17-year-old Zoe Hull uses her wits, survival skills, and compassion to fight for her life, and those of her fellow classmates, against a group of live-streaming school shooters. Director: Kyle Rankin Writer:
The Cider House Rules (1999) ::: 7.4/10 -- PG-13 | 2h 6min | Drama, Romance | 7 January 2000 (USA) -- A compassionate young man, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor there, decides to leave to see the world. Director: Lasse Hallstrm Writers: John Irving (novel), John Irving (screenplay)
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Compassionate_Healer
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Compassion
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Hanu's_Compassion
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ladies_of_Compassion
https://greenlantern.fandom.com/wiki/Compassion
https://guildopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Compassionate_Blue_Sky
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Compassion
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Acts_of_Compassion
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Compassion
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Compassion
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Compassionate
Clannad Movie -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- Visual novel -- Drama Romance Fantasy School -- Clannad Movie Clannad Movie -- Tomoya Okazaki is a cynical delinquent who lacks ambition as he apathetically labors through high school. During his childhood, a tragedy had caused his father to seek solace in alcoholism and neglect his son. Yet, meaningful human interaction can be a benediction, as Tomoya learns when he meets the enigmatic Nagisa Furukawa. The odd girl offers a gesture of friendship to Tomoya, but he rejects the request, dismissing it as a trivial incident. However, as he soon realizes that he is encountering Nagisa more and more often during school, Tomoya drops his discompassions and befriends the girl. -- -- When he learns that Nagisa's dream is to revive the Drama Club, Tomoya decides to shed his detachment from the ordinary pleasures of life and dedicate himself to helping his new friend achieve her ambition. But what starts as a simple friendship may progress into something far more deep, intimate, and life-changing. As the pair face various hardships and afflictions, Tomoya and Nagisa gradually come to terms with the challenges of life. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- Movie - Sep 15, 2007 -- 146,934 7.24
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka III OVA -- -- J.C.Staff -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Adventure Comedy Romance Ecchi Fantasy -- Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka III OVA Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka III OVA -- (No synopsis yet.) -- OVA - Apr 28, 2021 -- 31,040 N/A -- -- Nil Admirari no Tenbin -- -- Zero-G -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Harem Historical Romance Fantasy Josei -- Nil Admirari no Tenbin Nil Admirari no Tenbin -- The Taishou era didn't end in 15 years, but went on for another 25. In order to protect her waning family, a girl resolves to marry a man she doesn't even know the name of. However, just before the marriage was to take place, the girl's younger brother mysteriously committed suicide by self-immolation and was found holding an old book in his hands. Appearing before the bewildered young girl was the "Imperial Library Intelligence Asset Management Bureau," more commonly referred to as "Fukurou." According to these men, there exists "Maremono," which are books that greatly affect their readers. On top of that, ever since the incident involving the girl's younger brother, she unwittingly gains the ability to see "Auras" (the sentiments of the Maremono which manifest as bright lights and are usually invisible to humans). It was as though fate were trying to drag the young girl in its flames. And then, even though apprehensive, the girl chooses to venture outside her bird cage. Jealousy, hatred, scorn, compassion, and love. What awaited the girl was the darkness of betrayal that had already begun to bewitchingly inlay the imperial capital. Toyed by and swayed within that darkness, will the young girl finally reach the truth after her struggles, or...? -- -- (Source: MAL News) -- 30,986 6.61
Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Historical Drama Romance Seinen -- Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma -- Emma has been a maid for most of her life. Working for a retired governess—the strict but compassionate Kelly Stownar—Emma has grown to love her work and has long since accepted her place in society. Beautiful, hardworking, and exceptionally kind, Emma has captured the hearts of many of London's working men—but their feelings always remain unrequited. Emma is waiting for love, and she finds it in the most unlikely of places. -- -- William is the eldest son of the wealthy Jones household—a family that has only recently been accepted into the gentry, securing their position in high society. He is also the former ward of Mrs. Stownar, and on his first visit in years, he falls madly in love with her maid. His earnest attempts to win her affection, coupled with his good nature and warm personality, have captured Emma's heart. -- -- But the polite society of 19th century England does not take kindly to the rejection of tradition. As a result, Emma and William's relationship could not face more opposition. In a world where the class lines are as strongly defended as the borders of nations, does their love have the strength to survive? -- -- -- Licensor: -- Nozomi Entertainment -- 44,536 7.66
Inuyashiki -- -- MAPPA -- 11 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Psychological Sci-Fi Seinen -- Inuyashiki Inuyashiki -- Ichirou Inuyashiki is a 58-year-old family man who is going through a difficult time in his life. Though his frequent back problems are painful, nothing hurts quite as much as the indifference and distaste that his wife and children have for him. Despite this, Ichirou still manages to find solace in Hanako, an abandoned Shiba Inu that he adopts into his home. However, his life takes a turn for the worse when a follow-up physical examination reveals that Ichirou has stomach cancer and only three months to live; though he tries to be strong, his family's disinterest causes an emotional breakdown. Running off into a nearby field, Ichirou embraces his dog and weeps—until he notices a strange figure standing before him. -- -- Suddenly, a bright light appears and Ichirou is enveloped by smoke and dust. When he comes to, he discovers something is amiss—he has been reborn as a mechanized weapon wearing the skin of his former self. Though initially shocked, the compassionate Ichirou immediately uses his newfound powers to save a life, an act of kindness that fills him with happiness and newfound hope. -- -- However, the origins of these strange powers remain unclear. Who was the mysterious figure at the site of the explosion, and are they as kind as Ichirou when it comes to using this dangerous gift? -- -- 443,053 7.69
Makai Senki Disgaea -- -- OLM -- 12 eps -- Game -- Action Comedy Demons Fantasy Magic -- Makai Senki Disgaea Makai Senki Disgaea -- An angel arrives in Hell! A demon lord is awakened! There are penguins everywhere! What’s going on here? -- -- Angel assassin-in-training Flonne is on a quest to destroy the demon Overlord. Instead of accomplishing her mission, the ditzy Flonne manages to wake Laharl, the demon lord and heir to the throne, from his two year slumber. Now the pair, along with Laharl’s not-so-faithful vassal Etna and her army of explosive souls in penguin costumes, must restore order to the crumbling Netherworld. -- -- Based on the events of the game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Makai Senki Disgaea follows Laharl’s journey to squash the demon rebellion, reclaim the throne, and destroy anyone who stands in his path. Or, you know, let them join him on his travels if they really want. Just remember: Laharl is a demon lord. There’s no way he’ll ever show kindness, compassion, or love... right? -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Geneon Entertainment USA -- TV - Apr 5, 2006 -- 39,528 6.75
Noblesse: Pamyeol-ui Sijak -- -- Studio Animal -- 1 ep -- Web manga -- Action Adventure Supernatural -- Noblesse: Pamyeol-ui Sijak Noblesse: Pamyeol-ui Sijak -- Humans live their lives driven by ambition and greed, prepared to kill their own kind with no hesitation. Since the beginning of humanity, wars have raged on throughout the human world, with the other races watching on. -- -- A victim of one war and orphaned, Ashleen was saved by the lord of the werewolves, Muzaka. Muzaka had abandoned his duties as lord and left the werewolf clan, travelling with Ashleen to secure her happiness. However, during his absence, members of Muzaka's species began orchestrating further wars on humans, disgusted by Muzaka's compassion. A secret and powerful organization established itself in the human realm, intending to manipulate Muzaka. When he is misinformed by the Union, Muzaka starts directing his rage toward the humans. Can his only friend, Cadis Etrama Di Raizel, the Noblesse, stop Muzuka's madness? -- -- Set 820 years before the events of Noblesse, Noblesse: Pamyeol-ui Sija depicts the tragic history of Muzaka, and how it led to the Noblesse's indefinite slumber. -- -- OVA - Dec 4, 2015 -- 43,210 7.29
Shin Tenchi Muyou! -- -- AIC -- 26 eps -- Original -- Comedy Harem Romance Sci-Fi Shounen -- Shin Tenchi Muyou! Shin Tenchi Muyou! -- Tenchi Masaki heads out to tackle the big world, setting off to school in Tokyo! But not everyone is happy to hear he is moving away, as his female friends sulk and complain at the prospect of him being alone. However, Tenchi is not by himself for very long, as he soon meets a kind and compassionate girl named Sakuya Kumashiro who helps him get used to life in Tokyo. -- -- The two become close friends, but Sakuya wants more than just that, so she proclaims her love for Tenchi. This confession comes as a shock not only to Tenchi, but also the girls back home. In response, the girls decide to step up their game, and they immediately flock to Tokyo to take Tenchi for themselves. -- -- With the girls competing for his love, Tenchi must decide once and for all who the most important woman in his life is. However, he is going to have a hard time deciding, as strange events start happening that drive Tenchi further apart from his friends. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Geneon Entertainment USA -- 31,692 6.87
So Ra No Wo To -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 12 eps -- Original -- Military Sci-Fi Music Slice of Life -- So Ra No Wo To So Ra No Wo To -- On the outskirts of the country of Helvetia rests the tranquil town of Seize. Upon its cobbled streets, citizens go about their daily lives, undisturbed by the increasingly tense military relations between Helvetia and the neighboring Roman Empire. -- -- It is under these circumstances that the 1121st platoon of the Helvetian army, stationed at the Clocktower Fortress in Seize, receives a new recruit in the young and spirited Kanata Sorami. Having joined the military to fulfill her dream of learning to play the bugle, she excitedly accepts the tutelage of the Sergeant Major, Rio Kazumiya, who happens to be a skilled trumpeter. Working alongside them are the aloof mechanic, Noël Kannagi, the feisty gunner, Kureha Suminoya, and the compassionate Captain Felicia Heideman; together, they experience the beauty of life in Seize and the lasting joy of a community that has persevered in spite of the crumbling world around them. -- -- 138,496 7.55
So Ra No Wo To -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 12 eps -- Original -- Military Sci-Fi Music Slice of Life -- So Ra No Wo To So Ra No Wo To -- On the outskirts of the country of Helvetia rests the tranquil town of Seize. Upon its cobbled streets, citizens go about their daily lives, undisturbed by the increasingly tense military relations between Helvetia and the neighboring Roman Empire. -- -- It is under these circumstances that the 1121st platoon of the Helvetian army, stationed at the Clocktower Fortress in Seize, receives a new recruit in the young and spirited Kanata Sorami. Having joined the military to fulfill her dream of learning to play the bugle, she excitedly accepts the tutelage of the Sergeant Major, Rio Kazumiya, who happens to be a skilled trumpeter. Working alongside them are the aloof mechanic, Noël Kannagi, the feisty gunner, Kureha Suminoya, and the compassionate Captain Felicia Heideman; together, they experience the beauty of life in Seize and the lasting joy of a community that has persevered in spite of the crumbling world around them. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Nozomi Entertainment -- 138,496 7.55
Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai. -- -- Maho Film -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Fantasy Slice of Life -- Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai. Uchi no Ko no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai. -- Eighteen-year-old Dale Reki is a skilled, kind, and respected traveller, acknowledged as one of the leading adventurers in the city of Kreuz. One day while on the hunt for magical beasts, he comes across a sweet devil girl named Latina. She is alone, dressed in rags, and bears the devils' symbol of a criminal: a broken horn. Concerned for her wellbeing, Dale decides to ensure Latina's safety by bringing her to his home, eventually leading to him adopting her. -- -- Latina is sweet, innocent and compassionate, charming Dale beyond his expectations. He begins to enjoy the life of parenthood— experiencing the trials that come with raising a child and coping with the heartache he feels whenever his busy lifestyle as an adventurer parts him from her. -- -- Although work and life as a new parent become reassuring constants for Dale, the mysteries surrounding the girl remain. Why was Latina alone in the forest, and why does she harbor the symbol of a criminal? At the same time, Latina also begins to learn about the world and herself as she adjusts to her new life with Dale. -- -- 138,657 7.05
Yami wo Mitsumeru Hane -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Dementia -- Yami wo Mitsumeru Hane Yami wo Mitsumeru Hane -- A story set in a world before ours. A world in chaos where forces of good and evil fight and mingle. By doing so, it creates the chance to give birth to the new world. -- -- A couple of winged beings make love and fly away. They bear a child in an egg, and when the child opens its eyes they are immediately destroyed, one consumed by fire and the other by water. -- -- Mythical, elemental and mysterious, the world created by Tsuji is dangerous, menacing and suffuse with signs of apocalypse, but somehow simultaneously tender and compassionate. A Feather Stare at the Dark captures simple gestures and primal feelings and amplifies them, realising the non-verbal and non-literal with remarkable grace. -- Movie - ??? ??, 2003 -- 1,043 5.08
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe -- -- Ajia-Do -- 2 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Slice of Life Seinen -- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe -- In the near-future Japan, global warming has brought the large city Yokohama underwater, and only the hills remain above the ocean surface. What used to be one of the largest cities in Japan now feels like a small town. Basically, the existence of the island country itself has been threatened. However, there is no feeling of desperation, devastation, nor hopelessness. People are enjoying laid-back lives, and they seem to appreciate each other's company, enjoying the quiet and peaceful time together. -- -- This is especially so with Alpha, a carefree young woman who runs a cafe, named Cafe Alpha. She enjoys her life immersing herself in the beautiful nature all around her. There is nothing more precious to her than spending quality time with her kind friends. Oh, the fulfillment and the joy she finds in life... it all indicates her to be a compassionate human being, but she is not quite a human. She is actually a type A7M2 robot. -- -- One day, upon hearing a radio forecast warning an approaching typhoon, her old friend who lives close by invites her to the gas station he runs, worried that her old cafe may not withstand the typhoon. Indeed, the passing of typhoon leaves Alpha with her cafe severely damaged. That's when she decides to go on a journey to raise money to rebuild her cafe, and also to see the outside world away from her friends and the comfort of a peaceful life. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- OVA - Dec 18, 2002 -- 15,050 7.15
Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho -- -- White Fox -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Magic Fantasy -- Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho -- In a world of constant war between humans and witches, there exist the "beastfallen"—cursed humans born with the appearance and strength of an animal. Their physical prowess and bestial nature cause them to be feared and shunned by both humans and witches. As a result, many beastfallen become sellswords, making their living through hunting witches. -- -- Despite the enmity between the races, a lighthearted witch named Zero enlists a beastfallen whom she refers to as "Mercenary" to act as her protector. He travels with Zero and Albus, a young magician, on their search for the Grimoire of Zero: a powerful spell book that could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. During their journey, his inner kindness is revealed as he starts to show compassion and sympathy towards humans and witches alike, and the unlikely companions grow together. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 206,628 7.09
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Compassion_International
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Andrew (Society of the Divine Compassion)
Charter for Compassion
Collapse of compassion
Compassion
Compassion & Choices
Compassion and Responsibility for Animals
CompassionArt
Compassionate Action for Animals
Compassionate conservatism
Compassionate release
Compassionate Sex
Compassion (disambiguation)
Compassion fatigue
Compassion fatigue in journalism
Compassion flight
Compassion-focused therapy
Compassion (Forest Swords album)
Compassion International
Compassion in World Farming
Day of Compassion
Ensemble Scolaire Jean-Baptiste de La Salle - Notre-Dame de la Compassion
Etablissement Notre-Dame-de-la-Compassion
Great Stupa of Universal Compassion
Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Michigan Compassionate Care Initiative
Showroom of Compassion
Sisters of the Divine Compassion
Temple of Great Compassion
The Compassionate Friends
The Solitude of Compassion
Without Compassion
convenience portal:
recent: Section Maps - index table - favoritesSavitri --Savitri extended toc Savitri Section Map --1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
authors -- Crowley - Peterson - Borges - Wilber - Teresa -Aurobindo -Ramakrishna - Maharshi -Mother
places -- Garden - Inf. Art Gallery - Inf. Building - Inf. Library - Labyrinth - Library - School -Temple - Tower - Tower of MEM
powers -- Aspiration - Beauty - Concentration - Effort - Faith - Force - Grace - inspiration -Presence - Purity - Sincerity - surrender
difficulties -- cowardice - depres. - distract. - distress - dryness - evil - fear - forget - habits - impulse - incapacity - irritation - lost - mistakes - obscur. - problem - resist - sadness - self-deception - shame - sin - suffering
practices -- Lucid Dreaming - meditation - project - programming - Prayer - read Savitri - studysubjects -- CS - Cybernetics - Game Dev - Integral Theory - Integral Yoga - Kabbalah - Language - Philosophy - Poetry - Zen
6.01 books -- KC - ABA - Null -Savitri - SA O TAOC -SICP - The Gospel of SRK - TIC - The Library of Babel -TLD -TSOY - TTYODAS - TSZ - WOTM II
8 unsorted / add here -- Always - Everyday - Verbs