How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

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RonBucker
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How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

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How exactly should I show compassion to other people? I should compassion to people in words, or it can be material help? Should I sympathize with people only when they feel sad and lonely, or even when they feel happy? How about animals, how to sympathize with them? They, like us, feel emotions, how I should show compassion to them?
narhwal90
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

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One method is to choose your own conduct according to the Precepts.
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Budai
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by Budai »

I would say with everything that they are, if the Path is followed correctly. The purpose of Buddhism is to generate Compassion, Bodhicitta, and Maitri towards others. Imagine yourself what an Awakened Buddhist’s, Buddha Mind is. What Compassion and Radiance do you see there?

Om Mani Padme Hum.
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

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RonBucker wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:40 pm How exactly should I show compassion to other people? I should compassion to people in words, or it can be material help? Should I sympathize with people only when they feel sad and lonely, or even when they feel happy? How about animals, how to sympathize with them? They, like us, feel emotions, how I should show compassion to them?
One really short answer is to follow the Golden Rule - to treat others as you would like to be treated.
Digging a little deeper, it leads to ideas like seeing others as yourself, or to erasing boundaries between your "self" (which we know to be somewhat illusory) and "others".

Or you can look up the Brahmaviharas, if you haven't already.

:namaste:
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RonBucker
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

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Könchok Chödrak wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 1:11 am I would say with everything that they are, if the Path is followed correctly. The purpose of Buddhism is to generate Compassion, Bodhicitta, and Maitri towards others. Imagine yourself what an Awakened Buddhist’s, Buddha Mind is. What Compassion and Radiance do you see there?

Om Mani Padme Hum.
"Imagine yourself what an Awakened Buddhist’s, Buddha Mind is. What Compassion and Radiance do you see there?"

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to imagine myself as an awakened Buddhist.
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

RonBucker wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:40 pm How exactly should I show compassion to other people? I should compassion to people in words, or it can be material help? Should I sympathize with people only when they feel sad and lonely, or even when they feel happy? How about animals, how to sympathize with them? They, like us, feel emotions, how I should show compassion to them?
Kindness, patience, generosity.
It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the minds of other beings or whether they are human or not.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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Queequeg
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by Queequeg »

Garfield renders karuna as "care". I like that sense of intimacy. The word compassion to me has a bit of a abstracted feeling - something you feel for someone suffering you see on the news half a world away, or the homeless person you pass some coins to and quickly move away from. I imagine Avalokitesvara making eye contact, really seeing the suffering being before her, and then taking action to remove that suffering. I think its a refined sense of care, like a mother for her child, though refined without the ego, filled with karuna (love), mudita (shared joy) and upecka (equanimity), which together make up the four Brahma Viharas.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
RonBucker
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

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PadmaVonSamba wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 2:42 pm
RonBucker wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:40 pm How exactly should I show compassion to other people? I should compassion to people in words, or it can be material help? Should I sympathize with people only when they feel sad and lonely, or even when they feel happy? How about animals, how to sympathize with them? They, like us, feel emotions, how I should show compassion to them?
Kindness, patience, generosity.
It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the minds of other beings or whether they are human or not.
Thank you. So it doesn't matter if other people feel happy or upset, compassion should be constant?
Genjo Conan
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by Genjo Conan »

Sympathetic joy is another brahmavihara, distinct from compassion.

I have been taught to (try to) show compassion for all beings, some of whose emotions don't map neatly onto ours. For example, my family keeps some laying hens. Chickens have a pretty limited emotional palette: content, hungry, sleepy, alarmed, bitchy... I'm not sure they feel "happy" or "upset" in the same way humans do. At least, if they do, I can't tell. I think it's still right to show them compassion.
Malcolm
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by Malcolm »

RonBucker wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:22 pm
PadmaVonSamba wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 2:42 pm
RonBucker wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:40 pm How exactly should I show compassion to other people? I should compassion to people in words, or it can be material help? Should I sympathize with people only when they feel sad and lonely, or even when they feel happy? How about animals, how to sympathize with them? They, like us, feel emotions, how I should show compassion to them?
Kindness, patience, generosity.
It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the minds of other beings or whether they are human or not.
Thank you. So it doesn't matter if other people feel happy or upset, compassion should be constant?
Compassion is, simply put, the wish that others be free from suffering. That's it.
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

RonBucker wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:22 pm
PadmaVonSamba wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 2:42 pm
RonBucker wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:40 pm How exactly should I show compassion to other people? I should compassion to people in words, or it can be material help? Should I sympathize with people only when they feel sad and lonely, or even when they feel happy? How about animals, how to sympathize with them? They, like us, feel emotions, how I should show compassion to them?
Kindness, patience, generosity.
It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the minds of other beings or whether they are human or not.
Thank you. So it doesn't matter if other people feel happy or upset, compassion should be constant?
Let’s say, continuous, like an ever-pouring fountain.

The thing about happiness is (and happiness is great, by the way) is that almost all happiness that beings experience is pinned to something temporary ( because everything is made of composite parts and they are always changing).

When the conditions change, the source or cause of happiness changes and the result changes. The ice cream cone on a hot day starts out being wonderful but then it starts to melt and it runs down your arm and makes your hand all sticky instead.


This is what Buddhism means by the nature of everything bring ‘suffering’ ( dukkha is the Sanskrit word. It means dissatisfaction or stress).
So, yes, even people experiencing great joy need our compassion.
On the other hand, out basic awareness is always there. It is a constant. So, buddhism works with inwardly, awareness, with one’s own mind, rather than with externals, as the source of happiness.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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Budai
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Re: How do modern Buddhist schools explain compassion?

Post by Budai »

RonBucker wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 9:05 am
Könchok Chödrak wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 1:11 am I would say with everything that they are, if the Path is followed correctly. The purpose of Buddhism is to generate Compassion, Bodhicitta, and Maitri towards others. Imagine yourself what an Awakened Buddhist’s, Buddha Mind is. What Compassion and Radiance do you see there?

Om Mani Padme Hum.
"Imagine yourself what an Awakened Buddhist’s, Buddha Mind is. What Compassion and Radiance do you see there?"

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to imagine myself as an awakened Buddhist.
Every time you feel like you are receiving something from the Buddha, such as in a Sutra, or in a Teaching from someone you know to be a Realized Buddhist Teacher, you can always think of them as drawing their wisdom and Compassion from a Realized Buddha Mind. When you are receiving the Teachings from them, such as in reading the Buddha’s words in a Sutra, or seeing a Realized Teacher, you can sense some level of reflection of their Compassion in you. That is the type of Compassion you should seek. You already have much of it in you, as you have gone this far in Buddhism, and such Compassion is the driving force behind the Dharma. Om. Also do not forget your own Buddha-Nature, that is where your kindness and Maitri are generated, and have always been and will always be, so you can draw from there to show Compassion for others!

:anjali:
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