Compassion is Essential

Chenrezig, The Buddha of Compassion

But before you awaken fully, it can be difficult.

There is a temptation, on the Buddhist path, that we should resist, to have contempt for those people who are not on the Buddhist path.

Again, the Buddha was right. The Buddhist path is the best path that we know of today. But this is no excuse for religious chauvinism. That would be tantamount to attachment to self at the level of doctrine. Ultimately, we have to learn how to follow the path, but you have to make your own decisions.

No one can cause anyone else to awaken. It is regrettable that most people apparently have no interest in awakening, but the most people on the Buddhist path can do about it is to show the world our compassion and wisdom and hope they appreciate our example.

That is what the Buddha did and it worked well for him, long before web sites or the internet or even telephones or telegraph or control over electricity. Millions of people around the world are Buddhist 2,600 years after he died.

Before you awaken, it can be hard to avoid frustration and despair over the state of the world. That is sort of what got the Buddha started on his quest to begin with.

But the end of his quest was his awakening, which caused him to stop feeling frustration and despair over the state of the world and to start teaching everyone he could find the way out that he had discovered.

This was an expression of the compassion that he felt for all sentient beings.

A useful modern analog is the Dalai Lama, who has as good a reason to despair as anyone, knowing as he does that many of his fellow Tibetans suffer under the Chinese invasion that he barely escaped himself.

But he clearly does not despair. The best explanation is that he is hooked into infinite consciousness and knows that the suffering of this world is impermanent and that anyone can choose to end it by following the Buddhist path.

If you’re not there yet, this is something to look forward to. Just keep up your consistent meditation practice and you will experience the bliss of realizing that all is impermanence and that despairing over events right now is a waste of energy.

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