UnMind 30. Four Immeasurables Quartet 2: Compassion

SUBSCRIBE TO UNMIND:

RSS FEED | APPLE PODCASTS | GOOGLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY

What is compassion?
It’s not what you think it is —
our kind Universe

The second of the Four Immeasurables of Buddhism:

Metta (loving kindness)
Karuna (compassion)
Mudita (sympathetic joy or empathy)
Upekkha (equanimity)

Compassion is a term that is frequently bruited-about in Buddhism, the ubiquity of which extends to the customary reference to buddha-dharma as “the compassionate teaching.” Which begs the question, Compassionate to whom?

When we look at the teachings of Buddha, beginning with the Four Noble Truths, they do not look all that compassionate at first blush, at least not in the conventional sense of coddling us poor babies, who, after all, are the ones who are suffering, here.

Right out of the blocks, with no warning emoji, comes the shock of the raw, blunt, undeniable existence of suffering — and the charge that we are to fully understand it. This does not seem very forgiving if you ask me, not of the intensely personal nature of our birth, aging, sickness and death, nor of our personal comfort level in confronting it. No rose-colored glasses here. Take it or leave it.

The origin of suffering — consisting mainly in our own desires, exacerbated by our own attachments to them, which we are to fully abandon — is not very user-friendly, either. Since they — beginningless greed, anger and delusion, to name a few — are inborn — indeed, according to the Repentance verse, arising naturally from body, mouth and mind — it does not seem fair that we bear all the burden for abandoning them. Whose bright idea was this, anyway? We are not God, after all.

The third reality-check — that there can be a cessation of suffering, but wait, there’s more: its realization is entirely dependent upon each individual’s personal efforts — is equally cringe-worthy. Is there no interlocutor, no savior to whom we can turn for succor and salvation? At least a support group we can join?

Lastly, that we must follow some righteous, prescribed Noble Eightfold Path, every day — in order to realize this cessation of suffering — seems insufferable. Can’t we just be done with it and move on?

This is obviously a set of inconvenient truths, intended to place the onus for acting on them directly on us. So what, exactly, makes them so noble?

Well, you could say they are ennobling, in that they remind us of the true meaning of compassion, “suffer with,” implying that we are all in the same boat, ultimately. Our woes are shared with all other sentient beings, who are also subject to these truths, perhaps with the exception of the Eightfold Path, which is more within the human social realm of practice, though by extension, all sentient beings are on the Path, whether they know it or not. You cannot accuse chickens, cats, dogs and cows of talking the talk but not walking the walk. Only humans can manage that.

Of course, along with his description of unvarnished reality, Buddha offers certain prescriptions for practice, i.e. what to do about it. The Three Treasures may be interpreted as the highest values in Zen, but also as the three legs of its practice stool: Buddha as right meditation; Dharma as right understanding; and Sangha as right action. Or you may want to substitute the tripartite model of right discipline, wisdom, and conduct, respectively.

The implication that we can get this right doesn’t necessarily mean that we can get it wrong. The notion of compassion suggests that we have the right to be wrong. Fall down seven times get up eight, thank you Dogen. We have to allow ourselves to fail, in order to succeed. Master Dogen makes the point — no pun — that the arrow hitting the bullseye depends upon the preceding 100 misses. Also, place your oxygen mask on before attempting to help others. Okay, Dogen did not say that.

We speak of “practicing compassion,” which doesn’t make sense when expressed as “practicing suffering with others.” We are already suffering with others, so practicing what already is does not seem possible. What we can practice is ways of helping others. Which implies that what we come up with may not work. It largely depends upon them. It does not help to suffer fools gladly. But that does not mean that we should not even try.

So karuna may mean something more like practicing loving kindness, engaging in selfless behaviors of a bodhisattva, without making a big deal of it. In spite of our obvious limitations, doing what we can to help others, but without any attachment to outcomes. Suffering the consequences of failed attempts with equanimity, and practicing the kind of patience that recognizes that this may not end well.

Taking up the bodhisattva path of saving all beings begs the question, “From what?” Save them from their own ignorance? Even Buddha could not do that. Also, how many are there? How long is it going to take? And where do I begin? Living by vow, the bodhisattva vow, means embracing the possibility of eternal rebirth. The possibility, not a belief in inerrancy, nor even the probability. Buddha’s teachings are not arguments.

Taking the long view of Buddhism means that issues arising in this lifetime may not be resolved in this lifetime. But this is not a shrug of the shoulders, just a real-world platform for mounting our well-intentioned actions.

If there is such a thing as compassion, it must already exist. It cannot be dependent upon — let alone created by — our actions. Compassion is not a karmic consequence. If we are to “practice” it, we have to already have it. Having compassion is not a trait that we can develop, but a fact. We already have compassion, in the sense that the universe has suffered us to be born. We are in receipt of all the compassion that there is to be had. We did not create this mess, but we are responsible for what we do with the opportunity. Our actions can add to the chaos, or perhaps mitigate some of the stress.

The kind of compassion we can conceive of practicing must be balanced with wisdom, which is also not something we can actually practice. It is the same slippery slope to imagine that we can acquire either. Wisdom is said to be the natural merging of right view and right thought, from the Noble Path. This merging cannot be said to be completely dependent upon the practice of right meditation, but it is less likely to come about without it.

Sitting in upright seated meditation, zazen, is the form of expressing our aspiration to compassionate action, the fertile training ground for realization to be made manifest. The theory is that if it becomes clear enough that all beings, sentient as well as insentient, are instantiations of compassion, it will be possible to join them. Just as we are naturally manifesting the truth that we cannot speak, if we settle into the real world of compassion, it will naturally emanate from our most mundane activities.

We will find ourselves rowing the “boat of compassion” (shout out to Master Luopo) gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily — life is but a dream.