PureInsight | April 18, 2010
[PureInsight.org] In the past, I heard from some monks that compassion is a noble state of mind. It is also a manifestation of wisdom. However, one cannot truly understand and know the real meaning of compassion while pursuing prestige, recognition and material profit in the human world. One will be unable to treat people compassionately if one cannot change one’s postnatal notions of selfishness and egotism. After I truly stepped on the cultivation path, I gradually realized the meaning of compassion. A compassionate heart can achieve infinite energy, and a compassionate action can induce unlimited energy. Compassion has an enormous energy field. Therefore, compassion, in my view, is a kind of tremendous energy.
How much a person’s heart can hold determines how much energy he can obtain. If a person is always compassionate, then his heart can hold as much as a universe. He will have enormous energy that can break anything no matter how hard or strong it is. A cultivator who puts aside the concern for life and death will possess everlasting compassion in his heart. Using evil means to punish evil cannot achieve the effect of eliminating evil. A person who uses his kindness and compassion to move his enemy is a more powerful weapon than a knife or a sword. A cultivator full of compassion would handle the enemy’s attack with forgiveness and tolerance, react to people’s sarcasm and irony with a gentle smile, and treat others’ misunderstandings and mistakes with forgiveness. The enlightened being’s eternal mind-set can be described as follows: no worry and no impatience; tolerate abuse without explanation; be full of sympathy and pity toward sentient beings’ suffering; be calm without fear; and be peaceful with compassion.
Treating people with compassion does not require many words. A gentle smile can convey the kind thought of compassion to others. Compassion is a kind of real energy and it can melt the ice and snow that exists in people’s hearts. With regard to the conflicts among people or the separation among practitioners, no matter how hard people try to eliminate these obstacles with human means, they will never resolve them completely, simply because everyday human methods lack energy. But the power of compassion can resolve any conflict or bad predestined relationship, providing a solution for all the cause-and-effect circles. The light of compassion is far better than thousands of words because it makes the barriers caused by complaints and hatred disappear immediately and completely.
Loving sentient beings and bringing them happiness is what everyday people call being kind and merciful (ci in Chinese). Suffering the same as they do, having sympathy for sentient beings and getting rid of their pain is what everyday people call having pity and compassion (bei in Chinese). Offering salvation for others’ souls and not letting them become morally degenerate is the most profound compassion to all beings. Compassion is an altruistic state of completely forgetting oneself and considering only others. It is also the pure, kind thought that cultivators can obtain after removing the attachment of sentimentality. The light of compassion is so powerful that nothing can compare with it. It can dissolve all unkind matter in the human world and shed light into every corner of the universe.
Compassion can awaken the kind thoughts from deep within people’s hearts. Even when a cultivator is in a tribulation, compassion can become a powerful tool for him to eliminate the evil and offer human beings salvation who still have some kindness deep in their minds. Being filled with compassion and combining righteous actions with righteous thoughts leads to success wherever one goes.
Originally published in Chinese on Aug. 22, 2009
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2009/8/22/61217.html
