The Source of Compassion

by Venerable Sheng Yen

Love, kindness, and compassion are the very foundations of  Buddhism. From a general perspective, these virtues correspond to similar values held in many other religious traditions and spiritual practices. However, in Buddhism, genuine love and compassion arise from a penetrating insight into the true nature of our own existence, and are thereby more firmly grounded in a  practitioner's experience. We can understand this from two  perspectives.

First, from the perspective of interdependence, we see that no  phenomenon in the world, whether material or mental, exists independently of other phenomena. All beings and things are intimately related to one another. All of the activities engaged in by a seemingly independent entity are actually connected to, and  affected by, the activities of other entities in an intricate, infinite network. Everything that exists relies on innumerable, apparently external factors for their existence. Separation from this vast system of connections between all things would make existence  impossible. This is the profound reality of the nature of the world  we live in, and of course, it is also the reality of our own  individual lives as we live them. We are all connected to each other and to all living things, both sentient  and insentient.

On a human scale, we can see the truth of interdependence in the fact that no person can live entirely apart from society.  We depend on the assistance of other human beings for everything we have: from the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, and shelter, on up to the various forms of knowledge and skills that we acquire, and to the sense of  satisfaction and fulfilment we derive from our work. If we are fortunate to live in a relatively stable society, we should know  that much of the order and stability in our daily lives depends on  the structure of our society and on the work of other people in all sorts of public institutions. Similarly, global interrelationships and the mutual influences between different nations and cultures are often demonstrated in fields like economics,  political science, and cultural studies.

On a larger scale, countless other forms of life, both sentient and insentient, have either direct or indirect influences on our well-being. Also, from the viewpoint of the Buddhist belief in  innumerable past lives and future rebirths, each of us must  have, in countless previous lives, once lived in very close, direct connection to every other sentient being. All these "other  beings" have been our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, or our brothers. Each one, at one time or another, has been the cause of our happiness. With this sort of outlook, how can we not have sympathy and concern for all beings? We can only feel a deep sense of responsibility for and gratitude to them. Such gratitude in turn engenders genuine caring and love that goes  beyond an individual's love for his or her own family, race, or nation. This sort of love, extended to all beings everywhere, springs from the very knowledge that we are truly all one  family.

Second, from the perspective of equality of all conditions, all of these infinitely varied sorts of interrelations and connections  among sentient and insentient beings give rise to a multitude of individual traits and distinctions. However, since these seemingly unique and distinct entities are all contingent upon one another, not one of them can be said to exist autonomously  and permanently in and of itself. This is the nature of  emptiness. As we penetrate the depths of this conditionality through contemplation and the cultivation of genuine compassion, we can understand personally and directly that all  phenomena are empty of any inherent, separate nature of their own. This essence, or empty nature, of all things reveals their likeness, their profound similarity. With the realisation of this non-dual, equal nature of existence - which is the experience of wisdom - an unbounded desire to help and benefit all beings indiscriminately will then well up in our hearts.

In the Mahayana tradition, all sentient beings are identical in nature to Buddhas. All sentient beings have the potential to  realise full enlightenment and to manifest Buddhahood. A person walking the path to full Buddhahood must cultivate deep  compassion for all beings as if they were of one body with  himself or herself. This is not wishful thinking, but rather a sincere motivation that inspires our actions and compels us to live humanely in the world. When other sentient beings suffer  in the depths of confusion, it is as if we ourselves are suffering  too, but lack the wisdom to help either ourselves or others. This genuine concern and selfless love do not come from anyone or anything external, but rather from our insight into the nature of our own existence. Such insight is the ethical impulse of an enlightened being. It is both the motivation and the source of  inner strength of a bodhisattva.