Compassion

My very dear David,
Thank you very much for your kind letter, especially after ten years. Yes, that’s the benefit of pure love and joy—then definitely you will be kind to people and people will like you. That is very good.

Even people who are non-believers, who don’t know about karma and reincarnation, with a good heart it’s possible to create a lot of good karma in daily life. [This is possible] with a kind heart, but without a kind heart, then for non-believers there can be the biggest suffering, a very suffering life, and that’s why so many people commit suicide.

Thank you very much and I hope to see you soon. Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta day and night, and in every action you do.

With much love and prayers...

My dearest Anna,
How are you? I hope you are very well and everything is going well. Please continue Tara nature compassion for all sentient beings, even for your enemies. Having the greatest compassion for others is the quickest path to enlightenment, to liberate and enlighten all suffering beings quickly.

I hope you enjoy this dress. If it is too big, then wait for one or two years. How is your mum doing in these days? Has she been NAUGHTY? HA HA.

With big love and prayer...

My dear William,
It is very good to develop bodhicitta; for that we need to develop great compassion for sentient beings. For example, the perfect savior Maitreya Buddha generated bodhicitta, but Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened before Maitreya Buddha. Why is that? Because Shakyamuni Buddha generated great compassion. If we don’t generate compassion for each and every sentient being then we can’t achieve enlightenment, so we can’t liberate all sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and we can’t lead them to enlightenment. Therefore we must generate compassion for all sentient beings.

The reason why the founder Shakyamuni Buddha achieved enlightenment before Maitreya Buddha is because his bodhicitta was much stronger than Maitreya Buddha; therefore Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened first. Therefore we must have compassion and we must serve the sentient beings who are near us—animals and people.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

Since I had a stroke, I started to see a physiotherapist in Nepal. Suddenly my physiotherapist asked questions while doing physiotherapy, then at the very end he said, “not so many people in the world have a good heart.” Usually when we say that, it means being rough and tough to others.

Here is my answer to that question, my way of thinking about that. Usually it is regarded as less important in the world to have a good heart, instead we are very tough and uncaring, we cheat and hurt others, we tell lies and cause loss to others to get our own happiness, profits and so forth.

Even if other people don’t practice the good heart, still we should practice the good heart because we want happiness and we don’t want suffering. Even if other sentient beings don’t practice the good heart or they try to harm us, cause us loss, kill us and so forth, if we practice only the good heart from our own side—if we are kind and only benefit others with our body, speech and mind or at the very least we don’t cause harm to other sentient beings, then we will experience happiness.

As a result of one act of kindness, the good heart, we will experience the result, happiness, for thousands of lifetimes. From that one act of kindness, benefiting someone with our body, speech and mind or at least not harming another, the result is happiness. This is the result, even if we are looking only for our own happiness.

Generating the good heart helps all sentient beings, and at least not harming sentient beings purifies instantly our negative karmas and defilements created from beginningless rebirth and we collect unbelievable merit.

It is mentioned in the Bodhicaryavatara by the great holy being, the bodhisattva Shantideva, that even thinking about healing the headache of sentient beings has benefit. No question if we are actually working for the happiness of all sentient beings. There is no need to mention the benefit from that, the most unbelievable, unbelievable great benefit that has.

By having a good heart, and at the very least not harming others, it brings us happiness and by the way brings happiness to all sentient beings. If we harm someone, whether an animal or human being then we receive harm from others for many hundreds and thousands of lifetimes, and we can’t benefit others for that length of time. When we can’t benefit others, then the purpose of our life becomes meaningless, the purpose of our life is lost and we become totally lost, like being stuck in a quagmire of mud or in the ocean.

By generating compassion, the good heart and loving kindness to someone—to even one sentient being—it brings us to full enlightenment. We achieve not only liberation from samsara, but also full enlightenment, buddhahood—the complete cessation of all the defilements and sufferings and the complete realizations, omniscience.

So, the purpose of generating the good heart is incredible. We can gain all the realizations—whatever we want to achieve and we will have no obstacles, no blockage to benefit ALL SENTIENT BEINGS, to free them from all the sufferings and causes of suffering, and to be able to give them all the causes of temporal and ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara and full enlightenment.

It is common knowledge even in our own lives, that someone who has a good heart not only makes himself happy, but also makes his family and parents happy. He can even make someone who doesn’t know him happy, without even mentioning being able to bring ultimate happiness, enlightenment, to all sentient beings. Definitely that person can bring peace to this world. Living life with the good heart is the most important thing, and even animals become happy with us—even the birds and dogs, everybody.

We must care for this tiny sentient being, this ant, that has been our brother and sister in the past. All these ants have been human beings before, like us, then due to ignorance and not knowing the I, not knowing Dharma, from anger and attachment they are born in the lower realms as an ant and so forth, due to delusion and karma. We can’t imagine falling into the lower realms and being born as an ant after we die. It’s hard to imagine. By not understanding Dharma and not practicing Dharma, then due to delusion and karma we may be born as ant. Can you imagine?

We have been born like that numberless times, after being a human then we are reborn in the lower realms as an ant. We have been exactly the same as this ant or another insect so tiny that we can only see it through a microscope. We have been exactly the same as this tiny sentient being, or as a being with a body as huge as a mountain.

Since I had this stroke, paralysis, it gives an idea how it is possible. We can’t imagine being born like this, as an ant and so forth—we can’t imagine the suffering. We can’t even stand the human beings' problems and sufferings, so no way can we stand the sufferings of the animals, hell beings, pretas and so forth. This is why we must understand Dharma and practice the good heart now. It is very important.

Buddha taught 100 volumes called the Kangyur, and then the great scholars and many Indian pandits—the six ornaments and the two sublime disciples and so forth—gave commentaries on these texts. The commentaries are called the Tengyur and there are more than 200 volumes. Then there are also the great scholars and holy beings in Tibet and all their teachings.

Buddhism came from India, from Buddha, and then went to Tibet and Nepal. Buddhism became well established in Tibet, so many people practiced and served and so many became bodhisattvas and buddhas in Tibet. Tibet is unbelievable; there are so many holy places, also in Nepal. When Buddhism in India degenerated, then in Tibet it became like sunshine.

Buddhism is not made up or created by Tibetan lamas, without a lineage from ancient times. In the early days Tibetan Buddhism was referred to as Lamaism but it is totally wrong to call it that.

With Buddhism, the more we learn, the deeper our knowledge. Buddhism goes deeper and deeper, but with other religions that have just a little learning, we touch the bottom. Buddhism is like an ocean and the real understanding is when we achieve omniscient mind, when we become Buddha.

Therefore, generating the good heart to everybody—toward insects, hungry ghosts, hell beings, human beings, suras and asuras—is the very essence of life. The good heart is the real meaning of life and the most important education; it is the root of our happiness and the happiness of all sentient beings.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

Dear Jenny,
Hello! How are you? I hope everything is going well with you. The most important things in life for you, especially for others, who are numberless, are compassion, the thought of benefiting others, caring for others, and causing happiness for others.

We have to understand and learn about others’ suffering, which is of different types, and all the causes of suffering, that are not outside but inside, not in the belly or nose, but in the mind, the negative imprints and where negative thoughts and wrong concepts come from, and how wrong views come from these and so many types of hallucination are projected. George can help you to clarify and elaborate on this. The outside is only a condition. Only with this understanding can you generate compassion for others: animals, hell beings, hungry ghosts, devas, human beings, not only the sick and poor but the suffering rich people, devas, worldly gods, the desire realms, form realm, and formless realm. Then, you come to know what is the actual, unmistaken liberation that they need to achieve, and the different levels of happiness they need to achieve. You see the real, ultimate, highest happiness they need to attain.

Otherwise, there can be wrong compassion, the thought of benefiting others in what you believe to be right, but not in what others need. In caring for others, there can be a wrong point of view. For example, Shakyamuni Buddha did not see God or the Big Bang as creating everything, including suffering (war, torture, and so forth). If one believes in the Big Bang, it is the wrong path, suffering from the wrong concept. So, when studying Buddhism, analyze yourself in terms of the good heart caring for others. Causing others happiness is the best thing for others, also for yourself. Peace and everything else come from that. What you need – happiness – others also need, including enlightenment. This is the most beneficial thing in life. This is the happiest life now and even more so in the future. It would be very good to chant the compassion mantra every day for this.

My very dear Dr. Collins,
Thank you very much for your kind letter on the project.

I don't remember very clearly the previous questions you asked, but in this last letter there was one question that you asked which stayed in my mind. The question you asked was about whether compassion is sadness or not.

I would say that in the nature of compassion there is a feeling of something being unbearable, because of the suffering of others. Then, there is also a feeling of sadness because of other sentient beings’ sufferings.

If you analyze the nature of compassion, it is like that, but if you debate on the nature of compassion, then that might appear strange. If it is debated, it may appear strange to say whether Buddha has sadness or Buddha has unhappiness. For example, even though the texts do discuss how when you do wrong things then Buddha is displeased (displeased means unhappiness), that doesn't mean Buddha does not guide you or gives you up.

There is sadness due to attachment – when the object of attachment is lost, dies, the relationship ends, there are problems with the wife/husband, etc. The person who leaves his or her partner is very happy in some situations, if being together was suffering for him or her. By not being together, it is much better for him or her. But the other person, who was left, is sad and unhappy, because the object of attachment has left. Of course, that sadness is not compassion, that sadness and the nature of that sadness is unpleasant in nature. However, the compassion one feels when somebody is suffering, whether it is a relative or a stranger, that feeling of something being unbearable because the other person has pain or problems, that contains sadness, but it has a peaceful nature. That sadness is certainly different to the sadness due to attachment. The sadness from attachment has only a negative effect, whereas the sadness from compassion has only positive effects.

Of these two types of sadness, the one coming from attachment comes from only thinking about yourself, which is completely different to the sadness coming from compassion, which is thinking of other people and having a natural feeling that you want to help them.

I hope there will be some good results from your tests. I think the other most important thing that might happen is that many people will put more effort into the lamrim meditations, which will help them in the near future to have realizations of bodhicitta.

I hope you are very well and that in the future you will have time to come to Aptos to my house to relax a little bit and so we can chat more.

Sincerely with prayers,

Lama Zopa