Why Compassion is Important

I met a Tibetan woman from Nepal, who is married to an ex-monk from Kopan Monastery. I think she is very compassionate. She said she usually wants to give money to the beggars, because she is compassionate. So, some beggars got angry and fought with her. She told me she was scared of that.

So I told her it is extremely good that you are doing this. Your compassion is extremely precious, very important, is a wish-fulfilling jewel. The strong compassion you have is what brings you to enlightenment quickly. It is very important to actualize compassion for others, because enlightenment, the Mahayana path of bodhicitta, real bodhicitta—great compassion for sentient beings—is the root of enlightenment.

This is the most precious thing, this quality. Strong compassion enables us to achieve enlightenment quickly, for example, Shakyamuni Buddha generated bodhicitta much earlier than Maitreya Buddha. Maitreya Buddha generated it much later. In a past life they were born to the same family as brothers. Both of them saw five tigers dying of starvation at Namo Buddha in Nepal, on the mountain. Both went back. Shakyamuni Buddha gave his body to the tigress. At first they wouldn’t eat him, so he cut his neck and gave them some blood from his neck, then slowly, slowly, he gave them his whole body. Anyway, that’s how the tiger family ate his holy body; he sacrificed himself. Maitreya Buddha didn't do that at this time, so you can see the difference: Buddha's compassion was much more powerful and that’s why Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened earlier than Maitreya Buddha. I told her how compassion is so important, like that.