What Is Compassion In Buddhism ?VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.
Compassion is a path for practitioners to step up , a means for them to use, a land for them to cultivate. Road more widely , means more and more sophisticated, more and more fertile land, the Wisdom even flourish and grow faster.
Compassion is the Chinese translation of the word Karunâ in Sanskrit scriptures. The word is wholesome and gentle ; Ball is mercy , pity . In Western books , written in English as well as French, the word Karunâ is translated as Compassion. The word Compassion is derived from the Latin word compassio , meaning pity for the suffering of others. The word compassion has the word passion, which comes from the word patior, a verb in Latin that means suffering and pain .
The reason I port allows lengthy in terms of linguistics and translation because really very difficult to find words that perfectly parallels between the language , especially these words had different origins, back and under the influence more or less the traditions , culture, beliefs of different ethnic groups.
The word Compassion in Western books does not reflect correctly and does not shed the meaning of the word Karunâ in Buddhist scriptures. Luckily there were few translators and researchers in the West realize this, they propose should be used straight Sanskrit as Karuna , like the case of a lot of Sanskrit other was used directly, such as the word karma, nirvana, samsara, etc.
In the Vietnamese scriptures, the word Compassion does not strip away the meaning of the word Karunâ , but thanks to the majority of Dharma practitioners who understand more or less what Compassion is and are familiar with its definition, however there are still some other people can understand very vague word compassion in Buddhism .
The meaning of compassion in Buddhism is really deeper than the meaning of the chapter of this word, which is meek and merciful . I will divide the article into two parts: the first part certain meaning and interpretation of Compassion according to scriptures , the second part will discuss the broader word. Lastly, I would like to tell a story about Mr. Vo Quy before to conclude the conclusion .
1. What is Compassion ?
As explained in the introduction above, Compassion is not mere a «virtues» Whether it is «virtues of mind », nor is it a kind of «emotional», infatuation or passion ( passion) in Western language . Compassion is also not a kind of « passive emotion » that paralyzes us in the sufferings of sentient beings , nor is it really a « spiritual tendency » to share and receive the suffering of others.
So what is Karunâ or Compassion in Buddhism ?
Karuna in Buddhism is the ability to perceive that all creatures have sensual, from human to the other creatures are human suffering, when all the creatures that have not been Enlightenment and Liberation , the Compassion is the fierce desire that impels us to Deliver all sentient beings , including us , from suffering .
So compassion does not simply mean " compassionate " to others passively and negatively , but rather compassion is a positive force that takes us directly into action, in order to eliminate all forms. of suffering and all the roots of suffering.
When Shakyamuni Buddha attained his first enlightenment , determination , and vow was Karunâ , ie Compassion , He decided to preach to us « The Way to End Suffering » (ie the Noble Truth , the fourth of the Four Noble Truths ).
The beautiful aspect of Compassion or Karun is also one of the highest truths of the Dharma : suffering is not a destiny , suffering can be avoided , we can liberate ourselves , and all anyone beings can perform is the liberation , not only has the Buddha alone (this is the 1,2 and 3 of the Four Noble Truths : suffering soles , to ultimate and Cessation soles ).
If there were no compassion , there could be no Buddha, no Dharma and no Sangha . Why, because the Buddha himself is Compassion , the Buddha himself taught us the Dharma of Compassion and the Sangha stand out to maintain the Dharma . Compassion is the embodiment of the Three Jewels . It can be said that compassion is enlightenment .
At this point, we can realize that compassion is not simply a matter of mercy and sharing suffering with others, even if accompanied by generosity as well . Compassion in Buddhism lofty very, positive too and vehemence than what we understand a way often. Compassion is a powerful spiritual , super Vietnam brought to Wisdom . But what is wisdom ? Wisdom is an omnipotent instrument that helps us to eliminate Ignorance . Eliminating Ignorance means achieving Enlightenment . Achieving enlightenment means becoming a Buddha .
For schools of Buddhist Theravada , such as Buddhist Theravada, Compassion authentication and assurance practitioner is a « disciple authentic» of Buddha, a "son" of the Buddha, who said preserving The precepts , know how to cultivate a positive mind by Four Abroad (also known as the Four Immeasurables ). Four Pham residence is from immeasurable (maitrî): good mind towards all beings ; Boundless compassion (Karuna): mercy and help all sentient beings ; Immeasurable joy (Mudita): mind glad and rejoice when notice of the good of living beings ; Boundless equanimity (upeksa): loose everything of ourselves to beings (this term is explained somewhat different in the scriptures West : letters Upeksa been translated into French is Equanimite , ie the mind awake in the morning , equality without discrimination and discrimination).
Dai Tu , compassion , Coliseum and University discharge is four doses of solutions against the attitude is wrong . Pronoun diffused thoughts « living dead even fly», compassion neutralize thoughts « despite they themselves suffer , not involved in anything to do». Dai Hy does not allow us to feel «more and more interested when others suffer , worthy for them». Great discharge brings us pure and equal emotions , neutralizing the thought of "this one of us, of our family , of our friends, not guilty of letting go to those who stop drinking water or for others." ».
Tibetan Buddhism often gives the following image to explain what is compassion and what is a right view . « If a baton hits me, I will not condemn the stick that makes me suffer , nor will I condemn the person who took the baton to beat me, ... but I must condemn the anger that dominates , nudge push and torture the person who is holding the stick to hit me ». If we know the guilty anger is tormented sticks, ie we reveal the heart of compassion for them. Main hatred and anger devastating them and making them suffer. Mercy forces us to help them shed the anger and hatred in their hearts and forget our pain .
It is a right view , the view of a Buddha. Compassion is like that, not simply a kind of compassion .
Generally, Compassion in the school of Mahayana is the attitude and the look has been presented above. That is the great quality of the Bodhisattva, the center of enlightenment . Compassion is symbolized by Amitabha Buddha ( Japanese Buddhism called Amiba), and by Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Sanskrit is Avalokiteshvara, his Sanskrit title is Lokesvara. Tibetan Buddhism calls Avalokiteshvara Tchenrezi, Chinese Buddhism is called Guan Yin (Guanyin), Japanese Buddhism is called Kannon. Guan Yin in Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese Buddhism
2. Discussion about Compassion
Buddhism is the Dao of Wisdom , so how is compassion related to Wisdom ?
First of all we need to understand what is wisdom . Wisdom or Wisdom also called Hue, insight , or lighting shows . Wisdom is also known as Bat-elegant, Bat-elegant, Ban-elegant, Ba-back-elegant, Bat-like-elegant etc. that is the different pronunciation of Prajnã in Sanskrit. So how is Wisdom or Bat-elegant different from Intelligence ?
We see that many people are " intelligent ", their minds are flexible : remember well, understand fast. They are capable of reasoning solid , the invention is many things, or work out a lot. They have the ability to study well, know a lot, pass the advanced degrees, control well ... We can tell more of them have philosophers , scholars , scientists etc ... they are wise and intelligent many times more than us . Meanwhile, there are also some others with a more stubborn, slower , educated mind harder ... All because where now each person has driven on the fate current solidarity and influence to the consciousness of them. These include the fate which include nutrition, education , the environment ... such. In general, we call each person's mental abilities flexible, their " intelligence ".
Is that « intelligence » an Bat-elegant ? Is it intellectual or not? Please no. Wisdom in Buddhism is a kind of Supreme Knowledge , perfect , nothing higher, nothing comparable , nothing equal ( supreme , irrational , equal ) to help practitioners see directly, the shop directly receives the Absolute Truth of all objects and phenomena . Truth that we see around us, on our bodies and in our minds are only Relative Truths , these truths are always volatile , entangled , created by many conditions , constantly born, transform , degenerate and be destroyed , then continue to be born with other conditions in other forms or appearances .
The " intelligence " that we see in each of them, including scientists, wise men or philosophers ... is just intelligence based on the understanding of the volatile world . world of relative truth . Wisdom according to the Buddhist definition is not by reason , but by studying in books. Intellect or Bat Nha is a transcendent ability , the shop receives directly emptiness of all things and all phenomena , ie the visible truth absolutely and ultimately of world phenomena around us and in the minds us.
After determining what is intelligence and how is intelligence , we again return to the question posed above is: Why Compassion and Wisdom to contact with each other ?
We realize that around us, in addition to those who are dumb, slow , gentle , there are also very fierce, greedy , cruel , sinister , fraudulent, bloodthirsty, brutal, unscrupulous people ... These wicked people are not necessarily ' intelligent' . On the contrary , they can be very " intelligent ", they can be prostitutes, thieves , dishonesty, deception, fraud ... they can also be vivacious leaders , scientists , scientists, tyrants, wise tycoons, merchants mercurial , the man masquerading as religious etc ... mind they are very flexible , memory extraordinary, mercurial unusual, duplicity, flip parasols, lie nobody knows ... generally "the intelligence " of they are superior to others who are suffering from their deception, control, and control. What intelligence as just mentioned is not wisdom , it can be developed on any one piece of land, particularly very suitable for the plots of aggression, deception , fraud or dishonesty sea.
Conversely, Intelligence or Wisdom can only be developed in a spirit of peace , in the morning , filled the hearts of compassion only. So Compassion is the only land we can sow the seeds of Wisdom , because Wisdom can only germinate and grow in the land of Compassion .
In short , compassion is a path for practitioners to step forward , a means for them to use, a land for them to cultivate. Road more widely , means more and more sophisticated, more and more fertile land, the Wisdom even flourish and grow faster.
Compassion is a necessary and indispensable condition of wisdom . From-bi-Wisdom always coupled together , stick together , support each other. Therefore , the practice must first arouse the Compassion in us to bring us to the Wisdom . At this point, one can distinguish «a ferocious and intelligent person », «a heartless ( selfish ) and intelligent person », «a compassionate and intelligent person " How different.
To alleviate part of discussion in favor of language and theory , we try to give an example simple than life lived every day as follows. We walk on the street and we see a poor beggar , we give a thousand dong . Our hearts feel refreshed for doing a compassionate thing . We continue to go a little further and see a noodle shop, meat and cooked meat dangling in the glass case, the smell of fragrant pho. I feel hungry and come in to eat. We order a special bowl of pho , twenty thousand dong, in the bowl of noodles with dandruff, pale, encrusted, tendon, cartilage, fat water ... nearly full of the four elements of the body suffering and impermanence of the cow. We were enjoying a bowl of pho when an elderly lady , hunched, walked into the store to invite us to buy lottery tickets. She was thin and thin, tan skin, took off her leaf hat and spread some lottery tickets for us to see. I catch a glimpse of the old lady's suffering and poverty , but we take a closer look at the lottery tickets. I saw a ticket bearing the numbers are «lucky», very « sympathetic », such as my birthday, my lover ..., these numbers often bring financial benefit to us. Next we think that because compassionately wanted to help the old woman, so we decided to choose this ticket and buy it now.
Here, we try to consider this profound than the story just told it anyway . If we do not give a beggar a thousand dong, we may not have entered the noodle shop, either because we are either worried in our hearts and not hungry, or because we want to save . But when we have given to a beggar, we feel relaxed , happy , our conscience is not guilty , we think we have money to give why we don't enjoy it; or we might also think that begging is a bit of a pity, because it is often necessary for us to save in order to have money, so we should enjoy it in return. My impulsive actions. Those feelings or thoughts motivate us to enter the noodle shop. Then we bought a lottery ticket, not really out of compassion but we bought the old lady's ticket, but because we just gave a beggar a thousand , we did a good thing, we expected the fruit of what charity that led to , I hope to hit the jackpot many tens of millions . We may not think so, but our thoughts are very latent , located in our subconscious or sub-consciousness , without our knowledge. One can also simply think, or feel that, between the fragrant noodle bowl and the poor old lady , we should buy a lottery ticket to reassure our conscience ... But maybe we can be a dull , heartless person , acting without thinking nothing?
The above story is only a fictional story used as an example, but it is possible. By commenting on the above story , we do not see any action or thought that can be called compassion . The actions and ideas raised in the story are what are provoked and motivated , albeit very gently and implicitly , by greed. Our mind always deceives us in every way, even in simple everyday life. Nourishing consciousness please take of us and makes screen Ignorance more dense more in mind , offering push and guide us in our actions and those thoughts kind like that, or maybe worse, if behavioral importance more important. Practice is mindfulness , mindfulness helps us always vigilant to guard the mind me.
Here I would like to allow the reader to see the story above again in another aspect. If we give to beggars, but also reminiscent of the Buddha's teachings : alms , but do not know alms something, give alms to everyone and does not know I 've alms , just know that unfortunately in our hearts only just a little compassion . When we do that, it is not certain that we have entered the noodle shop because there is no emotion, any thought arising from the act of generosity provoking us to enter the noodle shop, and thus we have no chance. buy lottery tickets to raise our tens of millions in greed .
But also passing noodle shop still smell the aroma , but when reviewed in the bag, have only five thousand, not enough to buy a bowl of pho small, (as is often the rich compassion compassion is very poor money, unfortunately!). Not enough money to enter the pho restaurant, but we can still see the old lady selling lottery tickets on the sidewalk. The old lady showed me the lottery tickets in her hand. We did not look closely to find the "lucky" numbers on the lottery tickets, but we saw under the ragged conical hat, the old lady's hair was white, her face was wrinkled, the lady had an eye and teeth missing. fall out. Maybe we want to give the old lady five thousand. But no, to respect the dignity of the old lady, we pickpockets and buy lottery tickets, buy all five thousand. But when the old lady walked away, I bent down and gave the newly bought lottery tickets to a six- or seven-year-old child who sat selling boiled peanuts in a small basket on the side of the road. I absolutely will not allow a bit of anything to nourish my greed . Looking under the second aspect of the story , we will see that the seeds of compassion are revealed .
I wonder if we have enough to do the little things like that or not? Meanwhile we have a large house to live in, nice and clean clothes to wear, excess food . We may consider ourselves a Buddhist , but can we imitate Buddha at all? When he died, Buddha lay on the ground to die. Buddha had only two robes , one folded for a head pillow, and another for a alms bowl .
In short , the story above is simple , but when analyzing carefully we see that career creation is a permanent , worldwide dominant phenomenon that in the blink of an eye has brought us to thoughts , situations and situations. different situations. Karma and cause and effect are not so troublesome . So, if we are not strong enough to imitate the example of Buddha, we should try to be aware , even in our very small acts , to guard our mind , at least is not it create the trend negatively and the situation unfavorable for life, even temporary, of ourselves. At this point maybe we understand a little more what is compassion . Mercy can be as small as buying a lottery ticket (but not winning the jackpot ), or very large ( supreme , irrational and infinitely ) like Wisdom .
After the above story , I would like to ask again to return to the issue of words and raise another mistake that we often see. We often hear people around talking to four words of compassion petal . I noticed that those who said the four words of compassion petal to meet a difficulty, such are others assaulted , deception etc ... While they can not do gikhac more, they only know exclaimed four word compassion petal to forgive the perpetrator of the story against them. Not only is this act nothing of compassion , There is nothing called actively all but completely goes against and abuse of a mistake four words of compassion petal in Dharma . Compassionate joy and discharge have no meaning according to them.
As mentioned in part one, compassion petal is Four categories or Tu immeasurable (brahma-vihara): From immeasurable , Bi immeasurable , Hy very quality and boundless equanimity , ie the four virtues of the mind we have to cultivate by practicing and meditating for a long time , not the four words used to console or comfort others when things are difficult. If you do not remember what the Four Immeasurables are , please review the definition of these words in part one.
3. Conclusion
story following about him Asanga (Asanga) to change to the conclusions . He Asanga was born in the fourth century in Northwest India (Cachemire area today). He was a Buddhist Grand Master , founder of the Shakyamuni Buddha and also the elder brother of The Body (Vasubandhu), another famous Buddhist Grand Master . Both also have a younger brother who is also a great master . The story about the life of Asanga as follows. He became a monk and was ordained bhikkhus according to the sect necessarily set (
Summarizing a paragraph in the biography of Vo Tien Tru is like that, but there are many books that complement the story as follows. After twelve years of meditation he was disappointed and walked away, but when out of the cave to see a dog scabies truth of terror, the wound filled with maggots. He sought to clean the wounds of the dog, but injured the maggots wiped hard and died, He immediately stuck out his tongue to lick and push the maggots out of the wounds. But suddenly the dog disappeared and Germany Di Lac appeared in front of him. Countless before instant voice, asked Germany Di Lặc: «Sir, why do I have to wait for twelve years to appear to me ». Germany Di Lac immediately replied: "I stayed at my side for twelve years, but because of the development of consciousness you have not enough to see me alone».
Prior to this, Mr. Asanga only see Germany Di Lac via the form lack of perfection , but the dog scabies helped him reveal the heart of compassion his way integrity more. Germany Di Lac want to prove things to him Asanga should make him take a piggyback her on the shoulder and went on the village in the valley below the other: all those who contradict them accidentally saw nothing strange at all, only an old woman stopped him Asanga again and asked: "Hey you there, he made the game what the dog scabies disgusting piggyback on the shoulders like that? ».END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES )..GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.5/6/2020.
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