Zen Master Rama on Buddhist Compassion:
"Compassion allows us to accept everything. That's why there's always a tear in the eye of the Buddha that no one sees, for the pain and suffering of others.
Help the world in any way that you want to. I have found that the more light you give and spread, the more you will evolve.
The secret teaching was the bodhisattva ideal, to live for others, for the welfare of all beings. That's enlightenment, not some flashy state of luminosity.
You get to the point where you have to wash the dishes. That's the fun in life, being behind the scenes and doing things for others, being an instrument of that cause.
You have to refine your being. You have to go through all of the stages and steps of erasing yourself through service to others with purity, humility, integrity.
You only become funny when you have a complete reverence for life.
Compassion and empathy are not the same as feeling sorry for oneself. They are emotions that extend our perceptual ranges.
If you'd like to have a better incarnation, then have one now. If that's your attitude, just let go and meditate and try to be as wise and compassionate, as understanding as you can.
Energy is gained by giving energy. When we give energy, we gain energy. This is different than having someone manipulate you and take your energy.
The essence of the teachings is to lose self importance and to care more for the welfare of others and the magical world around us, than we do for ourselves and our own self images.
Selfless giving is love in action. Initially you will feel that you should help in a certain way, with a certain result. Do your best, but don’t be concerned with results; do it for the infinite.
The action of giving is in a certain vibratory level, meaning giving exists in a certain plane of consciousness.
One of the traditional Tantric methods of mediation is to imagine that you are taking on the suffering of all beings.
Advance yourself by advancing others. Do not judge others. Be of service to them, but realize that you are not necessarily the instrument of perfecting and immortalizing others.
As we hate ourselves less, we tend to hate other people less too.
In self-giving you must be so careful of egotism. You must be so careful when you are aiding others in their liberation not to have a sense of self.
In future years a number of you will become spiritual teachers. After many years of study and doing a good job, go out into the world and teach people.You'll reach points of advancement where you'll be able to be of great help to many, many people.
In my estimation it's silly to go out and spend your time aiding people if you don't have your own act together yet. So I'd rather you spend the time, get it right, and it'll all work out a lot better.
It's suggested that enlightenment has some tremendous compassion, some driving necessity to help humanity. I don't think that's the case at all. I think humanity wishes it were the case since it's humanity that writes the various scriptures.
I realize that there's a thing called the bodhisattva ideal, and it's a very nice pinnacle of attention. It's a very egotistical thought, ultimately.
To have to liberate everybody doesn't sound very free to me. You're gong to go liberate people who maybe don't want to be liberated.
To think that God is compassionate is a terrible mistake. To think that God is wrathful is equally stupid. God isn't emotional. You are. To superimpose your emotions on infinity is typically human.
To feel that you are the Buddha of all times and places and that in some way the salvation of anyone, including yourself, depends upon you, I think there's a lot of ego involved in such a view, not much self-transcendence.
I respect self-giving and I've tried to lead my life with that as the ideal. But real self-giving is when we take our being, that which is most precious to us, and we throw it into eternity with a total sense of offering.
Determine where you are and where you wish to be. Then use all of your self-effort to make that happen, following the guiding principles of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and seekers of the dharma or enlightenment.
Selfless-giving burns away the layers of the onion. Purity and humility keep meditation and selfless-giving clear. Love radiates through the entire practice because we do all of it only for love.
There is no time when we really love each other. That's the magic of love. When we really love each other, there is no time. Love is self-realization. Love is liberation. The only way beyond time, to unravel the knot of existence, is to love.
Love the fading flowers as much as you love the undifferentiated which lasts forever.
By perfecting the practices of zazen and mindfulness, by learning patience and love and by realizing the essential emptiness of all phenomena, you will discover nirvana."
- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
