2020-12-16 Brahmavihāras Compassion (3 of 5)

IInsight Meditation CenterDec 16, 2020 at 5:14 pm14min

GGil Fronsdal

00:03

On these days that I'm giving talks about compassion, I feel a little cautious. I want to be careful in talking about it because I don't want it to be assumed that compassion is only one thing, and that whatever way I talk about it is true or right compassion. Because compassion is such an integral part of many people's lives – it's something that's very important and sometimes lies at the center of what's most valuable for them – I think each person will experience it very personally and in their own way.

GGil Fronsdal

00:48

So we certainly want to be careful. One way to do that is to appreciate that compassion – whatever it might be for you or for anybody – is not a singular thing. But rather, it's a compound thing. It's made from different aspects. It's possible to tease apart and look at some of the particularly important component parts of compassion. That helps us to look at it more carefully and to find our own way with this important topic.

GGil Fronsdal

01:30

One of the elements of compassion, I believe, is that it involves contact with suffering. The word "suffering" sometimes seems like a really big word, that only big things count as suffering. But in Buddhism, the word "dukkha" can also refer to the very small forms of discomfort or stress we might feel. Compassion has something to do with being in the presence of suffering. That's one of its component parts. For some people, that's an important part of it. And I say "sometimes," because there might be an exception to this, as you'll see as we go along.

GGil Fronsdal

02:20

Can we be wise about how we are in the presence of suffering – our own and other people's suffering? And one of the component parts of compassion – at least the karuṇā that comes out of Buddhist meditation practice – is having no resistance to suffering. It doesn't mean we don't strongly protest the suffering of the world, or strongly have the idea that this shouldn't be there, or that these things shouldn't have to happen. But in the heart – in our inner life – there's no resistance to experiencing and feeling that suffering.

GGil Fronsdal

02:59

This is what happens as a consequence of meditation practice. We learn in meditation practice that the contraction of resistance – the hardness of it, the closed-ness of it – is, itself, a form of suffering. We learn that it's unfortunate to do it. We want to be able to relax it and let go of it. To be able to let go of all the different ways that we cling, and just be present in an open way for suffering, is one of the great gifts.

GGil Fronsdal

03:32

This is one of the things that I learned in my early years of Buddhist practice when I had a lot of suffering. Meditation practice was a lot about just sitting in the middle of it. Just allowing it to be there. Just being open to it. Not being reactive to it or caught in any way. Just present. It was an unconditional acceptance of the present moment with the suffering.

Processing audio...