A praise of compassion by Lama Zopa Rinpoche: "Live with compassion,
work with compassion, die with compassion, meditate with compassion, enjoy with
compassion; when problems come, experience them with compassion."
The definition of compassion is: wanting others to be free from suffering. So
compassion is the definition of the highest scope of motivation. It is said
that to generate genuine compassion, one needs to realise that oneself is suffering,
that an end to suffering is possible, and that other beings similarly want to
be free from suffering.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama: "Nirvana may be the final object of attainment, but at the moment it is difficult to reach. Thus the practical and realistic aim is compassion, a warm heart, serving other people, helping others, respecting others, being less selfish. By practising these, you can gain benefit and happiness that remain longer. If you investigate the purpose of life and, with the motivation that results from this inquiry, develop a good heart - compassion and love. Using your whole life this way, each day will become useful and meaningful. Every human being has the same potential for compassion; the only question is whether we really take any care of that potential, and develop and implement it in our daily life. My hope is that more and more people will realise the value of compassion, and so follow the path of altruism. As for myself, ever since I became a Buddhist monk, that has been my real destiny - for usually I think of myself as just one simple Buddhist monk, no more and no less."
"All the peace and happiness of the whole globe, the peace and happiness of societies, the peace and happiness of family, the peace and happi ness in the individual persons' life, and the peace and happiness of even the animals and so forth, all depends on having loving kindness toward each other."
Sometimes we think that to develop an open heart, to be truly loving and compassionate, means that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let anyone do what they want with us. Yet this is not what is meant by compassion. Quite the contrary. Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, "with sympathy for all living beings, without exception."
HOW TO BE COMPASSIONATE TO ENEMIES?
Someone asked the following question to His Holiness the Dalai Lama: How does
a person or group of people compassionately and yet straightforwardly confront
another person or group of people who have committed crimes of genocide against
them?
His Holiness: "When talking about compassion and compassionately dealing
with such situations one must bear in mind what is meant by compassionately
dealing with such cases. Being compassionate towards such people or such a person
does not mean that you allow the other person to do whatever the other person
or group of people wishes to do, inflicting suffering upon you and so on. Rather,
compassionately dealing with such a situation has a different meaning.
When a person or group of people deals with such a situation and tries to prevent
such crimes there is generally speaking two ways in which you could do that,
or one could say, two motivations. One is out of confrontation, out of hatred
that confronts such a situation. There is another case in which, although in
action it may be of the same force and strength, but the motivation would not
be out of hatred and anger but rather out of compassion towards the perpetrators
of these crimes. Realising that if you allow the other person, the perpetrator
of the crime, to indulge his or her own negative habits then in the long run
the other person or group is going to suffer the consequences of that negative
action. Therefore, out of the consideration of the potential suffering for the
perpetrator of such crimes, then you confront the situation and apply equally
forceful and strong measures. I think this is quite relevant and important in
modern society, especially in a competitive society. When someone genuinely
practices compassion, forgiveness and humility then sometimes some people will
take advantage of such a situation. Sometimes it is necessary to take a counter-measure,
then with that kind of reasoning and compassion, the countermeasure is taken
with reasoning and compassion rather than out of negative emotion. That is actually
more effective and appropriate. This is important. For example my own case with
Tibet in a national struggle against injustice - we take action without using
negative emotion. It sometimes seems more effective."