Compassion is the second of the four immeasurable thoughts, or tsémé zhi (ཚད་མེད་བཞི་). Also known as nyingjé (སྙིང་རྗེ་), it refers in its broad sense to all caring and benevolent thoughts. In this context, it is often called the expedient method and paired with wisdom. Wisdom (ཤེས་རབ་) and compassion (ཐབས་) in Mahāyāna Buddhism are compared to the two wings of a bird that enables a practitioner to fly toward enlightenment. The Great Compassion (སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་) of the Buddha is the culmination of such benevolence. In its narrow sense, however, nyingjé refers to the specific wish or intention to free sentient beings from suffering and the causes of suffering. This is how compassion should be understood in the context of the four immeasurable thoughts.
While loving kindness is a wish for sentient beings to attain happiness and the causes of happiness, compassion is a wish for sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. In order to realize the goal of loving kindness, it is necessary to realize the goal of compassion because without being free from suffering, it is not possible to experience true happiness. In actual practice, loving kindness can make a practitioner elated and blissful with the thought of happiness. Compassion helps balance this by reminding the practitioner of the suffering in the world. In the same way, compassion practices can lead to empathetic distress and make the practitioner depressed. In such cases, Buddhist masters recommend the practitioner to alternate the practice of four immeasurable thoughts.
When practicing compassion, the practitioner wishes sentient beings to be free from suffering and that which causes suffering, just as a mother would wish her only child to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering such as an illness and hunger. Thus, the practice of compassion is intricately linked with the Buddhist perception of the ordinary existence as being dissatisfactory and eventually leading to disappointment and suffering. Sentient existence is seen as an ocean of suffering and the practitioner of compassion wishes to take all sentient beings out of such ocean of suffering to the state of freedom from suffering.
Like loving kindness, compassion can be also cultivated in numerous ways. One can start generating compassion towards a beloved one such as one’s mother and think about the many problems she faces and wish her to be free from them. One can then gradually extend such thought to one’s family, friends, village, country, humanity, and ultimately, all other sentient beings. To avoid the practice becoming biased, one can generate compassion first towards one’s enemy or a person one dislikes. Similarly, one can visualize sentient beings by moving from region to region or from one direction to another. One can also practice it with one’s breath. As one breathes in, one can visualize that the suffering of all other sentient beings in the form of a dark smoky substance flow into oneself and the sentient beings are freed from suffering.
The basic practice of compassion is feeling intense compassion for sentient beings by feeling their pain and wishing them to be free from suffering. It assumes the existence of sentient beings, who are objects of compassion, the person who is cultivating compassion, and of the act of showing compassion. This is known as compassion with apprehension of sentient beings (སེམས་ཅན་ལ་དམིགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་). Compassion accompanied by the full awareness of the impermanent nature of things is compassion with insight into the truth or reality of existence. (ཆོས་ལ་དམིགས་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་). The experience of fleeting nature of things, contrary to our assumptions and expectations of things to last, makes compassion all the more earnest. When a person feels compassion, and has thoroughly realized the illusory and dream-like nature of life, and does not conceive a real person who generates compassion, such compassion generated through the awareness of the illusory and empty nature of all phenomena is known as the compassion without apprehension (དམིགས་པ་མེད་པའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་). The more one realizes the empty and illusory nature of things, and witnesses the sheer attachment with which sentient beings cling onto things as real, the practitioner is said to give rise to more intensive and unconditional compassion.
Nyingjé, literally the king of hearts, is the most benevolent and noble state of the mind. It is the central component of the Mahāyāna morality and the path to Buddhahood.
Bhutanese normally cultivate compassion by chanting this prayer:
མ་ནམ་མཁའ་དང་མཉམ་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག
May all mother sentient beings as vast as space be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel in a series called Why We Do What We Do.