Compassion is a priority
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
Compassion is not for others. It is not something to read about or admire. It is not something to praise. It is not a philosophy alone. It is not a dry ideal state beyond us…
Compassion is a priority and a way of life we have to embody daily. It can be hard or easy, depending on how much we want it and realize others need it. ~Tsem Rinpoche
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Yes compassion is priority, I do agree with this . As said by 14 th Dalai Lama ……If we want others to be happy, practice compassion. If we want to be happy, practice compassion. Well compassion is to look beyond our own pain, to see and feel the pain of others. When we give compassion, the receiver feel happy and so do we the giver will be happy too. It is not easy to bear someone else’s suffering or feel someone else’s heartbreak. But with a heart of pure kindness, it is possible to feel empathy. We could use our voice for kindness, our ears for compassion, our hands for charity, our mind for truth, and our heart for love. Compassion is about giving all the love, care, kindness and encouragement for someone who really needed. In life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some and humor along the journey. Give as much as we could as compassion is an action word with no boundaries at all.
Thank you Rinpoche for these inspiring worth words which will inspire me to give more.
Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help and understand the emotional state of another or oneself. For people who are dependent on others for help and support, compassion allows them to lead a fulfilling and happy lives. When we have the ability to help and experience other’s feeling, we will be more happier than the pursuit of happiness. It can be hard and easy but we always have a choice to make someone to be happy and suffer less.
Thank you Rinpoche for this wonderful sharing.
再伟大的知识唯有在实践了才利益了我们。佛陀的教诲再多再好，只要一天我们没有将它们一一实践在日常生活中，而把它们视为深邃伟大的哲学理论，或束之高阁偶尔拿出来欣赏，或远远观之和羡慕的远大目标的话，我们就永远无法从中获益。佛陀的教诲，一如仁波切的教诲，最棒的地方是，它们全都是可以实践的，而非无法实现的遥远理想。感恩仁波切的教诲。
Compassion is the key to all religion. We need to move forward into a culture of peace and loving.We all need each other and that the greatest
happiness in life is not how much we have but how much we give.That’s a wealth,that’s priceless and is compassion.Compassion is always a priority to happiness.
Thank you Rinpoche for showing compassion and we ourselves to walk the path and be compassion.
To put compassion in the forefront all the time sounds daunting. Times when we feel anger, when we feel sad, when we feel helpless, we still have to put compassion for others first and all our own emotions on the back burner. But, as time goes on, instead of getting harder and we feel frustrated more and more, it does get a bit easier to hold our emotions and focus out, tough as it may seem. But, it doesn’t get less tiring. Maybe I got it wrong.
For me compassion is not something easy to understand, not so much by words or descriptions but because it is action, it requires courage, it requires selflessness and it requires efforts. I prefer to leave it at I do not understand what compassion is and I am not a compassionate person. Compassion is reserved for the Buddhas, the gods and the holy men.
How Rinpoche put it is true and there is no escaping compassion. It is a way of life we have to embody daily. Forget about how to define it or describe it, think about how to act on it. One very simple and yet monumental (depends on perspective) lesson on compassion from Rinpoche that always keep repeating itself like a broken record in my head is “Do so that someone doesn’t have to. Take that burden from them.” Maybe the recording will stop playing and repeating itself when I embrace it instead of avoiding it.
Dear Rinpoche,
Compassion is so precious and we all are lucky to have a guru who teaches compassion to us your the students. It would be very rare thing to be able to meet such teachings in our following lives. From Lamrim, it says that without Bodhichitta, we will be like arahats and pratyakabuddhas who are completely free from suffering but only for themselves. Bodhichitta is the essence of 84000 heaps of dharma. How wonderful to meet such teaching Rinpoche. Thank you so much. _()_
You are the most compassionate and wise person I know of Rinpoche. I am sure you will never be otherwise. Long live Tsem Tulku Rinpoche.
At times when we tend to read or watch very touching and heart wrenching articles, news, movies or videos, automatically tears start rolling from our eyes. Is this what we call being compassionate?? The silly me always thought that compassion must comes contrary with love , without love how could we show compassion to a stranger ?? By observing how our fellow Kecharians and Rinpoche do it, then I came to realize that compassion is in us and we are capable of being compassionate to all. Thank you Rinpoche
If compassion is not priority what else is? What make us happy and leave a lasting blissful feeling that will only go off after being buried layer by layer of negative emotions. It’s hard for us to go out and about to help people, it is always hard and difficult but that just signify that it is a good thing and is the correct path.
Watch this talk by Tsem Rinpoche, Universal Compassion is our TRUE NATURE??!! :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfP5rzpMKkE
Compassion is a choice that we can make. It does not require much effort at all. Just paying attention to the smaller things in life that we might usually ignore. Instead of ignoring those little things that happen to others, walk up to them and help them. Even if it just is just buying something from a elderly because they are still working at their age.
It just mean to support and care for others, extending the care and love for you family and friends to those that you may not know, and also for the animals. Not abusing them, treating them like toys. Throwing them away when you are “tired” or them.
It is so true… compassion truly is our natural state of mind. Being selfish, unreasonable, unkind… those are qualities that are not natural. If it was, then we will not feel ‘bad’ after committing such deeds, because deep down we know these actions are not virtuous.
jus schrolling. i am looking for my own identity n seeking dharma guidance. tq.
Compassion… such a beautiful word, but it is just another empty word when we do not put it in to action… another profound poetic statement that will be gone with the wind. So how do we begin??? No ne for a big fuss about going out and saving lives and helping others when the very people you are with daily you irritate, you are mean to and you harbor resentment.
These are the very people we can start our practice with, these are the very people who can be our teachers. Teacher in a sense they give us the opportunity to put to test what we so called “believe” in – compassion. If we cannot even start from the people around us daily, then no point talking about the moon and the stars really.
There’s a wonderful quote from Rinpoche which goes “You experience compassion when you give it, not when you get it”. I find the paradox quite fascinating. We’re so used to talking about concepts as we experience them from an external stimulus – what someone says to us, does to us or for us. It’s rare we take the first step to do something without expecting something in return. How funny it is that the more we try to get something, the less we really get; whereas the more we give of something and of ourselves, the more we eventually get. The paradox is that when we “get” and experience compassion when we’re not expecting to get anything.
Rinpoche also often spoken to us about the important of unlearning old, bad habits and relearning new, good ones. I asked then, how useful it would be if compassion – or the practice of it – was contrived or just a semblance of compassion. Does it count? The answer, clearly, of course is that even a semblance of it is better than none at all – we practice until we get perfect. The “semblance” – no matter how contrived we might feel it is – is that very process of unlearning something old and relearning something new. After all, all our bad habits were also “learnt” because we practiced at it and kept doing it until it also became second nature, and spontaneous. We become better at it, understanding the benefit of upholding these more positive qualities – compassion, patience, generosity etc – until eventually the semblance becomes natural. I suppose it could be compared to being at a gym. In the beginning we make a semblance of working out. We run only a tiny bit before we pant and huff and want to collapse. It’s torture, it feels like such a terrible effort and we don’t feel like we are being fit or healthy, and we’re so far away from being healthy. We think, “We’re such a fat tub of lard that all this exercise is really just a farce.” But it’s precisely BECAUSE we’re a tub of lard that we need to keep doing it, no matter how silly and forced and miniscule it might be. Because eventually we can begin to run for 5 minutes more, then 10 minutes more, and it soon becomes effortless.
“Compassion is not for others…It can be hard or easy, depending on how much we want it and realize others need it.”
If we always think that compassion is for others, then we will end up finding it very difficult. And even though we force ourselves to “act” in compassion way, it is not out of our nature.
Things that needed to be “forced” may not last long. And again, this back to contemplation. We need to contemplate on it so that we realize that others need it, and we want it to become our nature so that we can do something for ourselves and others.
Compassion is not an application tool but the battery that we operated from.
Compassion seems to be a big word to me, but this is exactly the mind which stops me for developing compassion mind. In fact, by being a vegetarian is the way to develop compassion, by doing Dharma work with zero agenda is one of the ways to develop compassion. Compassion can really be the priority in our daily lives if we choose to. We choose to see how much we want it from others and from this, we realize how others need it as well. As a spiritual practitioners, we should give instead of take…
This is so true. We should be living a compassionate lifestyle. It is not for others, it is for us. People need compassion and we need compassion too. We need to have love and kindness. Compassion is a must for a spiritual lifestyle 😀
Thank you for the sharing.Most of the time we expect others to show it first and we respond back in the equivalent manner.As for compassion,let us be the first to show it in our thought,speech and action.We need to be honest about it as it shows and proven by our action in time.If our action is sincere then a sense of contentment will arise and we will never regret the action we made.
Compassion is a priority and can be put into practice if one recognizes the fact that every human being is a member of humanity and the human family regardless of differences in religion, culture, color and creed. Thus the purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for always showing us what compassion really is.
We all have the Buddha nature in us. At some point of our life, there will be situations where we feel care or concern for another being. When this dormant nature is activated and we have realization that it is beneficial, we should continue to cultivate compassion until it becomes second nature in us.
Compassion to others is actually to ourself. To hurt others whether is a stranger or someone we know, won’t make us happy or light but not good. I believe compassion is the way.
I agreed fully. Admittedly I always thought being kind or helpful to others so that others can accept us for who we are, and to feel we are needed by others. Of course we are happy when others are happy when their issues got solved. They have worked hard on something and got stuck and genuinely needed help. And I thought I am working from compassionate nature, maybe it is something else or related. Now there are many ways of ‘helping’ others on many levels perhaps not spoon-feeding when they are always asking for help for the same thing or leading by example.
‘Compassionate is not for others’
‘Compassionate is a priority’
I like both statements very much. I have not work from this angle or perspective in the large of my life. Every second it is the me who is doing the talking, not compassionate at all.
Compassionate activities are so much part of our daily lives. As Buddhists, developing compassion forms a Priority as we know that compassion predominate the whole world. Compassion according to some medical opinion, contributes to good physical health as well. Thank you Rinpoche, for showing us what compassion really is.
I just want to maintain my strength and stamina to shower my compassion to those who have helped me and those who have not.
Thank you Rinpoche.
Oops! I keep slipping on the Bodichitta!
I am pleased that you are implementing the internet to conduct classes. You reach out to those who are without a local Sangha and help us to feel connected to others.
Thank you for Flourishing the Dharma!
metta
Thom
ps I am enjoying your book, “If Not Now-When?”
I look foward to the day, when I might meet H.H.Kyabje Zong Rinpoche again with his grins and smiles.
Compassion is like the tides that sweep and retreat, like our hearts that flow in and out. How to keep the Inner Peace is why we need our Lamas.
Love & Hugs To All
Thom
Dear Duke,
I agree with everything you say.
I like the way you say it with a good analogy.
Thank you for practicing to benefit others.
Tsem Tulku
Very nicely put Rinpoche.
Compassion in our heart is just the first step. Then is time to roll up the sleeves and get dirty for our fellow travelers. It is much like when Shantideva makes the distinction between aspiring Bodhichitta and engaging bodhichitta. We do need one to act as a cause for the other, but it must not stop there if it can be called true bodhichitta.
We must work in the trenches and make the needed sacrifice for all living beings…because we all share the same basic ground of suffering.
We love you Rinpoche!!!