pervasive suffering”. While, from a Buddhist perspective, these subtler levels of suffering are
always present, skillful mental training, based on compassion and insight, will modulate and
eventually even remove all three levels of suffering.
As mentioned before, when there is a temporary state of balance, without manifest problems, we
may call this happiness. When you don’t experience suffering on the surface, in other words the
coarse levels of suffering, you may not be aware of the nature of your condition and all may seem
fine. But that temporary state of happiness is not stable: we immediately experience a strong
emotion when a thorn pricks us, or when we cut our finger. If we look closely, we will see that the
first experience is “I have a new condition, I am suffering”. What is the immediate response to such
a sensation? “I don’t want this, I want to get rid of it.” This immediate response can be considered
as a rudimentary form of renunciation, the wish to overcome this unpleasant situation.
Why Cultivate Compassion?
The importance and value of loving-kindness and compassion cannot be overstated. All spiritual
traditions speak of it. Within Buddhism, the cultivation of compassion stems from a conviction that
by moving from self-centeredness to other-centeredness, one sees the world more clearly. Only by
seeing reality more clearly and accurately do we begin to recognize the actual condition of our
existence, and this understanding will lead away from suffering. Consciously developing concern
for others is an integral part of one’s own growth. Since compassion builds on unmistaken insights
through investigating existence, compassion is not naive but very realistic.
From a self-centered perspective it is characteristic to think: “I am suffering enough as it is, why
should I care about the suffering of others?” This is a reaction that shows how limited our ordinary
perspective is, and is evidence that we don’t know how deluded we are. We misapprehend reality
and think of our “I” as an independently existing entity. We are suffering precisely because of our
self-centeredness, and it is this faulty clinging to an independent “I” that is the main source of our
mental suffering (not pain). Wisdom is the sustained insight into the wrong understanding of, and
clinging to, an independent “I” (for more details about wisdom, see
. The antidote to our
erroneous clinging to an autonomous “Self”, and to the sufferings that stem from this, is
compassion. Therefore, developing both wisdom and compassion forms the core of practice, and it
is only with both of them together that the mind can be cleared – like the two wings a bird needs for
flying.
A further reason is more practical in that there is less personal suffering once you move away from
a “me, I, poor me”-centered worldview. If we really look closely, most of the suffering and
frustrations we experience are related to questions like, “Why do I not get what I want?” “Why did I
get something I did not want?” “Why me?” Besides the simple fact of getting something we did not
want, and not getting what we wanted, we have a strong habit of compounding the situation with
additional mental distress.
As pointed out above, there are many discrepancies between the way things appear and how they
really are. It is an undeniable fact that we are not independent of others. Since we survive thanks
to the generosity, kindness and support of others, our personal happiness and our well-being –
directly and indirectly – depend on their well-being.
Because of our dependency on others, once we seek to benefit them, our own happiness will
emerge as a byproduct. This is important to understand: happiness is not the primary reason why
we develop compassion, but arises as a secondary benefit. We all know how good it feels to have
been kind to somebody. Wanting happiness is not the primary reason, because there is one small
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