COMPASSION

Only the admission of defect and fallibility in oneself makes it possible for one to become merciful to others.

(GNV 20)

The rimpoches all advise against absolute solitude and stress “compassion.” They seem to agree that being in solitude much of the year and coming “out” for a while would be a good solution.

(AJ 103)

The Khempo of Namgyal [said that] the real ground of his Gelugpa study and practice was the knowledge of suffering, and that only when a person was fully convinced of the immensity of suffering and its complete universality and saw the need of deliverance from it, and sought deliverance for all beings, could he begin to understand sunyata.

(AJ, 94, italics Merton’s)

The Bodhisattva elects to remain in [the phenomenal world] and finds in it his Nirvana, by reason . . . of the compassionate love which identifies all the sufferers in the round of birth and death with the Buddha, whose enlightenment they potentially share.

(ZBA 38)

Jen is sometimes translated “human heartedness.”

(WCZ 18)

Jen is the compassion that enables one to identify with the joys and troubles of others.

(WCZ 157)

Compassion is proportionate to detachment; otherwise we use others for our own ends under the pretext of “love.” Actually, we are dominated by illusion. Love that perpetuates the illusion does no good to others or to ourselves. Ultimately the illusion has to be destroyed by prajna, which is also one with perfect compassion (karuna).

(AJ 157–58)

The cornerstone of all Gandhi’s life, action, and thought was the respect for the sacredness of life and the conviction that “love is the law of our being.”

(GNV 17)

The whole idea of compassion, which is central to Mahayana Buddhism, is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.

(AJ 341–42)

Oh God, we are one with You. You have made us one with You. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, You dwell in us. . . .”

(AJ 318)

The disciple, blindfolded, is led to the east gate of the prepared mandala. Blindfolded, he casts a flower on the mandala. The flower will find his way for him into the palace. Follow your flower!

(AJ 86)