Repost from
http://buddhism.about.com
Wisdom Is Compassion; Compassion Is Wisdom
By Barbara O'Brien, About.com Guide August 5, 2011
My first Zen teacher used to tell us that wisdom and compassion are the two eyes of enlightenment, and that they function together and support each other. The realization of no separation between self and other gives rise to compassion, he said, and at the same time compassion, and selflessness, opens the door to realization.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama said,
Years ago American Zen centers appeared to be full of people who were fired up to get some mind-blowing satori experience, and they had to be reminded about compassion. But lately I seem to be running into people who get all gushy about compassion but have forgotten wisdom.
I bumped into a fellow today online somewhere who spouted (after the usual "Buddhism is not a religion") that Buddhism is just about living an altruistic and compassionate life. Oh, and mindfulness. Mindfulness is good, too. But somehow wisdom has been dropped from the picture.
If we go back to the historical Buddha's very first sermon after his enlightenment, as recorded in the Pali Canon, we see that he spoke about the "middle way realized by the Tathagata that -- producing vision, producing knowledge -- leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding." When he spoke of his enlightenment, he said, "Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me ..."
In this sermon he doesn't directly mention compassion at all, although he introduced the basic outline of the Eightfold Path, which takes in all of the ethical and moral teaching. And, of course, during the rest of his life he spoke of compassion and loving kindness often. But at the very beginning, when he began to teach his first disciples, he spoke of vision, insight, discernment, direct knowledge, and illumination.
For another take on this subject, see Zen teacher Brad Warner, "Secure Your Own Mask Before Helping Others." Obviously, the title is taken from the safety instructions given to airline passengers. He writes,
Warner Sensei continues,
His Holiness the Dalai Lama said,
"According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It's not passive -- it's not empathy alone -- but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is lovingkindness)."This is from the book The Essence of the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra is, of course, part of the Mahayana Prajnaparamita (perfection of wisdom) literature, which is focused on shunyata. But notice that in this sutra, the lecture on wisdom is not given by Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, but by Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Years ago American Zen centers appeared to be full of people who were fired up to get some mind-blowing satori experience, and they had to be reminded about compassion. But lately I seem to be running into people who get all gushy about compassion but have forgotten wisdom.
I bumped into a fellow today online somewhere who spouted (after the usual "Buddhism is not a religion") that Buddhism is just about living an altruistic and compassionate life. Oh, and mindfulness. Mindfulness is good, too. But somehow wisdom has been dropped from the picture.
If we go back to the historical Buddha's very first sermon after his enlightenment, as recorded in the Pali Canon, we see that he spoke about the "middle way realized by the Tathagata that -- producing vision, producing knowledge -- leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding." When he spoke of his enlightenment, he said, "Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose, illumination arose within me ..."
In this sermon he doesn't directly mention compassion at all, although he introduced the basic outline of the Eightfold Path, which takes in all of the ethical and moral teaching. And, of course, during the rest of his life he spoke of compassion and loving kindness often. But at the very beginning, when he began to teach his first disciples, he spoke of vision, insight, discernment, direct knowledge, and illumination.
For another take on this subject, see Zen teacher Brad Warner, "Secure Your Own Mask Before Helping Others." Obviously, the title is taken from the safety instructions given to airline passengers. He writes,
"The underlying problem is the same as the problem with the emergency oxygen masks on airplanes. In our usual condition we are far too woozy to be of much service to anyone else. When our own condition is all messed up our attempts to be helpful are more likely to make things worse than to improve them."In other words, until we cultivate some vision, insight, discernment, and all that stuff, our efforts to be helpful are likely to fail. What often happens is that our ego and selfish attachments get in the way of clearly seeing what other people genuinely need.
Warner Sensei continues,
"The problem is not whether we should live for others or not. The problem is how we should live for others. If our efforts to help end up doing more harm than good, then we aren't truly living for others any more than the most selfish cad among us lives for himself. We're just feeding our own egos, establishing a clearer and more fixed self image as a good person."This brings us back to the Eightfold Path. The religion (ahem!) of Buddhism is the practice of the entire Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is said to have three sections, which are wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline. If you study the path in more detail you find that helping others is very important, yes. But it is not more important than wisdom and mental discipline.
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