Compassion and the Three Trainings by Peter Morrell
Compassion and the Three Trainings
by Peter Morrell
- 'Do good, avoid evil and keep the mind pure;
- for this is the teaching of the Buddha.' [Anon]
Compassion is commonly supposed within most religions as the single most important quality which a person can spend time to cultivate. It is easy to see why. It is a beautiful quality to behold. It is touching to see people being kind, polite and pleasant to each other and makes a happy atmosphere which stands in such sharp contrast to hatred and anger. This short essay considers the central importance of compassion and love in the three trainings.
- 'The lo-jong teachings...aim at nothing short of bringing about a radical transformation in our thinking...an overwhelming emphasis ...on overcoming our grasping at a solid ego identity and the self-cherishing attitudes based on this apprehension of self...which obstructs us from generating genuine empathy towards others and limits our outlook...' [Dalai Lama, The World of Tibetan Buddhism, Wisdom, 1995, p.59]
To be a Buddhist is to be a trainee, a person engaged in training to become a Buddha. The three trainings are of ethics, of meditation and of wisdom.
The Training in Ethics
This is fundamentally to cultivate the virtue of non-harming and to explore and extend this virtue into every aspect of one’s life and into all one’s relationships. This means considering and reflecting upon the impact and consequences on others of one’s every thought, word and deed and the general atmosphere surrounding one’s life. Ethics is the desire to lead a moral life, an upright and caring attitude towards all living beings, such that one creates no harm, or one strives to reduce the harm one creates and to make one’s life as harmless as possible.
- '...a viable economic system must be based on a true sense of universal responsibility. We need a genuine commitment to the principles of universal brotherhood and sisterhood...' [ibid., p.63]
It is clearly apparent how important compassion is in the training in ethics. To be compassionate means to consider the feelings and needs of others as well as those of oneself. That is the essence of non-harming and thus of ethics.
The Training in Meditation
This is a training in meditative stabilisation or the achievement of calm and clarity in one’s mental condition. This training aims to make the mind supple, disciplined, clear, placid, tranquil, focused and empty. Empty of non-virtues, empty of bad thoughts and empty of desires and hatreds; empty of preconceptions and prejudices; but filled with joy, humility, clarity and patience, humour and warmth. Thus the training in meditation is a training which aims to ‘keep the mind pure’.
Compassion is important in keeping the mind pure and bright and supple, but in particular it imbues the mind with warmth and friendliness and makes us care for the needs and feelings of others.
The Training in Wisdom
This is commonly supposed as an offshoot of the training in meditation. This might stem from the wisdom derived from meditation itself. Meditation does tend to lead to wise and insightful ideas to percolate into the mind. When the mind is still we tend to see things more clearly and often realise deeper truths which are not clear during normal thinking. Thus wisdom has come to be connected with meditation.
One might also say that ethics too derives from meditation and this might be why meditation is regarded so centrally in all the Buddhist schools. Wisdom is right knowing, deep insight and the grasping of profound truths. Among the greatest insights we can have are those about the nature of self and impermanence; profound knowledge of emptiness (shunyata): perception of the particle-by-particle creation and destruction of the world, and the apprehension of the significance of this in relation to the state of Enlightenment.
Compassion
- 'He insulted me, he hurt me, he defeated me, he robbed me. Those who think such thoughts will not be free of hate... for hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered through love. This is a law eternal.' [The Dharmapada, vs. 3-5]
Compassion is kindness. It is the warmth of human feeling and sits next to love. It really means helping others, caring for and cherishing others. It means developing the feeling side of our nature to an unusual degree and thus putting the concerns of others on a par with, if not before, those of oneself. It means adopting a caring attitude towards anyone who requires our help, guidance, reassurance or affection. Compassion is a deeply healing quality. It is no exaggeration to say it heals lives. It is about being open, fluid, tolerant, warm and forgiving to all and having a kindly attitude to all; including oneself.
- 'We must respect our fellow members of the human family: our neighbours, our friends, and so forth. Compassion, loving kindness, altruism, and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood are the keys to human development, not only in the future but in the present as well...' [ Dalai Lama, op cit., p.63]
Compassion acts as a form of medicine which dissolves away the hard-hearted and selfish attitudes. It leads one to be ever mindful of the needs and deficiencies of others. It leads one to wish to be of benefit to others. This is its supreme quality. And its cultivation is inexhaustible. It is undoubtedly the single most important spiritual quality as it leads straight to the innermost thoughts and feelings of a Buddha: i.e. of trying to find any way to help other living beings. To train in compassion is therefore to train confidently towards enlightenment itself.
- '...good health, success, happiness, and so forth...are all dependent upon kindness and a good heart.' [ibid., p.65]
