There is generally a lot of talk about compassion in various Buddhist circles and it often seems one of the things which attracts people to the Dharma in general. Often it's quite a vague idea of 'general' compassion, which in a sense is good as it shows people are open to the idea of compassion and are not trying to close themselves off from feeling it.

But from a Buddhist perspective what is compassion really about? Sure simply seeing images of concentration camps, Haiti, torture victims and slaughter houses will arouse some compassion in everyone. This however is only the surface of suffering seen and consequent compassion.

When we talk about compassion for all sentient beings circling in Samsara, we of course should feel compassion for their immediate suffering, right from the intense pain and terror of the hells realms to the more subtle suffering of 'unsatisfactoriness' which most of us are entirely oblivious to. The deeper tragedy behind these scenes of suffering is that generally they entail the generation of future sources of suffering. There is not even a sub atomic particle of happiness in samsaric mind, so even what is normally labelled happiness is both and experience of suffering to those who are sensitive to it, and a source of future suffering. Simply to survive we constantly generate negative karma.

Obviously having compassion for the deeper, or fuller extent of our shared samsaric misery is good, but again it's not something that can be kept at an intellectual level, it has to come from direct personal experience. Basically once we start to become aware of our own suffering and understand that others experience the same, compassion will naturally arise.

According to the doctrine of Buddha nature, we can see that samsara is completely uncalled for and that all the beings who think they are experiencing it, and consequently suffering unbearable torments for kalpas. Whilst I have no real understanding of Bodhicitta, and extremely little conventional compassion, this to me seems where the real tragedy is. All that suffering is avoidable simply by beings recognising themselves for what they are.

May all beings right now realise they nature of their mind as unborn and pristine Dharmakaya.
May deluded beings like myself develop both ordinary compassion and the precious Bodhicitta which is the source of all joy.