I am writing to you from Poland, where during the last few days I have been visiting some cities and meeting Buddhist practitioners so that we could talk about compassion. They have been generous with their praise, saying how much they have been enjoying our discussions, but they would say that, wouldn't they? No matter!
What is important is that they must really be happy because we have been talking about the most valuable thing in the world, the best thing that any sentient being could ever wish for. Right! You've got it in one. Compassion.
There is nothing like it, nothing to compare with it at all! Our discussions have been about the exceptional compassion of the Buddhas. It is this kind of compassion that we all need because it is this kind of compassion that excludes no one, not even one sentient being ,and it is this kind of compassion that includes everyone. We have been discovering how the confused mind, the mind that is ill-at-ease and exhausted from suffering, can find rest and take its ease in the exceptional compassion of the Buddhas.
Surely this is the meaning of Dzogpa Chenpo, the Great Perfection? It must be this because when we finally rest our mind in such exceptional compassion, the raw material for the refineries of ignorance that continually spew out unending rivers of non-sensical thoughts can no longer be sourced and the bright light of happiness naturally shines within our mind. It is therefore extraordinary, absolutely uncontaminated and faultless compassion.
Some were moved to tears by our discussions. I think those tear-makers were not self-concerned - their tears welled up from the energy of their own compassion, due to their realisation of the sufferings of all sentient beings. That sign made me feel they are superior beings because they think about the suffering of all sentient beings. I am always happy when I come across people who genuinely study and reflect on the exceptional compassion of the Buddhas because there is no doubt these beings will eventually become the guides of other sentient beings.
They will be capable of guiding others to the state of the great full-stop, that state which is full of all that is necessary because it has put a stop to all that is unnecessary. It is the state of complete enlightenment - full of happiness and all that is positive and free from suffering and all that is negative.
When our talking tour comes to an end we will gather to study Thirty-Seven Bodhisattva Practices and we will continue our discussion about compassion because that is the subject of this text.
Right now, I am swimming in the ocean of compassion. Its water is so pleasant. When I touch it, all my sicknesses of the disturbing emotions are completely washed away. Its effect is rippling through these pages at this very moment as youare reading this newsletter. Read on. You may learn something to your advantage and not just to your own advantage but to the advantage of all sentient beings wherever they may be.
May this newsletter never spread confusion.
May it always bring clarity.
May it be the cause of happiness for everyone.
Tashi delegs! Ha! Ha! Ha!
