COMPASSION AS THE SOURCE OF HAPPINESS

H. E. KYABJE DAKNAK RINPOCHE

UNITY OF INDIANAPOLIS

907 N. DELAWARE STREET 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

6:00 PM

When someone we like experiences pain, we feel compassion and sympathy for them, but we must extend this feeling to every sentient beings. When we do this, it becomes the source of happiness for ourselves and others. Compassion is important at the beginning of our practice, throughout our practice, and at the end of our practice. At the beginning of our practice, great compassion is like a seed, throughout our practice compassion is like the water, sunlight, and other nurturing conditions, and at the end of our practice, it is like the fully ripened crop that allows us to reap the good harvest of benefiting others. In that way, compassion becomes the source of great happiness in this life and in future lives. To generate great compassion, we first develop affectionate love for all living beings and then meditate on the sufferings they experience. By realizing affectionate love whenever we see, remember, or contemplate the sufferings of others, we develop great compassion naturally and spontaneously. We will have no choice, just as a mother has no choice in feeling compassion for her child when she sees her child in pain. With affectionate love, we easily understand how it is possible to develop great compassion because all sentient beings experience suffering and are bound to suffer the pains of sickness, aging, and death.