Compassion for all sentient beings
Upvote:0
Simply forgetting to respond to your request does not necessarily mean your teacher has no compassion for you. The teacher's compassion may embrace you in ways you are unaware of (that is, you don't realize that benefits to you come from the teacher); it may be much larger than an email with information. Compassion has to do with wanting to relieve your suffering, not with fulfilling your desires. If desires are what cause your suffering (such as your hurt at not receiving a response), then others should not necessarily fulfill your desires, or they should do so only with the intention of leading to your ultimate happiness (nirvana).
Upvote:4
Teacher said yes, but forgot it. I asked if he could send me a mil with some info I needed. He said yes but forgot.
The teacher saying "yes" could be a manifestation of compassion. But the teacher forgetting what he said he would do sounds like a manifestation of heedlessness (the opposite of mindfulness) -- these are two different things.
Also both saying "yes" and forgetting could be heedlessness. It's hard to guess one's mind state even when one is answering a simple thing with "yes".
In any case, "compassion" can be a tricky term to understand. It's generally understood as "the desire to see other beings free from suffering". Sometimes is useful to emphasize it does not mean to actively do what other people ask one to do -- compassion may manifest even as harsh actions.
You know, compassion for all – aren’t your students included in “all”?
I see two things here. First, doing or teaching compassion meditation does not make one flawlessly compassionate onwards. Second, that meditation can have a short term goal (as a path to samatha) and long term goal (as a means of transforming one's mind and strengthening the habits of compassion). Out of the cushion is hard to be always compassionate (or always benevolent, or always mindful, or always equanimous, etc), hence the practice.
Having said that, yes, students are included in "all" -- stuff like that happens.
More post
- 📝 Do Buddhists have sacred scripture to read?
- 📝 What did the Buddha mean by the four types of reasoning in his advice to the Kalamas?
- 📝 Good is not different from Bad?
- 📝 How to deal with post meditation frustration?
- 📝 Does hand gesture have an impact on meditation or attainment of Nirvana?
- 📝 Is 'making a strong commitment' a good idea?
- 📝 Time period between Buddhas
- 📝 What is kriyacitta according to various Buddhist schools?
- 📝 What would be the karmic result of worrying?
- 📝 Doesn't pīti mean love?
- 📝 Any ideas about the energy feel I constantly have?
- 📝 Early life of the Buddha's references
- 📝 How does one do an "eye opening" for a new statue?
- 📝 Severe sensations in throat during Vipassana
- 📝 Why talk and think about self as noun?
- 📝 Can you focus on the feeling of your body on the chair for reaching the jhanas?
- 📝 Invalid logic pertaining to karma in sutta AN 5.129?
- 📝 In what ways are the Advaita concept of 'Nirguna Brahman' and the Buddhist concept of Buddha Nature similar and different?
- 📝 When was the word enlightenment introduced into Theravada Buddhism?
- 📝 Are the Skandhas reborn from moment-to-moment?
- 📝 What is the meaning of the Datthabba Sutta?
- 📝 What is observing the precepts in a Hinayana way or a Mahayana way?
- 📝 Does Jukai imply a student commitment to the preceptor?
- 📝 Sex Before Marriage
- 📝 Do all Buddhist schools give dharma names upon ordination?
- 📝 Which suttas in the Pali canon give instructions for how to cultivate equanimity?
- 📝 Psychic Mediums vs Buddhist Monks
- 📝 Will someone explain rebirth and the differences between reincarnation?
- 📝 Can Buddhism be "modernized" by discarding the supernatural mythological content?
- 📝 Is it true that everything is unconditionally changeable?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Compassion for all sentient beings
- 📝 Do Buddhas and Bodhisattvas care and have compassion for all sentient beings equally
- 📝 Have all human beings got the capacity for compassion?
- 📝 Is there a middle way between working towards personal liberation and liberation for all sentient beings?
- 📝 Original reference for 'The essence of all religions is love, compassion and tolerance' by the HH the Dalai Lama
- 📝 Has any Buddhist ever talked about postponing Buddhahood forever, but not for all sentient beings?
- 📝 Will sentient beings go to hell for abandoning the Holy Dharma?
- 📝 Is Nirvana the goal for all Buddhist?
- 📝 Is going for refuge central to all Buddhist traditions?
- 📝 Can all human beings potentially be enlightened in this lifetime?
- 📝 Plants may be sentient beings like animals so how do you decide what to eat?
- 📝 The needs of the same human being may differ at different stages of life. Can there be one Dharma for all stages?
- 📝 Why do enlightened beings want to save sentient beings? Does everyone want to be saved?
- 📝 What is the equivalent scientific term for samsedaja? What kind of beings on earth are born from samsedaja?
- 📝 Looking for a Buddhist Monastery in UK, Ireland, Scotland or Australia - All traditions are welcome
- 📝 If Buddha is able to predict the future of other sentient beings how can freewill be possible as its very nature is that of unpredictability?
- 📝 How to work for liberating ALL living beings?
- 📝 Pali Canon support for living on the edge between all dualities?
- 📝 All sentient beings?
- 📝 Does the first precept require me to check the shower for bugs and make sure to remove all of the bugs before using it?
- 📝 How to show compassion for attention-seeker
- 📝 If no sentient being exists, for whom is there compassion? 'A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life' by Santideva
- 📝 How should I express Mudita or Joy for all beings?
- 📝 Seeking to enlighten other sentient beings - is it ever redemptive
- 📝 Is it possible to be reborn for all eternity?
- 📝 In what ways have Buddhists responded to the apparent impossibility of saving all sentient beings?
- 📝 Most effective meditation techniques to develop empathy, love and compassion for others?
- 📝 Is ending up in hell at some point in time inevitable for those beings who are not Stream-Entrants?
- 📝 Is all property communal for the monks?
- 📝 Is it possible to share merit to all beings like Angels, hungry ghosts, animals etc