| I want to open by quoting Einstein 's wonderful statement , just so people will feel at ease that the great scientist of the 20th century also agrees with us , and also calls us to this action . He said , " A human being is a part of the whole , called by us , universe , a part limited in time and space . He experiences himself , his thoughts and feelings , as something separated from the rest , a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness , that separation . This delusion is a kind of prison for us , restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us . Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion , to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty . " This insight of Einstein 's is uncannily close to that of Buddhist psychology , wherein compassion , karuna , it is called , is defined as , " The sensitivity to another 's suffering and the corresponding will to free the other from that suffering . " It pairs closely with love . Which is the will for the other to be happy . Which requires , of course , that one feels some happiness oneself and wishes to share it . This is perfect in that it clearly opposes self-centeredness and selfishness to compassion , the concern for others , and , further , it indicates that those caught in the cycle of self-concern , suffer helplessly , while the compassionate are more free and implicitly more happy . The Dalai Lama often states that compassion is his best friend . It helps him when he is overwhelmed with grief and despair . Compassion helps him turn away from the feeling of his suffering as the most absolute , most terrible suffering anyone has ever had and broadens his awareness of the sufferings of others , even of the perpetrators of his misery and the whole mass of beings . In fact , suffering is so huge and enormous , his own becomes less and less monumental . And he begins to move beyond his self-concern into the broader concern for others . And this immediately cheers him up , as his courage is stimulated to rise to the occasion . Thus , he uses his own suffering as a doorway to widening his circle of compassion . He is a very good colleague of Einstein 's , we must say . Now , I want to tell a story , which is a very famous story in the Indian and Buddhist tradition , of the great Saint Asanga who lived -- contemporary of Augustine in the West and was sort of like the Buddhist Augustine . And Asanga lived 800 years after the Buddha 's time . And he was discontented with the state of people 's practice of the Buddhist religion in India at that time . And so he said , " I 'm sick of all this . Nobody 's really living the doctrine . They 're talking about love and compassion and wisdom and enlightenment , but they are acting selfish and pathetic . So Buddha 's teaching has lost its momentum . I know next Buddha will come a few thousand years from now , but exists currently in a certain heaven , that 's Maitreya . So , I 'm going to go on a retreat , and I 'm going to meditate and pray until the Buddha Maitreya reveals himself to me , and gives me a teaching or something to revive the practice of compassion in the world today . " So he went on this retreat . And he meditated for three years and he did not see the future Buddha Maitreya . And he left in disgust . And as he was leaving , he saw a man -- a funny little man -- sitting sort of part way down the mountain . And he had a lump of iron . And he was rubbing it with a cloth . And he became became interested in that . He said , " Well what are you doing ? " And the man said , " I 'm making a needle . " And he said , " That 's ridiculous . you ca n't make a needle by rubbing a lump of iron with a cloth . " And the man said , " Really ? " And he showed him a dish full of needles . So he said , " Okay , I get the point . " He went back to his cave . He meditated again . Another three years , no vision . He leaves again . This time , he comes down . And as he 's leaving , he sees a bird making a nest on a cliff ledge . And where it 's landing to bring the twigs to the cliff , its feathers brushes the rock , and it had cut the rock in , inches , six to eight inches in , there was a cleft in the rock by the brushing of the feathers of generations of the birds . So he said , " All right . I get the point . " He went back . Another three years . Again , no vision of Maitreya after nine years . And , he again leaves , and this time water dripping , making a giant bowl in the rock where it drips in a stream . And so , again , he goes back . And after 12 there is still no vision . And he 's freaked out . And he wo n't even look left or right to see any encouraging vision . And he comes to the town . He 's a broken person . And there , in the town , he 's approached by a dog who comes like this -- one of these terrible dogs you can see in some poor countries , even in America , I think , in some areas -- and he 's looking just terrible . And he becomes interested in this dog because it 's so pathetic , and it 's trying to attract his attention . And he sits down looking at the dog . And the dog 's whole hindquarters are a complete open sore . And some of it is like gangrenous . And there 's like maggots in the flesh . And it 's terrible . He thinks , " What can I do to fix up this dog ? Well , at least I can clean this wound and wash it . " So he takes it to some water , he 's about to clean , then his awareness focuses on the maggots . And he sees the maggots , and the maggots are kind of looking a little cute . And they 're maggoting happily in the dog 's hindquarters there . " Well , if I clean the dog , I 'll kill the maggots . So how can that be ? That 's it . I 'm a useless person and there 's no Buddha , no Maitreya , and everything is all hopeless . And now I 'm going to kill the maggots ? " So , he had a brilliant idea . And he took a shard of something , and cut a piece of flesh from his thigh , and he placed it on ground . He was not really thinking too carefully about the ASPCA . He was just immediately caught with the situation . So he thought , " I will take the maggots and put them on this piece of flesh , then clean the dog 's wounds , and then , you know , I 'll figure out what to do with the maggots . " So he starts to do that . He ca n't grab the maggots . Apparently they wriggle around . They 're kind of hard to grab , these maggots . So he says , " Well , I 'll put my tongue on the dog 's flesh . And then the maggots will jump on my warmer tongue . The dog is kind of used up . And then I 'll spit them one by one down on the thing . " So he goes down , and he 's sticking his tongue out like this . And he had to close his eyes , it 's so disgusting , and the smell and everything . And then , suddenly , there 's a pfft , a noise like that . He jumps back and there , of course , is the future Buddha Maitreya . In a beautiful vision like rainbow lights , golden , jeweled , plasma body , like exquisite mystic vision , he sees . And he says , " Oh . " He bows . But , being human , he 's immediately thinking of his next complaint . So as he comes up from his first bow he says , " My Lord , I 'm so happy to see you , but where have you been for 12 years ? What is this ? " And Maitreya says , " I was with you . Who do you think was making needles and making nests and dripping on rocks for you , mister dense ? " ( Laughter ) " Looking for the Buddha in person . " he said . And he said , " You did n't have , until this moment , real compassion . And , until you have real compassion , you cannot recognize love . " Maitreya means love , the loving one , you know , in Sanskrit . And so he looked very dubious , Asanga did . And he said , " If you do n't believe me , just take me with you . " And so he took the Maitreya -- it shrunk into a globe , a ball -- took him on his shoulder . And he ran into town in the marketplace , and he said , " Rejoice . Rejoice . The future Buddha has come ahead of all predictions . Here he is . " And then pretty soon they started throwing rocks and stones at him -- It was n't Chautauqua . It was some other town -- because they saw a demented looking , scrawny looking yogi man , like some kind of hippie , with a bleeding leg and a rotten dog on his shoulder , shouting that the future Buddha had come . So , naturally , they chased him out of town . But on the edge of town , one elderly lady , a char woman in the charnel ground , saw a jeweled foot on a jeweled lotus on his shoulder and then the dog , but she saw the jewel foot of the Maitreya , and she offered a flower . So that encouraged him , and he went with Maitreya . With Maitreya then took him to a certain heaven , the way the Buddhist myth unfolds in a typical way . And Maitreya then kept him in heaven for five years , dictating to him five complicated tomes of the methodology of how you cultivate compassion . And then I thought I would share with you what that method is , or one of them . Famous one , it 's called the " Sevenfold Causal Method of Developing Compassion . " And it begins first by one meditating and visualizing that all beings are with one , and all -- even animals too -- but everyone is in human form . The animals are in one of their human lives . The humans are human . And then , among them , you think of your friends and loved ones , the circle at the table . And you think of your enemies , and you think of the neutral ones . And then you try to say , " Well , the loved ones I love . But , you know , after all , they 're nice to me . I had fights with them . Sometimes they were unfriendly . I got mad . Brothers can fight . Parents and children can fight . So , in a way , I like them so much because they 're nice to me . While the neutral ones I do n't know . They could all be just fine . And then the enemies I do n't like because they 're mean to me . But they are nice to somebody . I could be them . " And then the Buddhists , of course , think , because we 've all had infinite previous lives , the Buddhists think that we 've all been each other 's relatives , actually , and everyone , therefore all of you , in the Buddhist view in some previous life , although you do n't remember it and neither do I , have been my mother , for which I do apologize for the trouble I caused you . And also , actually , I 've been your mother . I 've been female , and I 've been every single one of you , your mother in a previous life , the way the Buddhists reflect . So , my mother is this life is really great . But all of you in a way are part of the eternal mother . You gave me that expression , the eternal mama , you said . That 's wonderful . So , that 's the way the Buddhists do it . A theist , Christian , can think that all beings , even my enemies , are God 's children . So , in that sense , we 're related . So , they first create this foundation of equality . So , we sort of reduce a little of the clinging to the ones we love -- just in the meditation -- and we open our mind to those we do n't know . And we definitely reduce the hostility and " I do n't want to be compassionate to them " to the ones we think of as the bad guys , the ones we hate and we do n't like . And we do n't hate anyone therefore . So we equalize . That 's very important . And then the next thing we do is what is called mother recognition . And that is , we think of every being as familiar , as family . We expand . We take the feeling about remembering a mama , and we defuse that to all beings in this meditation . And we see the mother in every being . We see that look that the mother has on her face , this looking at this child that is a miracle that she has produced from her own body , being a mammal , where she has true compassion , truly is the other , and identifies completely . Often the life of that other will be more important to her than her own life . And that 's why it 's the most powerful form of -- altruism . The mother is what is the model of all altruism for human beings , in spiritual traditions . And so , we reflect until we can sort of see that motherly expression in all beings . People laugh at me because , you know , I used to say that I used to meditate on mama Cheney as my mom , when , of course , I was annoyed with him about all of his evil doings in Iraq . I used to meditate on George Bush . He 's quite a cute mom in a female form . Has his little ears and he smiles and he rocks you in his arms . And you think of him as nursing you . And then Saddam Hussein 's serious mustache is a problem . But you think of him as a mom . And this is the way you do it . You take any being who looks weird to you , and you see how they could be familiar to you . And you do that for awhile until you really feel that . You can feel the familiarity of all beings . Nobody seems alien . They 're not " other . " You reduce the feeling of otherness about beings . Then you move from there to remembering the kindness of mothers in general , if you can remember the kindness of your own mother , if you can remember the kindness of your spouse , or , if you are a mother yourself , how you were with your children . And you begin to get very sentimental , you cultivate sentimentality intensely . You will even weep , perhaps , with gratitude and kindness . And then you connect that with your feeling that everyone has that motherly possibility . Every being , even the most mean looking ones , can be motherly . And then , third , you step from there to what is called a feeling of gratitude . You want to repay that kindness that all beings have shown to you . And then the fourth step , you go to what is called lovely love . In each one of these you can take some weeks , or months , or days depending on how you do it , or you can do them in a run , this meditation . And then you think of how lovely beings are when they are happy , when they are satisfied . And every being looks beautiful when they are internally feeling a happiness . Their face does n't look like this . When they 're angry , they look ugly , every being , but when they 're happy they look beautiful . And so you see beings in their potential happiness . And you feel a love toward them that you want them to be happy , even the enemy . And , actually , it 's very logical to want to -- we think Jesus is being unrealistic when he says love thine enemy . He does say that , and we think he 's being unrealistic and sort of spiritual and highfalutin and , " Nice for him to say it , but I ca n't do that . " But , actually , that 's practical . If you love your enemy that means you want your enemy to be happy . If your enemy was really happy , why would they bother to be your enemy ? How boring to run around chasing you . They would be relaxing somewhere having a good time . So it makes sense to want your enemy to be happy because they 'll stop being your enemy because that 's too much trouble . But anyway , that 's the lovely love . And then finally , the fifth step is compassion , universal compassion . And that is where you then look at the reality of all the beings you can think of . And you look at them , and you see how they are . And you realize how unhappy they are actually , mostly , most of the time . You see that furrowed brow in people . And then you realize they do n't even have compassion on themselves . They 're driven by this duty and this obligation . " I have to get that . I need more . I 'm not worthy . And I should do something . " And they 're rushing around all stressed out . And they think of it as somehow macho , hard discipline on themselves . But actually they are cruel to themselves . And , of course , they are cruel and ruthless toward others . And they , then , never get any positive feedback . And the more they succeed , and the more power they have , the more unhappy they are . And this is where you feel real compassion for them . And you then feel you must act . And it 's the motivation -- And the choice of action , of course , hopefully will be more practical than poor Asanga who was fixing the maggots on the dog , because he had that motivation , and whoever was in front of him , he wanted to help . But , of course , that is impractical . He should have founded the ASPCA in the town and gotten some scientific help for dogs and maggots . And I 'm sure he did that later . But that just indicates the state of mind , you know . And so the next step -- the sixth step beyond universal compassion -- which then is this thing where you 're linked with the needs of others in a true way , and you have compassion for yourself also , and you do n't -- it is n't sentimental only . You might be in fear of something . Some bad guy is making himself more and more unhappy being more and more mean to other people and getting punished in the future for it in various ways . And in Buddhism , they catch it in the future life . Of course in theistic religion they 're punished by God or whatever . And materialism , they think they get out of it just by not existing , by dying , but they do n't . And so they get reborn as whatever , you know . Never mind . I wo n't get into that . But the next step is called universal responsibility . And that is very important -- the Charter of Compassion must lead us to develop through true compassion , what is called universal responsibility . And that means that the great teaching of his holiness , the Dalai Lama , that he always teaches everywhere , and he says that is the common religion of humanity , kindness , But kindness means universal responsibility . And that means whatever happens to other beings is happening to us , that we are responsible for that , and we should take it and do whatever we can at whatever little level and small level that we can do it . We absolutely must do that . There is no way not to do it . And then , finally , that leads to a new orientation in life where we live equally for ourselves and others , and we realize that happiness for ourselves -- and we are joyful and happy . One thing we must n't think is compassion makes you miserable . Compassion makes you happy . The first person who is happy , when you get great compassion , is yourself , even if you have n't done anything yet for anybody else . Although , the change in your mind already does something for other beings . They can sense this new quality in yourself , and it helps them already , and gives them an example . And that uncompassionate clock has just showed me that it 's all over . So , practice compassion , read the charter , disseminate it and develop it within yourself . Do n't just think , oh well , I 'm compassionate , or I 'm not compassionate , and sort of think you 're stuck there . You can develop this . You can diminish the non-compassion , the cruelty , the callousness , the neglect of others . Take universal responsibility for them , and then , not only will God smile and the eternal mama will smile , but Karen Armstrong will smile . Thank you very much . |