COMPASSION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

Guan Yin, Bodhisattva of Great Compassion

Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion



Question

Sifu, could you please offer an insight into the Lankavatara Sutra and if one can realize Enlightenment through compassion alone as compassion is non-dualistic and egoless?

-- Parveen


Answer

The Lankavatara Sutra is a very important sutra in Zen Buddhism. It explains that the phenomenal world is the result of consciousness. Mind scientists as well as physicists will be amazed at the breadth and depth of knowledge about the mind presented in the sutra.

One may become a Bodhidattva through compassion alone, but not realize perfect Enlightenment. Compassion is not dualistic and egoless. The counterpart of compassion is cruelty. Thus compassion and cruelty constitutes an aspect of dualism. It needs a being like a kind person to be compassionate. Hence, it is not egoless.

As soon as there is a thought or feeling of compassion, the transcendental Cosmic Reality starts its transformation into the phenomenal realm. In transcendental Cosmic Reality experienced in perfect Enlightenment, there is no compassion, no cruelty, no ego to feel or receive compassion, and no anything else. It is an undifferentiated spread of Consciousness.

-- Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit


Winter Camp


The above is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions for Grandmaster: Legacy of Bodhdharma in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.

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