RE: Empty compassion & supreme nature of love

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Griffin, modified 1 Year ago at 12/28/22 5:00 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/28/22 5:00 AM

Empty compassion & supreme nature of love

Posts: 271 Join Date: 4/7/18 Recent Posts
Anybody knows of some resources talking about "empty compassion" in this specific sense as described in MCTB? I am interested in it because this perspective could explain why love/compassion is not just one among many feelings and values, but a pure manifestation of the deepest human motivation dynamic.
One of the things that stream entry did to me was that I began to perceive the world and those around me very differently. Everything suddenly seemed to me the inevitable movement of empty compassion. All emotions were the natural result of confused empty phenomena trying to be happy and reduce suffering, however unskillfully. All meditators were similarly just this empty process moving towards inevitable wisdom. The convergence of attention in Fruition seemed an inevitability for all beings, like leaves falling off trees—one day it is just going to happen to all conscious entities.
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 12/28/22 7:03 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/28/22 7:03 AM

RE: Empty compassion & supreme nature of love

Posts: 2345 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
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Jim Smith, modified 1 Year ago at 12/28/22 8:34 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/28/22 8:25 AM

RE: Empty compassion & supreme nature of love

Posts: 1639 Join Date: 1/17/15 Recent Posts
Griffin
Anybody knows of some resources talking about "empty compassion" in this specific sense as described in MCTB? I am interested in it because this perspective could explain why love/compassion is not just one among many feelings and values, but a pure manifestation of the deepest human motivation dynamic.
One of the things that stream entry did to me was that I began to perceive the world and those around me very differently. Everything suddenly seemed to me the inevitable movement of empty compassion. All emotions were the natural result of confused empty phenomena trying to be happy and reduce suffering, however unskillfully. All meditators were similarly just this empty process moving towards inevitable wisdom. The convergence of attention in Fruition seemed an inevitability for all beings, like leaves falling off trees—one day it is just going to happen to all conscious entities.


My assumption is that "empty" in MCTB would defined as in the Therevada tradition: empty of anything personal in the five aggregates ie not-self). In this context I assume empty compassion is compassion that would exist only as a sequence of cause and effect not as a characteristic of some permanent unchanging entity.

I don't know how that pertains to whether empty compassion is a manifestation of the deepest human motivation dynamic. I can think of arguments for and against, it could be if one considered a human a collection of impesonal aggregates, I think it would not be if one considered a human to be a continuous constantly existing entity. I think either opinion is just as true as the other so you can have whatever answer you prefer.

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