Do I need to be compassionate to get enlightened?

Jake T Smith, modified 11 Years ago at 2/1/13 11:57 PM
Created 11 Years ago at 2/1/13 11:57 PM

Do I need to be compassionate to get enlightened?

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/15/12 Recent Posts
How exactly does compassion factor into enlightenment?

I'm not exactly a compassionate person, does this mean I can't get enlightened?

Does getting enlightened mean I can't eat meat?

Do I have to act like Jesus and give all my shit to the poor to get enlightened?

Do I... have to volunteer at homeless shelters to get enlightened?


You get the idea. Thoughts?
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 11 Years ago at 2/2/13 2:31 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 2/2/13 12:56 AM

RE: Do I need to be compassionate to get enlightened?

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
Definitions of enlightenment vary around this place, as do concepts of compassion.

I'll give you my take on this, but I will bet we come up with a diversity of opinion.

First, as to compassion:

When you say you are not compassionate, do you mean to yourself or others?

Do you wish to suffer, or are you indifferent to your own suffering? That you ask the question would seem to imply that you wish for your own suffering to end: this is compassion, in its Buddhist definition. That is enough compassion to get enlightened at least to some degree. Plenty got very far simply on that: not wishing to suffer, regardless of considerations of anyone or anything else's suffering.

There are plenty of enlightened beings who ate meat and who got enlightened eating meat. The Tibetans eat meat, as what else is there up on the high desert but Yaks anyway, and they get enlightened, for example.

As to giving all your stuff to the poor to get enlightened, all you really have to do is to very clearly perceive reality. Having more or less stuff may or may not interfere with that, as having various levels of stuff come with their own problems, and I personally, who have variously had moderate amounts of stuff, very, very little stuff, and a whole crap-load of stuff, can say for certain that how this effects practice had much more to do with me and generally much less to do with the level of stuff. I did happened to get stream entry at a time when I had very, very little, but I also personally know people who have gotten stream entry who have 10's of millions of dollars, some just recently, so it clearly doesn't seem to matter much, by way of reality testing.

Volunteering at homeless shelters is not necessary to get enlightened, but it is an interesting thing to do, and I have done it myself on occasion, and would actually recommend it, as you learn interesting things, but how it relates to clearly perceiving the direct and universal truths of the sensations that make up your sensate sphere are anyone's guess, and I would bet more on the person who did good insight practices in sufficient dose and with minimal psychological baggage than a homeless shelter volunteer who didn't practice well.

Clear, direct comprehension of the true nature of your whole experience field simultaneously: that is the key. Many techniques can help with that: pick a good one and practice it in sufficient dose as instructed.

Daniel
Jake T Smith, modified 11 Years ago at 2/2/13 2:08 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 2/2/13 2:08 AM

RE: Do I need to be compassionate to get enlightened?

Posts: 19 Join Date: 5/15/12 Recent Posts
Thanks for the detailed response! I think I understand things better now. I had the idea that becoming enlightened also involved becoming some kind of christ-like person.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 11 Years ago at 2/2/13 2:37 AM
Created 11 Years ago at 2/2/13 2:37 AM

RE: Do I need to be compassionate to get enlightened?

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
You mean hanging out with prostitutes (ok, Mary Magdalene may not have been a prostitute, for all you scholars out there), advocating for weekly transubstantiative ritualized vampiric pediatric mass-canibalism as the primary demonstration of faith, that sort of thing? Wacky times! No, none of that sort of stuff is necessary.

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