As a response to the covid times and the imposed seclusion, for a couple of years Khenpo Gelek Jinpa gave support to Shenten´s community with his regular online teaching from Gyalwa Chaktri, the famous practice manual of Bon Dzogchen. At the beginning, those one hour long meetings took place every day, and combined thirty minutes of teaching with meditation. They were attended by up to three hundred people and many of them expressed their gratitude to the lama. During those encounters, Khenpo la repeatedly shared his key instructions. We decided to collect some and present them as a series of daily reminders. We continue with “COMPASSION IS DIRECT SEEING”.
Compassion doesn’t mean being sad and sorry for those who suffer, to pity them. It is a direct understanding of their condition and situation. It is wisdom.
Instead of getting upset with someone who is mad at you, you can immediately see that he cannot control his mind and behave differently. You have understanding for him or her and the causes of their suffering.
To reach this state of mind is not easy, but with practice it´s possible. First, we have to generate a compassionate attitude with reflections, train ourselves conceptually with this intention. Later, slowly, slowly, compassion will appear as a natural quality of the mind.
We should start developing and deepening our compassion towards people who are close to us (including ourselves). This is our training field. If we are able to do it, then we should extend our compassion further, even to people we do not like.
Compassion and loving kindness should be the foundation of our practice, intended not as sentimentality, but as deep seeing, true understanding that we and others are basically the same. Deeply understand that what we feel, other beings feel, their pain is the same as our pain, our struggle for happiness is their struggle, too.
