XPost: alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy   
   From: invalid@invalid.invalid   
      
   liaM wrote:   
      
   > On 10/14/2015 4:40 PM, Tang Huyen wrote:   
   >> On 10/12/2015 4:14 PM, brian mitchell wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> The link between nonduality and compassion feels solid, but   
   >>> I don't know how active and constructive that compassion   
   >>> has to be. As with most things, there's probably a range,   
   >>> from the purely apperceptive to getting involved with bricks   
   >>> and mortar.   
   >>   
   >> <> to feel with another or others. In your simple Tat Vam Asi   
   >> modality, is there any element of feeling? I'm not speaking   
   >> about emotions here, but something that goes deeper than   
   >> just seeing or cognising; something that penetrates the   
   >> existential skin?>>   
   >>   
   >> The following is only my opinion, and nothing more.   
   >> The Spinozan intellectual love of the world entails   
   >> no compassion, just a Stoic feeling of the harmony   
   >> of the universe, in the abstract. The idea of the   
   >> individual awakening and not bothering about others   
   >> is accepted in Buddhism and Jainism, and probably is   
   >> a concept/word that precedes both of them in India   
   >> (pacceka-buddha). Awakening would then belong purely   
   >> to seeing or cognising, and not something that   
   >> penetrates the existential skin. (Even then, it could   
   >> be argued that others, who contribute to the survival   
   >> of such people, for example by offering food, as in   
   >> India, would benefit from such contact, merely from   
   >> the good feeling, however generated, as in learning   
   >> by examples.)   
   >>   
   >> Tang Huyen   
   >   
   >   
   > If I may return to my earlier post about human awareness   
   > being a mutation level different from the awareness observed   
   > in animals.  The best of us are aware of our own awareness   
   > (some aren't, or have not developed the faculty), and some   
   > of us make quite a sport of it.  We observe, judge, converse   
   > between awareness-es.  The Buddhist practice of mindfulness   
   > seems designed to enhance this mental phenomenon.  When hungry,   
   > be aware of being hungry. Be aware when angry, mentally   
   > stressed, enslaved by whatever mental preoccupation.   
   > In so doing...   
      
      
   > in being thus self aware, a human awareness   
   > leads inevitably (imho) to awareness of the mental states of   
   > other humans.  This is compassion.   
      
   That's as good a definition of "compassion" as I've ever heard; guilty   
   of being aware of the mental states of others.  I'm still not sure if   
   I'm compassionate though, there's a connotation of being nice that I   
   simply lack, I feel that princesses and drama queens deserve tough love.   
   Maybe that doesn't disqualify me as "compassionate".   
      
   > We who aren't ruffians   
   > commiserate with the fate of others.   
      
   Those so easily cowed by the desires of others that they compassionately   
   pamper those who need a stiff slap upside the head can kiss my ruffian   
   ass.  "With our thoughts we make the world." (Dhammapada 1, "Choices")   
      
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