Compassion

Perhaps my most cherished aspect of Buddhism that I have come across is the concept of compassion and empathy for all sentient beings embodied perhaps by Avalokiteshvara, one of the Boddhisattvas. Packing yesterday and this morning to go to Mumbai this evening, I was listening to Moby's "Everything is Wrong" CD, which is excellent packing music BTW, and on there he has several things that are "wrong" with the world, and there is a lot. I know that I will be seeing a great deal of inequity on a human level that I have never yet experienced. I will be challenged to limits I may not know I had.

However, I try to keep the image of this statue that I have in my backyard in my mind when I am confronted with such challenges in my life, being reminded that there are figures in this world who have done great things, in the face of everything being wrong.

Compassion and empathy for me are the highest forms of emotional "intelligence" in people. I admire greatly those who possess both and I try to learn from them, especially when I falter in those two areas. I have been presented with challenges in life and have presented others with challenges as well. Life does not have "bad patches," but it is just that, a challenge.

Avalokiteshvara, the so-called epitome of the Boddhisattva, and known as Kuan-Yin further to the east, is a peaceful image of compassion and empathy. I have heard that if you are having trouble praying to God, imagine your child's eyes, which works quite well for me. With those eyes, I often see Avalokateshvara. I am not saying my daughter is a Boddhisattva (not saying she is not, it is not my lot to tell if one is or if one is not), but not all of us have children, so perhaps this face in the picture above can work for you as well when you find yourself troubled.

The Boddhi-sattva literally means, "one who has awakened to the truth," but is one who still walks the Earth out of compassion for still living creatures, prolonging his/her entrance into Nirvana and Supreme Bliss, or the condition of Paramananda until others have learned this compassion. It is the ultimate act of compassion in Buddhism, to teach/guide others instead of reaping the benefits of a "good" life on Earth.

I believe that I have encountered some such people along the way in life and they have provided me with great guidance and teachings that I try to implement in my own attempts in life, and it is in their homage that I try to better myself on a daily basis, sometimes moving forward, other times stumbling out of step, but always striving. This is not to place anyone on a pedestal, as I have oft been mistakenly accused of doing (though I do not, but believe that praise is often due at times), but rather to acknowledge that indeed, there are, in my mind, truly higher virtues amongst us, and compassion and empathy I count as such.

Ava-lokita-ishvara, means, more or less, "the lord who gazes down upon us." On Moby's CD, there is a rendering of the biblical phrase "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," which a beautiful piece in his arrangement. For me, the face of Avalokiteshvara is the face of God, and when I am flying over the waters to India upon approach, I will have this face in mind.

Namaste

And So, He Left

In 1895, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, usually known simply as Krishnamurti, or by "K" amongst friends was born into a Telagu-speaking, orthodox Brahmin family in the vicinity of Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital city of the Tamil Nadu province in southern India. Krishnamurti had a delicate disposition and was an interminable dreamer, losing himself in his thoughts and daydreams on a regular basis, often to the annoyance of others.

Krishnamurti had a gift though. He was an eloquent speaker and yet also a profound listener. This gift was not lost on the people he met. As a fourteen year-old boy, Krishnamurti was "discovered" by C.W. Leadbeater, a close associate of Mrs. Annie Besant, the sitting President of the American-founded Theosophical Society (1875), which had moved headquarters to Adyar. The Society was a comparative religion organization which followed the occult teaching of Madame Blavatsky, (whose writing played a significant part in Joyce's Finnegans Wake, albeit mockingly).

The purpose of the Society was to prepare the world for a World Teacher, an incarnation of the Maitreya, or "Buddha of the Future," a Boddhisattva. Unlike the historical Buddha, who achieved Nirvana in his lifetime, the Boddhisattva is enlightened, but chooses to remain in the cycle of life and death, remaining as a teacher for others. Nirvana being literally an "extinguishing" of the cycle of rebirths, or Samsara, like a candle that had been re-lit, but is blown out for good, Nirvana leads to the void, Sunnyata, neither good nor evil, beyond both of them.

Krishnamurti was the "chosen" One for the Society, he was the World Teacher, the Boddhisattva, the Maitreya. As such, he was groomed for the position and duty, fulfilling it quite easily and the Theosophical Society grew exponentially under the promise of a New Hope. Krishnamurti was indeed the incarnation of Lord Krishna himself, as the name implied, meaning literally, the "embodiment of Krishna." Like the Historical Buddha, Siddhartha, however, his goal was not attained. He had no inner peace.

At the age of 29, Krishnamurti called a general assembly of the Theosophical Society Order of the Star in the East, of which he was the head. By this time, Krishnamurti had gained an international reputation as truly the World Teacher, the eastern Messiah had come.

With anticipation, the audience awaited Krishnamurti's announcement, hoping that he would finally accept the designation of the World Teacher, once and for all. The Society would flourish, would become the World Religion.

Standing stoically in front of all of his friends, colleagues, devotees, students, and mentors, Krishnamurti made his announcement. He disbanded the Theosophical Society, denouncing all organized religion as conduits to corruption and promoting FEAR. Fear for Krishnamurti was the source of all suffering, causing even the desire that the Buddha had taught to release. With fear, people are paralyzed. With fear, anger arises. With fear, competition becomes acrid and destructive, not constructive. With fear, children could not learn.

Krishnamurti left the Order, and it disbanded. For the next 50 years, Krishnamurti divided his time between Ojai, Californian and India, giving informal talks and taking any questions about any topic, to which he would speak to, without fear, independent of any organization or religion.

His favorite audience was with children, to which he dedicated a great deal of his energy to speaking out against the futility of using fear as an instrument of education. Instead, he listened to the children.

And so, he left.