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In general, compassion can be divided into
three types. The first is compassion that is focused on the present
suffering of sentient beings. The second is focused on the phenomenal
causes of this misery, and the third is compassion that has no
focus.
The first type is easy
to understand. By seeing the situation and the suffering of sentient
beings, you feel great compassion and wish to remove and purify their
miserable condition.
The second
type of compassion relates to the depth of their ignorance. For example,
everything is forever changing, and yet, due to ignorance, sentient beings
are constantly clinging and attached to the past. They never seem to
realize that circumstances will inevitably transform into other states.
They cling and grasp at conditions as if they could enjoy a particular
state for aeons and aeons. That is not how the system works. It is all
transitory. Due to their ignorance, they do not understand the real or
impermanent nature of life. Have compassion for them in their ignorance,
this profound misunderstanding of the nature of phenomena.
The third form of compassion has no focus or
object as do the other two. The object of the first is sentient beings
with their current experience of suffering. The second concerns ignorance,
but the third type has no particular focus. This is a deeper level of
compassion based on equanimity or great emptiness. You don't feel any
distinctions between sentient beings or nonsentient beings. You meditate
without any discrimination as you focus on the deep, natural state of the
absolute.
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