Buddhism – The Fullfilment Project

The Emptiness Of Compassion

When we think of compassion we think of sympathising with those who are suffering in some way. This relationship with the person who is suffering is one with a them and a me, which has an innate division. In Buddhism compassion is very important, as is the concept of emptiness, which is essentially that all things are empty of labels, characteristics and preferences, to put it simply.

Compassion, in its best form, is one where there is no division between yourself and others; there is an innate unity. This would mean that the compassion you feel is for the suffering of another living being and the wish to end this suffering, because you see no difference between them and you. This is the kind of compassion I would advocate for, the kind that has no divisions, only an understanding of the suffering of others and the wish to end it.

The Wisdom of Humility

Happiness, Success

In Buddhism there are levels of wisdom like glasses that help you see clearer and clearer until you are enlightened. It got me thinking about the way we sometimes cling onto our current level of understanding of something and avoid learning more because it might undermine our current thoughts on whatever it is.

This is the Ego getting in the way of wisdom. The Ego does not want to be proven wrong, as this would undermine it’s sense of self importance. As strong as the Ego may appear to be it is fragile. When another person or the world undeniably proves the Ego wrong it hurts and it can feel a little broken. The antidote to this is humility, the act of asking what the correct thing is in order to learn and grow. It is being open to being wrong.

The core belief, therefore, has to be that learning is life long and we don’t know all the answers all the time. We become students of life for life. Humility is not weakness, it is a strength, which seems contradictory to what our culture tells us. The problem with culture here is that it promises to reward the Ego with money, success and material things. We may even receive these things, but they only feed an unquenchable thirst for more of the same, and when we don’t receive them our Ego hurts.

It is better to be humble, as this develops resilience to the wins and losses of life and on balance leaves us happier.

Be Your Better Self

Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

In Mahayana Buddhism, the focus is on becoming a Bodhisattva, someone who delays attaining Nirvana, or enlightenment, in order to help others to attain it first. Mahayana means ‘The Great Vehicle.” In other words no one is left behind, the vehicle that gets us to enlightenment is big enough for everyone.

This way of thinking about life opens lots of possibilities to help other people less fortunate than ourselves. It allows us to see others as equal to ourselves, and it reduces the Ego, which can tell us that we deserve expensive things when there are those who don’t even have a home.

To be a Bodhisattva is to devote one’s life to serving others and helping them attain enlightenment. I am not saying that you should drop everything, convert to Buddhism and take the Bodhisattva vows. What I am saying is that when we serve others, when we aim to lift them up and help them shine, we consequently live happier lives.

What it means to be human is live in community where everyone has a place and everyone has the chance to thrive. If we try to live this way in the various communities that we are a part of, then we will slowly change the people we are connected to for the better. We will help to change the world for the better. Small steps make big change over time.