Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 22-minute teaching, Choedak explores how understanding suffering transforms compassion from sentiment into steady spiritual strength. He begins by describing how deeper knowledge of others’ pain naturally removes conditions on compassion, so the impulse to help becomes unconditional and free from judgment. This understanding fuels joyous effort—the vigor practitioners need to overcome laziness and procrastination. Choedak illustrates this through the story of a bereaved mother who sought the Buddha’s help reviving her dead child; the Buddha sent her to find a family untouched by death. Her discovery that death touches every household shifted her perspective from private grief to universal empathy, releasing her attachment. He then connects compassion to all Buddhist spiritual qualities—patience, effort, forgiveness—explaining these develop naturally as ornaments of a compassionate mind. Finally, Choedak addresses faith itself: the three types (clarity, aspiration, unshakable conviction) and their interdependence, using the metaphor of a traveler seeking shelter from rain to show how logical understanding, sincere practice, and lived experience together build trustworthy faith.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 03 CiA.mp3
UUID: 68768ea7-c897-41e3-8c23-d1f6ddc7d99e
Teacher: Choedak
Collection: Compassion in Action (Choedak)
Date: 1987 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~3,355
And therefore, your affection to them, towards other beings, makes you a responsible being to to to give and remove the suffering and its causes. So there is this repeated energy in you that you don’t have to almost it doesn’t become conditional. The act of compassion doesn’t become conditional. Your understanding of the people suffering makes them nearer, more familiar, somebody you feel very responsible to give. Not something that you think, oh, it’s suffering, maybe I should do, shouldn’t do.
There isn’t though no room for judgment, doing this judgment. And therefore, because of your deeper understanding of suffering as I was referring this morning, the better suffering we know, the better courage, better strength, and joyous effort we will develop. We are always running short of strength. We could be, you know, we might have strained determination for some time, a few days, but then it slacks down. We have laziness that overtakes our mind and various things that overtakes them.
That’s because our realization of the suffering of others is not deep enough, thereby the mind mind is trying to trying to withdraw itself from that and trying to still engage or indulge into happiness. Because happiness itself is suffering. This is what the real person who understand and realize intensive suffering would not find that much of happiness in happiness. Happiness. And therefore, even you we find we find ourselves engaging into into, you know, experiencing happiness, whatsoever experiencing happiness, still we know back in the mind that this is too subject to change.
So there’s no clinging mind that will hang on to it, hanker upon it. Therefore, this vigor, that strength in you, it is it is so prepared to let it go when it’s necessary. There’s no that no clinging mind. You know? There’s no clinging mind.
There’s a story when a mother whose child died and during the time of Buddha who have heard lot about Buddha’s power and blessings and how everyone became so happy by seeing him. And she took her dead child to see Buddha and ask, I’ve heard of your great fame and reputation and blessings and so forth. Would you please be able to revive my son who I don’t want to see die at this age? Buddha said, yeah, very well. I will do it, providing that you do something too.
So he said, okay, you leave your son here and first of all, yet, what you do is you go into any any family any family. You don’t have to go all family if you don’t have to. From any family, from whose family you can get a handful of rice or more clearly handful of, you know, oven dust, oven ashes, or ashes, in which family death has not occurred. Providing that you are able to bring that, I’ll definitely revive your son. So she thought, oh, this is very easy.
So she she went and hoping that she can find she asked everybody and she everybody was teasing her, what are you thinking? You know? Everybody dies and, you know, so Buddha didn’t give much of teaching. He just say, go. So everybody was giving her teachings and scolding her, what do you think?
Are you are you just giving us a hard time? Don’t you know? We our mother died last week. What are you doing? So, you know, really.
Afterwards, she went the whole day, and she couldn’t find any family where death has not occurred. So she came back with exhaustive mind and Buddha didn’t say anything. Buddha didn’t say anything and she realized that this occurs everywhere, so therefore she can’t ask anything. So she gone this kind of when she understand people suffering, how many people have suffered by the loss of their children and family members, when she came to know the intensity of people suffering, her own suffering of losing the child wasn’t much of an important thing. So she was able to let go.
So that’s this strength and vigor we are talking about only as a function of compassion only develops when we understand being the suffering of other people. These vary the vigor we are talking about, laziness we’re talking about, these are the various hindrances in our practice, the the various hindrances in our practice, the laziness or postponement or thinking that I’m not really a good one that I can do as much as all those great beings did, too bad I’m born this kind of family. Too bad I didn’t, you know, come to dharma until this. So we got we have all this self pitying. That’s called self pitying laziness.
You know, trying to find excuses. You’re born in this kind of place country or family or, you know, all these things. And at the same time thinking the laziness of procrastination, postponing, maybe maybe I can do some time else. So that’s these things only comes there’s no way of we can develop the six perfections such as joyous effort without understanding the depth and intensity of suffering. So if we really do want to know, as Buddha very clearly at the very beginning show the four noble, the nobility, the perfect understanding of suffering is nirvana.
We you cannot do anything if you don’t know if there’s a danger of, you know, flooding. You couldn’t couldn’t possibly think or imagine of building a dam. So therefore, you know, the more we understand the dangerousness of our own suffering and all other people, then all these spiritual qualities of patience, you know, joyous effort, effort, all these qualities naturally develops. They are, I would say, beautiful ornaments of the compassionate mind. We cannot be compassionate if we are not possessed by these armors of qualities.
So all these other things that I have enumerated experiences, no problems, no, problems are no problems, problems give further furthering stepping stones and thereby, every stepping stone that one one finds becomes a very much a progressive factor rather than the experience of sudden suffering on oneself doesn’t feel that how terrible I am, I’m not gonna make this and doesn’t become discouraging factor, but rather it becomes more of a fuel that activates your sense of determination. And therefore the more suffering you have, it says that the more suffering you have, the more skillful you will become to see that as purification of your negative karma. Means you’ll be able to see that negative karma and problems in you is the is the real indications that you are exhausting your negative karma providing that you can see it. If you see it, that this is terrible, then you create another karma another karma to to suffer its consequences. So our view, our perception is very important.
Oh, it’s only Dharma is only changing the perception of the reality that we have rather than the reality itself. Reality cannot be changed. As I said, Buddha never invented the reality. Reality was there but he was only trying to show how it can be seen different ways and how it can be seen perfectly. Because when a person develop these qualities of compassion and loving kindness, then he you don’t have to be a nurse.
You don’t have to be a doctor. You don’t have to be good at any particular things. You can heal the hurt ones. The compassionate mind, the person who is a compassionate, their attention where they heal and help other people really reaches seems to be able to communicate to the heart of the people. This is one of the talents of compassion because it has this ability.
There are many people we in Tibetans we go so called the hand blessings of high lamas. When you hear that high lamas are going to pass through your village in a week’s time, everyone get ready. Know, go to jump so that they can touch his hand. Go into wear nicest cloth on that day thinking that they’ll see someone, great teacher, passing by. He’s riding always on horse, so you go and wait hundreds of them in rows.
Lama would, of course, touch his hand and sometimes even with a stick. He thinks that’s too tiring for him. Some people would jump under his legs and whatever. Because they and people who have this kind of culture to see their spiritual masters as the embodiment of compassion. And when also the teacher also developed this feeling in how so many people have got persons come so many miles just to walking, walking, to touch one part of his body.
When such there is this connection, a lot of people really have this sense of conviction that their sickness have been cured, they’ve been a lot happier, and all this kind of type of healing type of healing can be done also through compassion. And also very sad people very sad people when they are really spiritually minded wanting to and in Tibet, we especially place where we are we come from is very remote area. The nearest neighbor it would be about four hundred miles away and being able to go to monasteries and temples is very difficult because in those remote areas we don’t have monasteries. So being able to see someone, see some great teachers is not very easy. The people who have a lot of suffering in their life and very sad, when they hear there is a great teacher coming and giving an initiation and giving things, they go there with happiness.
They just forget all the sadness you know. That kind of kind of element people develop in some kind of faith and it has because people see and cherish in that way and the practitioner themselves try to put their sincere practices to I would say to communicate that the essence of the teachings of Buddha in that compassionate manner, it has that sense of know, compassion in the beings and the receptivity therefore anything whether the teacher is a great realized being or not, there’s this ability, the faith is very important, will say. It consolidate existing relationships, you see, if we don’t have, you know, the relationships are a bit wonky and they’re not very stable, it’s definitely proving to be proving to be something wrong with our sense of compassion with others. That does not necessarily mean that you have always stuck with one relationship not being able to be happy with it. This doesn’t suggest that compassionate person always hangs under it.
It means even though the breakup of certain relationships is not really a breakup. It consolidates the real mutual relationship. The real such as husband and wife relationship might be might break, but actual relationship through really loving, becoming best friend, in other words, before was hating each other so much, but now with this sense of compassion, this change is totally necessary for both of us so that perception of other person totally changes, therefore it can consolidate. If we have this practice of compassion to allow. Of course it then directly, you know, because that indication of compassion doesn’t come when there’s existing negativities.
So it eliminates one’s negativities. And it discovers the pleasantness of others. You you don’t because you have no negativities in you, there’s nothing dyed color of your mind that can really color the other people’s mind. Therefore, there’s nothing but pleasantness of others to see. The the unpleasantness is very much projection of one’s own, confused deluded mind.
If one has purified them, there’s no way that such unpleasantness can be projected or perceived. Because we say extra stimulus, without extra stimulus, we can perceive so many different things. So when we have uprooted our own cause of problem, everything is very nice, everything is very pleasant. It opposes no views or all. Then there’s no views, you don’t have to particularly follow, do this way, If you’re not able to do this way, you break a vow.
There’s no such kind of strict rigid vows person who is able to practice compassion. There’s one story of what Śākyamūni Buddha born as a bodhisattva as a sailor, as a navigator, as a sailor, and carrying merchants from different islands to different islands and carrying all these commodities. And then he all of a sudden, there came a huge pirate in the middle of the sea. This is a quite popular story and this he knew that the strength and power of this pirate can easily capsize his boat and he was carrying five hundred merchants and all their commodities and he knew that if he allow this pirate to capsize, that will cause so much suffering of losing all these things, killing all these people, and poor pirate would have to carry most negative after killing them, and also much suffering with all the family members. So he couldn’t just bear the thinking that he could just forget it.
So he said, you know, because he was a bodhisattva owner as a trainee, he said, look, if instead, only optional thing that I can do, even though bodhisattva would never take others life, never take life, he said, if I take his life, the negative karma will ripen upon me of killing him and these people would be safe. So they that wouldn’t cause these people, the the pirate to be burdened with carrying all this burden of killing all this five hundred people. So therefore, I it’s it would be best to rescue the five hundred people as well as this pirate. So he said, I must kill him. So he had to kill him.
He was successful too. So sometimes bodhisattva is courageous enough to do some outrageous things that normal people think it’s really, really not of virtuous action. So, I mean, we are nowhere near being able to do so, you know, these are the type of functions when bodhisattvas were developing pure compassion in mind are able to do without thinking that are breaking rules and regulations because as they are so confident with their compassion and wisdom that nothing can, there’s unflagging conviction in the practice and they always do the right thing. They always do the more skillful thing in that given situation. So therefore even though it neglects nobody, even it’s although it appears to be the giant, to be really, really killed and at any right to save hundred people, but his whole idea was so that he’s accepting him with great compassion.
There is a concept in Buddhist teachings, you can kill somebody providing there are ten possible conditions. Ten possible conditions. Whether there is ten possible condition or not, according to what we are discussing here, suggest that as long as you are being compassionate for others and your wisdom is sufficient to support this, you can do whatever you think is best. So as a bodhisattva Buddha his many previous life has done many things to the level that he fed his whole body to the hungry tigress and the level that he had to murder others. Therefore the forgiveness we were talking about also comes from compassionate.
Compassionate mind only always can forgive things. human beings make mistakes and therefore it forgives. Even people get forgiven once or twice. And I know they’re compassionate or not but according to the law, it release oneself from the bondage of selfishness. So these are the all the the activity of compassion.
We don’t have to go in-depth. It develops faith. This faith I think needs to be discussed at this stage because faith is something an integral part of any spiritual path. There is a danger these days that Buddhism finding to be very scientifically acceptable and logical and thereby you take it as attractive as it is, but then really don’t look at the faith element of it. Buddhism doesn’t require the faith as a a prerequisite for appreciating Buddhism, but to putting the practice, putting understanding of Buddhism to practice, you don’t necessarily need the faith.
The faith in this case, there are three types. There are three types of faith. First is the lucid faith. The clarity of your understanding. Clearly, you understand what Buddhism is all about.
You you clearly understand what Buddhism is all about. Under some understanding what you think among many spiritual path, this teaching is really suitable. It really really logical and it is really meaningful, it’s true and it really suits your practices. That’s called there’s a sense of clarity in your mind so that develops some sense of faith which we call faith of lucidity, clarity, you have a clarity. If you have that lucid faith, which is not very easy to develop, if you have that lucid faith, it’s very nature of that faith that you desire to practice.
You want to practice that. You wanted to put into practice. That’s called faith of desire, faith of aspiration, as wanting to wanting yourself to practice. And the the nature of that faith of aspiration is such that as you practice as you practice as you practice, it has this experience experiential realizations in you that it become trustworthy faith, unshakable faith. It doesn’t change no matter who is going to give you amazing kind of know, refute your view of the teachings and practices.
It’s going to change. It’s like mountain like unshakable faith can be developed. It’s not mere liking something, not knowing what really it is all about, doesn’t serve the foundation of having developing this unshakable faith. Most people in other religious teachings seems to have developed unshakable faith, but they are not presided by the faith of clarity and faith and aspiration. When these two things are lacking, then it become very dogmatic, it become very sectarian, it become cause of self-cherishing.
This usually analogous to an example that practicing Buddhism with faith and with this aspiration and with trustworthy faith is like a person, a sick person trying to recover from his sickness or a traveler who is shocked by rainfall, who is traveling and who’s rain all of a sudden is rainfall. So what should he do? If he knows there’s somewhere to go for shelter, he has to be quite clear about there’s a shelter somewhere that I can go and, you know, so that you can, you know, you know, go there for for until until the rain stops. So knowing that there’s there’s a cave, say, similar, there’s knowing there’s a cave that you can go and take shelter is like the faith of clarity. If you didn’t know there is a, you know, cave, then of course you wouldn’t you wouldn’t be able to do anything providing that you know, but that is not sufficient.
That is not sufficient. Providing that you know clearly and convincingly that there is a there is a cave, then it’s really possible that you might walk faster towards the cave. That’s aspiration, faith of aspiration. And the faith of aspiration that because you walk on the basis of your clarity, which has to be convincing one, then the the act of going towards it wouldn’t be wouldn’t be interfererable. Interferrable.
It cannot be stopped because you got tired halfway through or something. It will whatsoever continue. Your act of going itself make you closer to the to the to the destination, and therefore, when you actually reach to that cave through those hardworking, many, many hours of walking towards that, when you actually gain experiences, the shelter, then you have trustworthy faith. So from this what we understand is having some understanding of Buddhist teachings, how they could be very very beneficial as a remedial forces for uprooting our delusions, at least minimizing and reducing this, providing that we know that they’re really indispensable for enacting us to do so. That’s faith of faith of clarity.
After these, then you have you will practice as much as you can. So you are very engaging