Compassion. Extracted from The Happy Twins, Eifel 2019

James Low

Extract taken from ‘The Happy Twins: Dzogchen and Mahamudra’. Autumn Retreat in the Eifel, 2019 James Low.

James gives some suggestions on different ways in which we might think about kindness and compassion.

The retreat focussed on two texts: The Mirror of Luminous Revelation, a terma text from Nuden Dorje Drophan Lingpa and The Mahamudra Middle Way of the Ganges spoken by Tilopa to Naropa. It also focused on how to respond, as Buddhists, to climate change and other world crises.

Transcribed by Jo Feat

Edited by Barbara Terris

Read the 5 page transcript here.

Compassion is inclusion. It is kindness. It is kindred. We are all kin. We are all on the inside; we are related from the ground. Everyone is from the ground.  ‘From the ground’ means in this moment – this is it – we’re in it together. Therefore turning away from you, turning my back on you, abandoning you, wouldn’t be a good idea. How much you can relate to someone, and how close you get to them or not depends on all kinds of factors. The key thing is that even if it’s not going to work out, we shouldn’t abandon people.

Listen to the whole retreat here. https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/year/audio2019/autumn-2019-the-happy-twins