The Magic of Compassion
There is nothing wiser than love

There is relative, conventional compassion, and ultimate compassion – conditional and unconditional. In Sanskrit they are called relative bodhichitta and ultimate bodhichitta. It may sound surprising, but we first have to understand ultimate compassion before we can understand relative compassion.

It’s quite simple!

When sitting quietly, we become aware. This is stillness: I am aware. So awareness is still relative: this is relative reality. A duality – ‘I’ am ‘aware’.

When we become aware of awareness itself, and find nothing more other than just pure awareness, that is emptiness. Ultimate reality, where duality dissolves into non-duality. There are your two truths!

Back to sitting quietly: if we recognise this duality, that recognition is non-duality. Not ‘me recognising”. Just recognition. When we recognise this unity of emptiness and awareness, a deep appreciation of that recognition arises. That deep appreciation is ultimate bodhichitta. Ultimate compassion. It’s a little goose-bumpy!

That deep appreciation is the same as in devotion. Devotion is a deep appreciation for symbolic radiance. This may be directed toward a symbolic appearance, or towards the symbolic teacher of daily life.

Once we recognise and appreciate ultimate bodhichitta, we can then acknowledge and recognise it in others. It is covered up, but it is nevertheless there. That recognition is compassion – love.

So where is the magic?

Ultimate compassion opens the doors to everything.
From this single realisation,
in the moment of letting go
everything that needs to be known is known.
That guarantees unconditional love.

In daily life, we re-enter the madness
in order for the magic to arise.
We see everything differently
as life is now our symbolic teacher.

There is magic in love.
Unimaginable magic.
The magic is blessings
of wisdom.

There is nothing wiser than love.