DUST OF SNOW_BY ROBERT FROST_EDITED BY_ TANMOY MISHRA
Practice of Compassion - For your meaningful, healthy & happy life -
1. Practice of Compassion
For your meaningful, healthy & happy life
Hitoshi Tsuchiyama
Action
Speech
Karma
Body
Thought (Motivation)
Instinct & Emotion [Transformed]
Reason (Compassion)
Mind
Emotion
Instinct
Spirit
Smile
Controller
2. FOREWORD
We, human beings, can’t be happy only by ‘money’
and ‘intelligence’. Because money and intelligence
alone brings anxiety, fear, distrust, frustration and
anger. It means that the present education of science
and technology at schools is not enough to make
people happy. If you really want to be happy, you
need ‘compassion’ also in addition to intelligence and
money. Because intelligence and money brings us
material comforts and compassion brings us mental
comforts. And we need both of them to be happy. If
we practice compassion, we get calm mind, normal
function of intelligence and good health. But if we
make bad use of intelligence in anger or with hatred,
tragedies such as war and violence occur.
We can learn intelligence through classes at school,
however we can not learn compassion at school. Of
course, we may learn compassion spontaneously by
developing human relations’ skill through home
training or extracurricular activities at school.
1
3. However, if we are not lucky enough to have such a
wonderful experience, it is very difficult to be well
aware of the importance of compassion because
today is the times when material value or economic
value (money) is likely to be given top priority. So,
many people including adults have not learned
compassion yet even though spiritual value or inner
value should be given the highest priority in our life.
Even if we study hard to have excellent academic
background and get snobbish jobs such as elite
bureaucrat or employee, politician and entrepreneur,
it is impossible to make a true success without
compassion. Those who are intelligent but have not
learned compassion may succeed at the start but
definitely make a serious mistake sometime in the
future. Because from the other point of view, the lack
of compassion means the lack of self-confidence and
inner strength which is supposed to reduce
self-centered mind and destructive emotions. How
can such a person make success wherever and
whatever one does? How wasteful it is! So, it is very
2
4. important for us to master compassion as early as
possible to avoid meaningless efforts in our life.
Even nowadays many tragedies are occurring all
over the world due to the lack of compassion.
Never-ending terrorism, global financial crisis and
economic depression caused by American sub-prime
loan problems, expanding gap of rich and poor, more
than 30,000 suicides for 13 consecutive years and
serious problems of bullying at school and power
harassment at work in Japan are concrete examples.
These are just the tip of the iceberg and there must
be uncountable tragedies beneath the water. We
must prevent all these man-made tragedies from
occurring by all means for our meaningful, healthy
and happy life. From this point of view, I hope this
book will be useful to decrease tragedies and
increase happiness.
October, 2010
Hitoshi Tsuchiyama
3
5. CONTENTS
FOREWORD 1
Chapter 1 Purpose of life and how to achieve it 7
(1)What is the purpose of life? 7
(2)What is happiness? 7
(3)How to have calm mind 8
Chapter 2 Structure of our mind 10
(1)Break-even point of Mind flow 10
(2)Reason (Altruism) or Self-centered mind 11
(3)Calm mind or Destructive emotion 12
(4)Positive motivation or Negative motivation 13
(5)Positive karma or Negative karma 14
(6)Benefit or Negative consequence 14
(7)Happiness or Suffering 15
Chapter 3 Human framework 16
(1)A chain of human inner and outer world 16
(2)Instinct 17
(3)Emotion 17
(4)Reason (Compassion) 18
4
6. (5)Thought (Motivation) 21
(6)Speech 23
(7)Action 23
Chapter 4 Control of destructive emotion 25
(1)Anger and hatred 25
(2)Other destructive emotion 32
(3)How to control destructive emotion 33
Chapter 5 Calm mind 35
(1)Need for compassion 35
(2)Definition of compassion 36
(3)Practice of compassion 38
(4)Effects of compassion 38
(5)Varieties of compassion 41
APPENDICES
(1)Mind Flow 43
(2)Effect of Compassion 44
(3)The Ultimate Reality of 'Interdependence' 46
AFTERWORD 48
5
8. Chapter 1 Purpose of life and how to achieve it
(1)What is the purpose of life?
It may be a difficult question but let’s think about
the purpose of life. The answer must be different by
each person but I am sure that everybody wants to
be happy and nobody wants to suffer. Life is not easy
but all human beings are living for the same purpose
which is to be happy even though living fields are
different.
(2)What is happiness?
What do you need to feel happy? You must have
perfect harmony of material comforts and mental
comforts to feel happy. Material comforts mean that
you have enough material value or economic value
such as money and goods for living. Mental comforts
mean that you have calm mind through full of
spiritual value or inner value such as compassion. If
one of them is lacking, you can not feel happy.
However in fact, we see many people working hard
7
9. to make money but seldom see people making effort
to have calm mind. So, many people aren’t aware of
the reality that one can’t feel happy without calm
mind and with full of anxiety, fear and distrust even
though one’s dream to be a billionaire has come true.
(3)How to have calm mind
If you have full of destructive emotions such as
anger, hatred, jealousy, fear and sorrow, you must be
irritated and it’s impossible to have calm mind.
Furthermore, if you link these destructive emotions
directly to your thought and speak or act based on
your destructive thought (motivation), violence or
tragedy will occur and your destructive emotions
will be amplified. You will have serious damages
both mentally and physically and people around you
will be also disturbed if this vicious circle continues
for a long time. How can we control these destructive
emotions? This is the first theme. What should we do
to have calm mind? This is the second theme. In
short, the purpose of the first theme is to search for
the method to overcome sufferings, which means the
8
10. improvement from minus situation to zero. And the
purpose of the second theme is to search for the
method to be happy, which means the improvement
from zero to plus situation. Because our mind is
invisible, it is much harder to be understood than
material value. So, we can not take countermeasures
to deal with our mind unless we understand the
structure of the human inner world. That is why we
need to understand the structure of our mind and
the human framework in detail.
9
11. Chapter 2 Structure of our Mind
(1) Break-even point of Mind flow
(Fork of happiness or suffering)
Let’s study the mind flow first. We can see there
are two main streams in the mind flow by observing
the back cover of this book. One main stream is ‘the
stream to happiness’ on the right and the other main
stream is ‘the stream to suffering’ on the left. And it
depends on whether the person understands the
ultimate reality of ‘Interdependence’ or not to choose
which way to go. ‘Interdependence’ means that
“Everything on the earth exists by depending on
others” or “There is no independent existence”. In
other words, everything is interconnected or
interrelated, so things are relative. Furthermore,
human beings can’t live alone. Let’s think about our
living essentials such as foods, clothes and housing
for example. Nobody on the earth is self-sufficient in
producing foods, clothes and houses from raw
materials to the final products. So, our survival
10
12. entirely depends on the other people and things.
Therefore it is impossible for us to survive without
relations with the other people. Our way of thinking
will be very different whether we understand this
ultimate reality or not.
(2) Reason (Altruism) or Self-centered mind
The attitude will be totally opposite whether a
person understands the ultimate reality of
‘Interdependency’ or not. Those who understand the
ultimate reality respect other people and materials
and try to cooperate with others based on mutual
trust. That’s why they can automatically take
altruistic attitudes to others. They always try to
treat others based on reason or altruism such as
compassion, warm-heart, gentleness and kindness.
To the contrary, those who can’t understand the
ultimate reality have an illusion that they can
survive alone and don’t appreciate other people who
really support their survival. Therefore their mind
or heart becomes so selfish that they care for their
happiness only and don’t care for others’ happiness.
11
13. So, they take actions based on their self-centered
mind such as attachment, arrogance and greed.
(3) Calm mind or Destructive emotion
Mental state will be totally opposite whether our
mind is full of reason or full of selfishness. Those
who always care for the happiness of others with
warm-heart and think based on reason with full of
gentleness can enjoy calm mind or peace of mind.
Moreover, the practice of compassion enables us to
be self-confident and to establish mutual trust with
others, so we gain friendship and cooperation which
brings us inner strength.
To the contrary, those who have self-centered mind
such as attachment, arrogance and greed suffer from
their destructive emotions. These people are not
satisfied unless everything goes just as they wanted
and always keep destructive emotions such as
suspicion, distrust, fear, loneliness, insecurity and
anger even though these emotions destroy their
calm mind and harm other people at the same time.
Destructive emotions do you no good and much harm.
12
14. Furthermore, we will have ill will to others and lose
our self-confidence due to the hypocrisy if we take
self-centered attitudes.
(4)Positive motivation or Negative motivation
Motivation is created based on our mental state or
emotions. So, it depends on whether we have ‘Calm
mind’ or ‘Destructive emotion’ to create positive
motivation or negative motivation. A motivation
created by our calm mind is always a positive
motivation. It is natural that we create a positive
motivation because the source of our calm mind is
our sense of care for others’ happiness, warm-heart,
gentleness and kindness.
To the contrary, a motivation created by our
destructive emotions is always a destructive or
negative motivation. It is also natural that we create
a negative motivation because the source of our
destructive emotions is our self-centered selfishness
which means that we care for our happiness only
and don’t care for others’ happiness.
13
15. (5) Positive karma or Negative karma
Karma means action and there are verbal action
and physical action. It depends on whether we have
a ‘Positive motivation’ or a ‘Negative motivation’ to
carry out a positive karma or a negative karma. If
our action is based on our positive motivation, it
automatically becomes a positive karma. And if our
action is based on our negative motivation, it
automatically becomes a negative karma.
(6) Benefit or Negative consequence
There is a proverb that says “A good cause brings a
good effect and a bad cause brings a bad effect”. It
exactly depends on whether our action is positive or
negative to receive a benefit or negative consequence.
It’s easy to understand that we receive a benefit if
we take a positive action and we get negative
consequences if we take a negative action. Anyway,
the effects return to us right after the cause and in
the long run.
14
16. (7) Happiness or Suffering
It exactly depends on whether we get positive
effects or negative effects to have happiness or
suffering in the end. It is very simple that we feel
happy if we receive benefit and we suffer if we get
negative consequences.
In this way, there are two main streams in the
mind flow. One main stream is ‘the stream to
happiness’ and the other main stream is ‘the stream
to suffering’. Which main stream do you want to
choose?
15
17. Chapter 3 Human framework
(1) A chain of human inner and outer world
Let’s study the human framework for the next
step. If you look at the front cover of this book, it will
be easier to understand the human framework
through visualizing the invisible inner world and the
visible outer world as a pile of mind and karma.
First of all, ‘Instinct’ and ‘Emotion’ occurs
spontaneously and then we make ‘Reason’ occur
consciously. When our instinct or emotion is negative,
we control it by reason to transform it to be positive
and link to ‘Thought’ which turns out to be a
motivation. If our reason is too weak to control our
negative instinct or emotion, our negative instinct or
emotion is automatically linked to our thought,
which is dangerous and risky. Then our thought
becomes a motivation and gets out from the inner
world as a ‘Speech’ or an ‘Action’ to the outer world
so that other people may hear and see. And finally
those mind and karma, after being imprinted in our
16
18. brain, returns to our origin which is called ‘Spirit’ or
‘Soul’. This chain is being found scientifically that it
is controlled through neurons ordered by our brain
but it is not completely found yet.
(2)Instinct
Basic human instinct is ‘Sleep desire’, ‘Appetite’
and ‘Sexual desire’. As our instinct spontaneously
occurs, we can’t prevent it from occurring consciously.
However we need to control it consciously by reason
once it occurs, because it may cause a crime if we
follow our instinct by self-centered attitude. Even if
our instinct is satisfied temporally, our satisfaction
does not last for a long time and disappears shortly.
But if we succeed in controlling our instinct by
reason, we can keep our calm mental state for a long
time.
(3)Emotion
Emotion also spontaneously occurs and is divided
into positive emotion and destructive emotion.
Positive emotion is emotion such as ‘Liveliness’,
17
19. ‘Enthusiasm’, ‘Spiritedness’ and ‘Eagerness’. And
destructive emotion is emotion such as ‘Anger’,
‘Hatred’, ‘Jealousy’, ‘Fear’ and ‘Sorrow’. Emotion
influences our thought, and thought creates our
motivation and influences our speech and action, so
basically it is necessary for us to reduce or eliminate
our destructive emotion by reason as soon as
possible before it links to our thought. This
destructive emotion is our real enemy because it
creates destructive motivations and brings us
violence and tragedy if we think, speak and act
based on our destructive emotion. However there
seems to be an exception that anger is effective to
protect oneself from dangerous situation.
(4)Reason (Compassion)
Reason means Compassion which cares for others’
happiness and we make it occur consciously. There
are many varieties of reason such as ‘Compassion’,
‘Warm-heart’, ‘Gentleness’, ‘Kindness’, ‘Sincerity’,
‘‘Self-confidence’, ‘Trust’, ‘Respect’, ‘Honesty’,
‘Patience’, ‘Tolerance’, ‘Forgiveness’, ‘Appreciation’,
18
20. ‘Non-violence’ (No harm to others). Reason plays an
important role in controlling negative instinct,
emotion and mind to keep good judgment ability. For
example, reason enables us to prevent destructive
emotion and negative mind from occurring as much
as possible and to transform them to positive
emotion and mind as soon as possible even if they
occur.
In case our reason has not been developed to
mature level due to lack of wisdom, there is a risk
that our inner space for reason is dominated by
self-centered mind such as ‘Attachment’, ‘Arrogance’
and ‘Greed’. Especially attachment has a warm
affection to the holder and looks respectful, so it’s
not easy for us to dump strong attachment. However
it ultimately becomes source of anger only by a tiny
matter and has strong influence. Attachment and
anger seems to cover our ignorance but we mustn’t
be deceived. In fact, ignorance causes our mental
confusion due to lack of insight to see the reality. If
we have anger or attachment, we can’t see the
reality by our mental projection and our approach
19
21. becomes unrealistic. The right way to transform our
ignorance to wisdom is mastering the ultimate
reality of ‘Interdependence’ which means that
everything is interdependent and our future
depends on others. Then we should eliminate our
unrealistic view and get holistic view to see the
reality. In short, every human being can’t survive
alone, so we need the other’s help. That’s why we
have to cooperate with one another. It is very easy
for us to understand that everything on the earth is
interdependent because nobody is self-sufficient in
producing living essentials such as foods, clothes
and housing from raw materials. This means that
human beings can’t survive unless we live in
harmony. This wisdom is the basis of developing
reason to care for others and of controlling our
self-centered mind.
Because our self-centered mind as well as our
destructive emotion influences our thought and our
thought creates motivations and our motivation
influences our speech and action, it causes tragedy.
That is why we need to hurry up to transform our
20
22. ignorance which is the source of our self-centered
mind to wisdom and to develop reason through
practice of ‘Compassion’. When we learn and
accustom wisdom and compassion, our self-centered
mind disappears. If strong attachment appears
before accustoming wisdom and reason, we need to
consider demerits and undesirable characters of the
attached object. And if arrogance or pride appears,
we need to reflect our weak points and call for our
conscience to bring modesty. If we can’t control greed,
we need to recognize that material or economic value
is limited. For example, why do we have to make
such a lot of money as we can’t spend while we are
alive? If we think this way, we can control our
self-centered mind before accustoming wisdom and
reason to some extent.
I think ‘Mind’ or ’Heart’ means aggregation of
instinct, emotion and reason.
(5)Thought (Motivation)
We also make our thought occur consciously and
our thought has close relation to instinct, emotion
21
23. and reason. There are two patterns of linkage.
Direct link of instinct or emotion to thought is one
and indirect link of instinct or emotion to thought
after being controlled by reason is the other. The
former is a case which is not necessary to be
controlled by reason as instinct or emotion is
positive, or it is dangerous as reason is not developed
well by wisdom. Because our positive thought or
motivation appears from our positive emotion and
our destructive thought or motivation appears from
our destructive emotion. The latter is a safe case
because reason is well developed and is performing
the controlling function, so all destructive instinct or
emotions are transformed to be positive ones before
linking to our thought. Then our thought will be a
positive motivation to bring positive speech or action.
Once our speech or action appears from the inner
world to the outer world, other people perceive it by
their ears or eyes. Our speech or action always
appears from our motivation, so it is recommendable
to ask yourself if your motivation is positive. If your
motivation is negative, you mustn’t speak or act.
22
24. (6)Speech
Speech is an expression of our thought by
language based on our motivation and is not always
equal to our motivation. We sometimes speak
honestly but sometimes indirectly and exactly the
opposite in extreme cases. In any case, we shouldn’t
accept other’s speech without analyzing. We should
make sure of other’s motivation or intention if it is
positive (goodwill) or negative (ill will).
(7)Action
Action is an expression of our thought by action
based on our motivation and is not always equal to
our motivation like speech. We sometimes act
honestly but sometimes differently and exactly the
opposite in extreme cases. That is why we have to be
careful to judge actions also. But action is much
easier to analyze than speech because it finally
appears as concrete visible behaviors which show
the actor’s real motivation or intension. We can
easily guess if actor’s motivation or intention is
23
25. positive or negative by observing actions. But if the
person speaks beautiful things and behaves exactly
the opposite to speech (in case of inconsistency of
speech and action), we have to be very careful to
such a hypocrite because the motivation or intention
is definitely negative (ill will).
I think ‘Karma’ means aggregation of thought,
speech and action. And I believe that our growth as
human beings is evolution and elevation of the
whole personality, which means lowering impurity
and raising purity of our spirit or soul which is the
accumulation of our mind and karma.
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