(2) Loving-Compassion

77. One who wants to develop compassion should begin his task by reviewing the danger in lack of compassion and the advantage in compassion.

And when he begins it, he should not direct it at first towards the dear, etc., persons; for one who is dear simply retains the position of one who is dear, a very dear companion retains the position of a very dear companion, one who is neutral retains the position of one who is neutral, one who is antipathetic retains the position of one who is antipathetic, and one who is hostile retains the position of one who is hostile. One of the opposite sex and one who is dead are also not the field for it.

78. In the Vibhaṅga it is said: “And how does a bhikkhu dwell pervading one direction with his heart endued with compassion? Just as he would feel compassion on seeing an unlucky, unfortunate person, so he pervades all beings with compassion” (Vibh 273). Therefore first of all, on seeing a wretched man, unlucky, unfortunate, in every way a fit object for compassion, unsightly, reduced to utter misery, with hands and feet cut off, sitting in the shelter for the helpless with a pot placed before him, with a mass of maggots oozing from his arms and legs, and moaning, compassion should be felt for him in this way: “This being has indeed been reduced to misery; if only he could be freed from this suffering!”

But if he does not encounter such a person, then he can arouse compassion for an evil-doing person, even though he is happy, by comparing him to one about to be executed. How?

79. Suppose a robber has been caught with stolen goods, and in accordance with the king’s command to execute him, the king’s men bind him and lead him off to the place of execution, giving him a hundred blows in sets of four. Then people give him things to chew and eat and also garlands and perfumes, unguents and betel leaves. Although [315] he goes along eating and enjoying these things as though he were happy and well off, still no one fancies that he is really happy and well off. On the contrary people feel compassion for him, thinking, “This poor wretch is now about to die; every step he takes brings him nearer to the presence of death.” So too a bhikkhu whose meditation subject is compassion should arouse compassion for an [evil-doing] person even if he is happy: “Though this poor wretch is now happy, cheerful, enjoying his wealth, still for want of even one good deed done now in any one of the three doors [of body, speech and mind] he can come to experience untold suffering in the states of loss.”

80. Having aroused compassion for that person in that way, he should next arouse compassion for a dear person, next for a neutral person, and next for a hostile person, successively in the same way.

81. But if resentment towards the hostile person arises in the way already described, he should make it subside in the way described under loving-kindness (§§14–39).

And here too when someone has done profitable deeds and the meditator sees or hears that he has been overtaken by one of the kinds of ruin beginning with ruin of health, relatives, property, etc., he deserves the meditator’s compassion; and so he does too in any case, even with no such ruin, thus “In reality he is unhappy,” because he is not exempt from the suffering of the round [of becoming]. And in the way already described the meditator should break down the barriers between the four kinds of people, that is to say, himself, the dear person, the neutral person and the hostile person. Then cultivating that sign, developing it and repeatedly practicing it, he should increase the absorption by the triple and quadruple jhāna in the way already stated under loving-kindness.

82. But the order given in the Aṅguttara Commentary is that a hostile person should first be made the object of compassion, and when the mind has been made malleable with respect to him, next the unlucky person, next the dear person, and next oneself. That does not agree with the text, “an unlucky, unfortunate person” (§78).Therefore he should begin the development, break down the barriers, and increase absorption only in the way stated here.

83. After that, the versatility consisting in the unspecified pervasion in five ways, the specified pervasion in seven ways, and the directional pervasion in ten ways, and the advantages described as “He sleeps in comfort,” etc., should be understood in the same way as given under loving-kindness.

This is the detailed explanation of the development of compassion. [316]