Anam Cara

Suffering Brings Compassion

One of the great fruits of suffering is compassion. When you have felt and experienced pain, it refines the harshness that may be in you. Tolstoy said that our great duty as humans was to sow the seed of compassion in each other’s hearts. This happens in friendship. If you are in pain and your friend knows pain, you feel the kinship and understanding that can really shelter you. Understanding is one of the few shelters that are capable of standing in the suffering place.

I was in China once, and I visited many Buddhist temples. My favourite Buddha was one I discovered at the back of the altar in one of the temples. He was a Buddha with hundreds of hands, and in each hand there was an eye. I asked a young Buddhist monk who this Buddha was. The monk explained that this was a Buddha who had lived a wonderful life. He had reached such a level of soul-refinement that he was about to go into Nirvana; before crossing this threshold he took one look back and saw that there was still one person suffering in the world. He was then given the choice, either to go into Nirvana or go back to help the suffering one. He chose to come back. The very moment he made that choice, he was raised immediately into Nirvana. He was given a hand to help everyone who was suffering. And he was given an eye in each hand to see where the help and shelter were needed. This Buddha is a beautiful image of enlightened compassion which has strength, wisdom, and enlightenment within it.