sNying rJe Chenpo
In general, compassion can be divided into three types. The first is compassion that is focused on the present suffering of sentient beings. The second is focused on the phenomenal causes of this misery, and the third is compassion that has no focus.

The first type is easy to understand. By seeing the situation and the suffering of sentient beings, you feel great compassion and wish to remove and purify their miserable condition.

The second type of compassion relates to the depth of their ignorance. For example, everything is forever changing, and yet, due to ignorance, sentient beings are constantly clinging and attached to the past. They never seem to realize that circumstances will inevitably transform into other states. They cling and grasp at conditions as if they could enjoy a particular state for aeons and aeons. That is not how the system works. It is all transitory. Due to their ignorance, they do not understand the real or impermanent nature of life. Have compassion for them in their ignorance, this profound misunderstanding of the nature of phenomena.

The third form of compassion has no focus or object as do the other two. The object of the first is sentient beings with their current experience of suffering. The second concerns ignorance, but the third type has no particular focus. This is a deeper level of compassion based on equanimity or great emptiness. You don't feel any distinctions between sentient beings or nonsentient beings. You meditate without any discrimination as you focus on the deep, natural state of the absolute.


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