解脫道論 悲心修行與具足

Compassion is illustrated by parents seeing their only child suffer. Distressed with compassion, they say, “Alas, such suffering!” The treatise then expressly defines compassion as arousing loving care and pity toward all beings. For compassion to remain undistracted is called cultivation; its characteristic is that what brings no benefit does not appear; its flavor is happiness; its arising is non-harming; and its merits are “equal to those of loving-kindness.”

The cultivation sets out three kinds of what is seen: illness, aging, and poverty; inversion, being bound by the entanglements of the defilements and entering ignorance, or having merit without training; and association with unwholesome and unlovely qualities while not being associated with wholesome and lovely qualities. In all three cases, whether one sees or hears, one attends to the being’s suffering and to how that being might be delivered from suffering. The original merely places the three kinds in sequence; it assigns them no separate grades or applications.

When compassion is fulfilled, killing is removed, distress does not arise, and unwholesome affection is removed. Its loss is stated under two causes, but the subjects and objects of “one’s own intimates” and “the counteragent,” and the attachment of the two latter phrases beginning with “through,” remain unresolved. Since suffering is not present in every being or at every time, how can compassion be cultivated universally? The treatise first answers that beings have already undergone suffering, and that by grasping its sign well one can cultivate compassion everywhere. It then answers that the suffering of birth and death is shared by all beings, and on that basis cultivation becomes possible everywhere. (The section on compassion is concluded.)

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Cultivation and Fulfillment of Compassion · Doorway · Summer 2026

The Questions and Definition

Question: What is compassion? How is it cultivated? What is its characteristic? What is its flavor? What is its arising? What merits does it have? What does its cultivation consist in?

Answer: It is like parents who have only one child and cherish that child in their hearts. Seeing the child undergo suffering, they become distressed with compassion and exclaim, “Alas, such suffering!” To arouse loving care and pity toward all beings is called compassion.

For compassion to remain without distraction is called cultivation. Its characteristic is that what brings no benefit does not appear; its flavor is happiness; its arising is non-harming; and its merits are equal to those of loving-kindness. “Arising” here is the wording of the original question; this passage gives it no separate definition.

Cultivation: Three Kinds of What Is Seen

As for how it is cultivated, the beginning meditator first enters a secluded place, sits down, and gathers the whole mind. With an undistracted mind, the meditator sees someone fall ill, grow old, or become poor. Whether this is seen directly or heard about, one attends in this way: “This being is undergoing suffering. By what means might this being be delivered from suffering?”

Again, one may see someone who is inverted, bound by the entanglements of the defilements and entering ignorance, or a person of merit who nevertheless does not train. Whether this is seen or heard, one attends in this way: “This being undergoes suffering and will be born in a bad destination. By what means might this being be delivered from suffering?” In the original, “bound by the entanglements of the defilements” and “entering ignorance” run together. This rendering follows their original order without deciding their syntactic relation.

Again, one may see someone associated with unwholesome qualities and not associated with wholesome qualities, associated with what is unlovely and not associated with what is lovely. Whether this is seen or heard, one attends in this way: “This being undergoes suffering and will be born in a bad destination. By what means might this being be delivered from suffering?”

The Sequence and Pervasion

Through this doorway and this practice, the meditator cultivates and repeatedly cultivates compassion toward that person. Once compassion has been cultivated and repeatedly cultivated in this way, the mind becomes gentle and capable of sustaining it. The meditator next cultivates it in sequence toward a neutral person, and from there toward an enemy. The remainder is as explained in detail before, until compassion fills the four directions. “The remainder is as explained in detail before” is only a backward reference; this passage does not list again what it omits.

Fulfillment and Nonfulfillment

Question: What is the fulfillment of compassion? What is its nonfulfillment?

Answer: When compassion is accomplished, killing is removed, distress does not arise, and unwholesome affection is removed. Compassion is lost through two causes. The original then reads 以自親生怨，以憂惱行；以對治生忿，以起恐怖. The text does not explain who becomes hostile or indignant toward whom, or how 以 functions and attaches in 以憂惱行 and 以起恐怖. This rendering therefore preserves the stated count of two causes, the four phrases, and their sequence, without recasting them as psychological diagnoses involving different objects.

The Challenge That Suffering Does Not Pervade All Beings

Question: Suffering is not present in every being, nor is it present at every time. How, then, can compassion be cultivated toward all beings? Here the Taishō text reads 苦, “suffering,” while the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace witnesses read 昔, “formerly.” This translation follows the Taishō text and does not adjudicate the variant.

Answer: The original first says that, because beings have already undergone suffering, its sign is well grasped. The temporal reference of “have already undergone suffering” is not further explained in this passage. Once that sign has been grasped, compassion can be cultivated everywhere.

Again, the suffering of birth and death is shared by all beings. On that basis, compassion can be cultivated everywhere.

(The section on compassion is concluded.)

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Cultivation and Fulfillment of Compassion · Vernacular · Summer 2026

This is the second doorway among the four immeasurables. The passage first states what is seen: it uses the simile of parents with only one child and expressly says that, “seeing the child undergo suffering, they become distressed with compassion: ‘Alas, such suffering!’” It then says, “To arouse loving care and pity toward all beings is called compassion”〔T32 437a26–27〕. This defining question and answer occurs at〔T32 437a25–27〕. The text next answers, in sequence, the cultivation, characteristic, flavor, arising, merits, and practical cultivation of compassion. The practical cultivation sets out three kinds of what is seen, then extends through a neutral person and an enemy until it fills the four directions. It next explains fulfillment and nonfulfillment, and finally answers how universal cultivation is possible through the sign of suffering already undergone and the suffering of birth and death shared by all beings. The phrase “loving care and pity” (慈憐愍) in the definition is retained from the original. The passage does not explain how “loving-kindness” and “compassion” are divided or joined here, so compassion is not redefined as loving-kindness transformed by an encounter with suffering. “Its merits are equal to those of loving-kindness”〔T32 437a28〕says only that their merits are equal, while “the remainder is as explained in detail before”〔T32 437b12〕does no more than refer back to an earlier explanation. Neither statement explains why material is omitted. The exclamation “Alas, such suffering!” is likewise preserved only as part of the defining sentence; no additional psychological point of origin is constructed from it.

The Seven Questions and Their Express Answers

The line “Question: What is compassion? How is it cultivated? What is its characteristic? What is its flavor? What is its arising? What merits does it have? What does its cultivation consist in?”〔T32 437a24–25〕sets out seven questions. The defining answer uses the simile of parents and their only child and ends with “To arouse loving care and pity toward all beings is called compassion”〔T32 437a26–27〕. The answers then follow the order of the questions: “For compassion to remain without distraction is called cultivation. Its characteristic is that what brings no benefit does not appear; its flavor is happiness; its arising is non-harming; and its merits are equal to those of loving-kindness”〔T32 437a27–28〕. Here, the cultivation, characteristic, flavor, arising, and merits of compassion are each read under their original name. The answer to the final question, “What does its cultivation consist in?” begins with the meditator entering a secluded place, sitting, and gathering the whole mind〔T32 437a28–29〕. This reading does not combine “happiness as flavor” with the later “distress does not arise” into an unstated psychological criterion.

Setting the questions alongside their answers distinguishes the two uses of “cultivation.” The answer to the earlier question, “How is it cultivated?” is only that compassion remains without distraction. Only the final question, “What does its cultivation consist in?” opens the account of sitting meditation, the three kinds of what is seen, repeated cultivation, and extension to a neutral person, an enemy, and the four directions. The answer concerning the characteristic is only that what brings no benefit does not appear; the answer concerning flavor is only happiness; the answer concerning arising is only non-harming; and the answer concerning merit is only that the merits are equal to those of loving-kindness. Although the seven questions occur on a single line, their answers still follow the original sequence; the conditions of fulfillment and nonfulfillment later in the passage do not revise these five answers.

“Its merits are equal to those of loving-kindness” is only the answer concerning merit. The passage does not repeat the merits of loving-kindness or explain why these four words refer backward. “The remainder is as explained in detail before” likewise appears only after the sequence through the neutral person and the enemy. Both statements retain their referential function; neither the omitted material nor the reason for its omission is supplied here.

Three Kinds of What Is Seen and One Mode of Attention

The cultivation sets out three kinds of what is seen in succession. The first is illness, aging, and poverty: “seeing that person fall ill, grow old, or become poor, whether seeing or hearing, one attends in this way: ‘This being undergoes suffering. By what means might this being be delivered from suffering?’”〔T32 437b01–02〕. The second is inversion, being bound by the entanglements of the defilements and entering ignorance, or having merit without training. Whether one sees or hears, one attends to the being’s suffering, future birth in a bad destination, and how that being might be delivered from suffering〔T32 437b02–05〕. The third is association with unwholesome qualities and nonassociation with wholesome qualities, together with association with what is unlovely and nonassociation with what is lovely. Whether one sees or hears, the attention remains directed to the being’s suffering, future birth in a bad destination, and how that being might be delivered from suffering〔T32 437b05–08〕. All three move from “whether one sees or hears” into attention. The treatise merely places them in sequence and assigns them no separate grades or applications. Their closing formulas differ at one point: the first says “might then gain release from suffering,” while the latter two say “might be freed from suffering.” The difference is retained and not harmonized.

The shared construction of the three can be checked item by item. The first lists illness, aging, and poverty, then “whether seeing or hearing” and “this being undergoes suffering.” The second lists inversion, entanglement by the defilements, entry into ignorance, and having merit without training, then “whether seeing or hearing” and “the being undergoes suffering and will be born in a bad destination.” The third lists the four relations of association or nonassociation with the unwholesome, wholesome, unlovely, and lovely, then “whether seeing or hearing” and “this being undergoes suffering and will be born in a bad destination.” All three end by asking what means might free the being from suffering. Only the first closing formula has the two additional characters 當 and 解.

Sequence, Fulfillment, and Nonfulfillment

After “the mind becomes gentle and capable of sustaining it”〔T32 437b11〕, the original says that compassion is cultivated in sequence toward a neutral person and then toward an enemy. The remainder is “as explained in detail before,” until it fills the four directions〔T32 437b11–13〕. This passage expressly names only the person first cultivated toward, a neutral person, and an enemy; it does not add a friend as a fourth person. The answer concerning fulfillment is: “When compassion is accomplished, killing is removed, distress does not arise, and unwholesome affection is removed”〔T32 437b14〕. Its three items are, in order, removal of killing, nonarising of distress, and removal of unwholesome affection. Nonfulfillment is first marked as having two causes, followed by 以自親生怨，以憂惱行；以對治生忿，以起恐怖〔T32 437b15–16〕. The text does not explain what “one’s own intimates” or “the counteragent” denotes, who becomes hostile or indignant toward whom, or how 以 functions and attaches in 以憂惱行 and 以起恐怖. The stated count of two causes, the four phrases, and their order are therefore preserved. No psychological process absent from the source is added to distress. The character 忿 has three readings among five witnesses. The main text follows the Taishō reading; the Exposition does not adjudicate the variants.

Before extending the sequence, the original twice says “through this doorway and this practice.” It first speaks of cultivating and repeatedly cultivating compassion toward that person; it then says that after compassion has been cultivated and repeatedly cultivated, the mind becomes gentle and capable of sustaining it〔T32 437b09–11〕. Only after that does it name the neutral person, the enemy, and the filling of the four directions. The question and answer about fulfillment begin a separate paragraph and list removal of killing, nonarising of distress, and removal of unwholesome affection. The passage on nonfulfillment first states two causes and then lists the four unresolved phrases. The cultivation sequence, the three items of fulfillment, and the difficult sentence on nonfulfillment remain in their own paragraphs and are not made into explanations of one another.

The Challenge That Suffering Does Not Pervade: Two Answers

The question is: “Suffering is not present in every being, nor is it present at every time. How can compassion be cultivated toward all beings?”〔T32 437b16–17〕. The first answer says: “Because beings have already undergone suffering, its sign is well grasped. Once that sign has been grasped, compassion can be cultivated everywhere”〔T32 437b17–19〕. The temporal reference of “have already undergone suffering” is not explained, so it is not restricted here to suffering experienced in the past. The second answer says: “The suffering of birth and death is shared by all beings; on that basis, cultivation becomes possible everywhere”〔T32 437b19–20〕. Both answers directly address how compassion can be cultivated “everywhere”: one speaks of suffering already undergone, good grasp of the sign, and the sign once grasped; the other speaks of the suffering of birth and death as shared by all beings. Their order is retained, without adding a hierarchy or a rule for choosing between them. The paragraph ends with the inline note “(The section on compassion is concluded.)”

The closing statement of the first answer expressly says “compassion can be cultivated everywhere,” whereas that of the second says only “cultivation becomes possible everywhere”; the word “compassion” appears in one but not the other. The wording is preserved sentence by sentence. Both use “everywhere” in response to the question’s “all beings,” but their conclusions are not rewritten as a single sentence.

Take away three points. First, compassion is defined through the simile of parents seeing their only child suffer and is expressly said to be loving care and pity aroused toward all beings. Second, the cultivation sets out illness, aging, and poverty; inversion, entanglement, or failure to train; and association with the unwholesome and unlovely as three kinds of what is seen. In each, whether one sees or hears, one attends to how the being might be freed from suffering. Third, fulfillment removes killing, prevents the arising of distress, and removes unwholesome affection, while nonfulfillment is stated in a difficult sentence of two causes. The challenge that suffering does not pervade is then answered through good grasp of the sign of suffering already undergone and through the suffering of birth and death shared by all beings. Each point keeps the source order without adding grades, separate applications, or psychological diagnoses.

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Cultivation and Fulfillment of Compassion · Exposition · Summer 2026