Tsong khapa tells us that unlike many other Buddhist texts where it is common to find respect paid to Buddhas or Manjushri, Candrakirti chooses to praise compassion instead. The purpose of this is to emphasize the method side of the path to enlightenment such as the first five of the six perfections – generosity, patience, ethics, joyous effort and concentration. Candrakirti also claims that compassion is the root cause of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Hearers and Solitary Realizers.

In the beginning of his treatise Madhyamakavatara we find the following two verses:

Hearers and Solitary Realizers are born from Buddhas.
Buddhas are born from Bodhisattvas.
The mind of compassion, non-dual understanding,
And the altruistic mind of enlightenment
Are the causes of the Children of Conquerors.

Mercy along is seen as the seed
Of a Conqueror’s rich harvest,
As water for its development, and as
Ripening in a state of long enjoyment.
Therefore at the start I praise compassion.

Gendun Drup, the first Dalai Lama, in a short commentary to Tsong khapa’s Illumination called A Mirror for the Illumination of the Thought tells us: the realizations of the Hearers (shravakas) and Solitary Realizers (pratyekabuddhas) arise through the practice of dependent origination. The understanding of dependent origination comes from hearing it from a Buddha. Hence, Hearers and Solitary Realizers are born from Buddhas.

One may ask: does it follow that Bodhisattvas must become Hearers before entering into the practices of the Bodhisattvas? Tsong khapa and Gendun Drup are very clear on this point. Buddhas are born from Bodhisattvas in the sense that a Buddha originates from the Bodhisattva with whose personality theirs is continuous. Through practicing the meditations to enlightenment the Bodhisattva and the resultant experience of Buddhahood are causally contiguous.

In Illumination Je Rinpoche raises a possible objection saying: Someone (kha cig) says: isn’t “conqueror child” an epithet for Bodhisattvas? If so, how can a Bodhisattva be the bearer of a Buddha? For it is impossible that the father of a child be the child’s child. Tsong khapa answers this by stating the following:  Bodhisattva X is the substantial cause of Buddha Y, that is, the substance or the continuum of the subtle mind of Bodhisattva X becomes the continuum of the subtle mind Buddha Y. Further on he says: “The state of Buddhahood is only attained through one’s formerly having developed the state of a Bodhisattva on the path of learning”.

One may ask: why is Tsong khapa raising this objection here as it seems a straight forward claim that X and Y are causally related. We need to remind ourselves here of Candrakirti’s original intent when composing Madhyamakavatara. In India at that time there was a widely held misconception that the only requirement for a spiritual aspirant to achieve enlightenment was wisdom. That is, meditate on emptiness and enlightenment would ensue. Candrakirti’s treatise explicitly presents the causal relationship between the resultant state of Buddhahood and compassion. Therefore, Tsong khapa, like a masterful chess player setting up the pieces four moves ahead of his opponent, is maneuvering his philosophical arguments in such a way that it will be clear that compassion is the cause of a Bodhisattva, and it therefore follows: compassion is the root cause of enlightenment, not wisdom.

Of course, there is an implicit caveat here: The fully developed compassion spoken of in Buddhist thought is in turn generated from a thorough understand of the conditioned existence that all beings are inflicted by suffering, and this in turn can only be generated by understanding emptiness. For more in this see my essay: Is Wisdom Really Necessary In Order To Generate Compassion?

Gendun Drup in his Mirror for the Illumination of the Thought speaks of this causal relationship thus:

It is fitting for the Glorious Candrakirti to pay homage to compassion at the beginning, for its production is like the excellent harvest of the Victorious ones¹. Compassion is important at the beginning of the practice like a seed, it is important in the middle like water for its development, and it is important at the time of the result like enjoyment of its ripening.

This closely follows Candrakirti’s own thoughts in verse 1.2 of Madyamakavatara where it says:

Since mercy itself is accepted as the seed of this excellent harvest
Of the Conquerors, as water for development and
Like the ripening in a state of long enjoyment.
I therefore, praise compassion at the beginning.

The mind of compassion is the root cause of a future Buddha because it is this mind that is the initial motive for one to engage the path. That is to say, by clearly seeing how beings undergo suffering, and by understanding the causes of suffering one thinks: I will free all beings from suffering.

Compassion nurtures ones practice like water, and is the causal link through which one continues to practice the six perfections – generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom – thereby one’s development of the stages continues stage by stage, in a step by step process underpinned by the compassionate wish to free all beings from conditioned existence.

Because of this compassionate wish one is able to enjoy the fruits of practice, that is, enlightenment. This is true because it is compassion that is the driving force, the rocket fuel for practice that serves as basic motivation for engaging the path. According to many, without compassion one would simply stop at personal nirvana.

However, it is important to understand that Candrakirti and Tsong khapa are not speaking of simple empathy here. The fully developed compassion spoken of in Buddhism is not mere empathy, although empathy is its cause.

In the next article we will enumerate the different types of compassion.

Footnotes:

1. this is an honorific epithet for all Buddhas