84000 Glossary of Terms

Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.

སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ། | Glossary of Terms

  • སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ།

  • snying rje chen po
  • mahākaruṇā
  • Term
Publications: 3
  • great compassion
  • སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ།
  • snying rje chen po
  • mahākaruṇā
Definition in this text:

Not defined as such in this text, but in the Ten Thousand (2.7) great compassion is described as “unstinting loving kindness toward all beings, when there are actually no beings.”

  • great compassion
  • སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ།
  • snying rje chen po
  • mahākaruṇā
Definition in this text:

This refers to one of the two central qualities of buddhas or high bodhisattvas: their feeling born of the wish for all living beings to be free of suffering and to attain the supreme happiness. It is important to note that this great compassion has nothing to do with any sentimental emotion such as that stimulated by such a reflection as “Oh, the poor creatures! How they are suffering!” On the contrary, great compassion is accompanied by the clear awareness that ultimately there are no such things as living beings, suffering, etc., in reality. Thus it is a sensitivity that does not entertain any dualistic notion of subject and object; indeed, such an unlimited sensitivity might best be termed “empathy.”

  • great compassion
  • སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ།
  • snying rje chen po
  • mahākaruṇā
Definition in this text:

A specific state of mind resulting from the four abodes of Brahma and defined as the wish to liberate all beings from suffering.