Nature of emptiness is compassion.

It should be clearly understood that anyone who has realized the nature of emptiness experiences the spontaneous arising of bodhicitta. There is no realization of emptiness that doesn't inherently contain bodhicitta. Just like fire is hot, the nature of emptiness is compassion.

~ Yangthang Rinpoche

It's all a matter of motivation!

Be ambitious about the magnitude of the motivation you arouse. Don't settle for simple kindness when nothing less than the fully-fledged mind of bodhicitta is what is needed. Kyabje Dudjom Rinpopche said that dharma practice is really not that difficult, it's all a matter of motivation. So never forget to arouse the motivation of wanting to bring all sentient beings to complete enlightenment. And the more magnanimous your motivation, the more merit you will accumulate, even when all you do is light a candle. If you light a candle merely as a decoration for the living room, your motivation is that of an ordinary person. If you light it with the wish to accumulate merit and eventually destroy samsara, you share the attitude cultivated by shravakayana practitioners. To light the candle with the wish that any merit attained be dedicated to the enlightenment of all sentient beings, your attitude is the same as that of bodhisattvayana practitioners. To consider the candle to be the light of wisdom that ilmuinates all sentient beings, with the aspiration that wherever its light falls becomes the mandala, is the attitude of a tantric practitioner.

~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

The Four Immeasurables

Love means wishing for the happiness of others.

Like a loving mother cherishing her child,

One’s body, wealth, and virtue all amassed one gives for others’ benefit,

While training to endure the harms that they inflict.

Compassion is a powerful state of mind,

An inability to tolerate the fact that others suffer.

Beings in the six realms are entrapped by sorrow and its cause,

And seeing this brings tears to one’s eyes.

Joy is to delight in other’s pleasure and success;

It is to cultivate the wish that all have happiness.

It is a joy one feels when they achieve it for themselves

And is the wish that they should never be deprived of it

Impartiality is freedom from attachment and hostility,

When sides and factions are all seen as equal,

When enemy and friend and neither –

Are all treated with an evenhanded kindness.

We should practice these four attitudes, remembering

That all is without true existence.

~ Jigme Lingpa

To see if you’ll attain liberation in the future or not...

To see if you’re aware of impermanence or not, check whether your plans are long or short term. To see if you perceive samsara as flawed or not, check how strong is your attachments. To see if you’ll attain liberation in the future or not, check whether your conduct is good or bad. To see if you’ve given rise to loving kindness and compassion or not, check how you take care of those in need. To see if you’ve tamed the demon of anger or not, check how much hatred you feel towards your enemies. To see if you’ve dispelled the obscuring demon of ignorance or not, check how much you cling in hope and fear. To see if you’ve purified the three poisons or not, check how free from grasping you’ve become. You’ll know your Dharma practice has become the path or not by thoroughly examining your own mind.

~ Chokgyur Lingpa

The three types of uninterrupted-ness during mantra recitation.

There are three types of uninterrupted-ness when we recite the mantra. There are uninterrupted offerings to the Buddhas; uninterrupted purification of obscurations of sentient beings, and uninterrupted attainment of siddhis or attainments. The siddhi is basically the increase of love and compassion; if love and compassion increase, wisdom increases and one attains enlightenment. Due to compassion, one temporarily experiences the seven qualities of the higher realms, the happiness of the higher realms and many other benefits that come from mantra recitation.

~ Garchen Rinpoche.

Compassion, the quickest way to full enlightenment.

The Destroyer Qualified Gone Beyond One (Bhagawan) said, 

“The bodhisattva does not follow many Dharmas. The bodhisattva holds one Dharma well and realizes it well. The whole Buddhadharma will be in the hand of that person.” 

What differentiates Buddhism from other religions is COMPASSION for every single sentient being. What really pleases all the buddhas and bodhisattvas is COMPASSION. COMPASSION is what makes all sentient beings happy. 

STRONG COMPASSION is the foundation that causes you to achieve full enlightenment most quickly. If you want to achieve full enlightenment in order to liberate all sentient beings from suffering and bring them to full enlightenment, the quickest way is to generate strong COMPASSION.

Chandrakirti said,

“At the beginning, COMPASSION is like a seed; in the middle, it is like water; at the end, it is like a ripened fruit. Achieving the result of full enlightenment is all due to COMPASSION.”

Even for non-believers the best thing and only way to create merit (good karma) is COMPASSION, as well as making offerings and prostrations to holy objects and circumambulating them, even by chance. What gives all beings a happy, satisfied, meaningful and successful life is COMPASSION.

From the Sutra Request by Lodro Gyatso:

“The thought of complete enlightenment, preserving Dharma, practicing Dharma and having love and compassion for living beings: these four dharmas have infinite qualities—the limit of their benefits is not seen by the Victorious Ones. It is said that preserving Dharma and protecting the lives of living beings has limitless benefits.”

This shows that if we have COMPASSION for sentient beings, from those we can’t see with the naked eye but only under a microscope up to creatures the size of a mountain, then the Buddha has never explained the limits of the benefits of the compassion we generate for them. It’s the same as saving the lives of human beings, animals and insects; we must understand that it has limitless benefits.

A Kadampa geshe said,

“Holy beings of the land of Dzambu (this world) respond to harm with good actions.” 

When ordinary people are harmed they retaliate with harm. Holy beings repay harm with positive actions. Whoever sees the enemy as the virtuous friend is happy wherever that person is. 

The great Indian scholar bodhisattva Shantideva said in the first chapter of his Bodhicaryavatara:

“I bow down to the body of him in whom the sacred precious mind is born. I seek refuge in that source of joy, who brings to happiness even those who harm him.”

The extensive benefits of bodhicitta, which are like the sky and the depthless ocean, are also the benefits of generating great COMPASSION for all sentient beings. Without great COMPASSION there is no way achieve bodhicitta, which has limitless benefits.

The conclusion is that COMPASSION is the most important practice in life.

~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche - COMPASSION IS OF THE UTMOST NEED