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Can pity/sympathetic vicarious suffering coexist with karuṇa/compassion and first jhāna as a domanassa (distressed mental state)?

 If not, then what is the domanassa allowable in first jhāna?

Vimuttimagga says asubha and cemetary contemplations can only be done up to first jhāna (and not the higher jhānas), so that would be another type of first jhāna domanassa allowable. 


Re: Near Enemy of Compassion: Sadness or Pity?

Post by frank k » 

AFAIK that whole 'near enemy' of the brahmaviharas is a commentarial invention.
I don't see any suttas talking about that, the suttas cited in this thread (prior to my post) don't support that IMO.

If anything, I would think the suttas implicitly support an idea of a 'near friend' in pity for compassion.
Recall that domanassa (distressed mental state) can be present in first or second jhāna (depending on which version of SN 48.40 you believe).
Just as mudita, being the rejoicing of virtue of oneself or others doing skillful Dharmas, there is vicarious enjoyment,
what I suspect is there is a version of karuna with vicarious sympathy, pity, resulting in a first jhāna with a domanassa of pity/sympathatic pain done with the karuna.
If that's the case, then that would make 'pity' a 'near friend' instead of 'near enemy' of karuna.

-frankk
pathofsincerity wrote: ↑Fri Aug 26, 2022 2:36 pmIn brief, does anyone know any suttas or commentarial texts that talk about pity as the near enemy of compassion? If not, does anyone know how exactly pity came to be the popular definition of the near enemy of compassion?

As for the research I've already done:

Any google search of "near enemy of compassion" turns up endless results saying it's pity, including many from prominent Buddhist teachers. However, in my search for an actual source of this definition, the closest I've come up with is people referencing Jack Kornfield. I haven't located anything in the suttas talking about the near enemy of compassion.

The earliest reference I can find on the subject is in the Visuddhimagga, where it says the following:
"Compassion has grief based on the home life as its near enemy, since both share in seeing failure. Such grief has been described in the way beginning, “When a man either regards as a privation failure to obtain visible objects cognizable by the eye that are sought after, desired, agreeable, gratifying and associated with worldliness, or when he recalls those formerly obtained that are past, ceased and changed, then grief arises in him. Such grief as this is called grief based on the home life."
In his book Compassion and Emptiness, also citing the Visuddhimagga, Venerable Analayo says something similar:
"This is vital in so far as the meditative cultivation of compassion can only lead to deeper concentration if it is undertaken with a positive or even joyful mind. From a practical perspective, this means that one’s cultivation of compassion needs to steer clear of sadness. This is not easy, since what causes the arising of compassion can naturally lead to being afflicted oneself by sadness. Therefore it is important to monitor closely one’s own response to the affliction of others. This should ideally proceed from the opening of the heart that is genuinely receptive to the pain and suffering of others, to the positive mental condition of being filled with the wish for others to be free from affliction and suffering.

Understood in this way, compassion does not mean to commiserate to the extent of suffering along with the other. This would be falling prey to what later tradition considers to be the “near enemy” of compassion. According to the Visuddhimagga, cruelty is the “far enemy” of compassion, in the sense of being directly opposed to it, whereas worldly forms of sadness are its “near enemy”. Needless to say, both enemies are best avoided.

The early discourses do not explicitly draw a distinction between near and far enemies of compassion."

Once again citing the Visuddimagga, Buddhist scholar Andrew Olendzki defines compassion's near enemy as "not bearing the suffering of others." Presumably, this is just putting the first quote I listed into common language. Source: http://nebula.wsimg.com/0ad4ca566b735b2 ... oworigin=1

In lieu of all this, going back to my basic question, does anyone know any suttas or commentarial texts that talk about pity as the near enemy of compassion? If not, does anyone know how exactly pity came to be the popular definition of the near enemy of compassion?


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