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Is compassion the only "pure" meme? Are there others?
Let us allow that the Dalai Lama is right: If you want to be happy, practice compassion; if you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If happiness comes only from being compassionate, then: our compassion for others means we want them to be happy. Them being happy requires that they be compassionate. This concern for the happiness of still others, requires that those others, in turn be compassionate, and so on. In this way, compassion is a meme that seeks only to generate more of itself. All memes seek to replicate, but not ONLY to replicate. Hence the claim that it is "pure" in a meaningful sense. Does this seem viable? Are there other memes you can think of which seem to possess this same quality?
Leela Ashton
One decides how to act by allowing oneself to be motivated by pure love, and not to allow your self - mind and ego - to judge what the 'kindest thing' or 'worst thing' to do is, let God be the judge of that. Not easy, I know.
'Fall back'? - to believe that everything is the will of God is actually the one of the hardest levels of selflessness to truly attain.
Observers will never collectively perceive that the mark has been hit perfectly with a spiritually developed individual's every act, however the point is the motivation behind the act - this is the only thing that can be 'truthful'. The rest is perception. If one acts from this place at all times, one can not be unhappy. And those who are around someone who acts from this place have the opportunity for personal spiritual transformation. However, there is much falsity around the achievement and attainment of this level of awareness which creates the complexities and confusions analysed here.
Erik Richardson 10+
Every compassionate doctor/teacher/priest/etc. that I have known would, indeed, be quite unhappy if some aspect of their practice (or lack of practice) caused their effort to fail - no matter how pure their motives may have been.
Michael Zwerdling
This brings me to the second point, which is that a certain wisdom and skillful means need to be cultivated in order for compassion to manifest. Otherwise you end up with what might be called idiot compassion--always placating the situation. Since some forms of compassion cannot occur without the practice of cultivating insight, wisdom and skillful means ( unless one wishes to fall back on the position that all activity is Buddha activity, or the will of God, etc) therefore compassion is not necessarily a self-replicating meme.
Note that I did not say that kindness cannot occur without practice, or that all compassion must be practice-based; only that compassionate acts must stem from developed selfless wisdom in order to hit the mark perfectly with every act.
Erik Richardson 10+
Michael Roche
Secondly, I'm reminded of a story from "Liao Fan's Lessons" a Buddhist/Taoist classic. A magistrate ignores the insults of an aggressive drunk, deciding instead to practice compassion. The drunk later murders someone and is sentenced to death. The magistrate regretted not punishing the man, stating that if he had punished him, then maybe his behaviour might not have escalated to include murder. To paraphrase Liao Fan, great evil can often appear to be great good, and great good can often appear to be great evil, but what really matters is the wisdom of the person performing the act. I believe that once we attach the notion of purity to compassion, it becomes above reproach, and that, like it did for the magistrate, can give us considerable cause for regret.
Erik Richardson 10+
While my question is meant to be broader than just the Buddhist view, I should point out that for many of the traditions within Buddhism, compassion is exactly the most pure, for that is our natural state once we have removed all of intellectual barnacles and emotional attachments (like 'regret' oddly enough). Beyond that, I'm afraid a full discussion of the different traditions and views of Buddhism will lead me astray from the spirit of the question.
Michael Roche
Well, now I've cleared that up, I guess my answer is that a meme will naturally seek to replicate itself, so no, I think compassion will replicate itself, just as any other meme would. All memes have their own character, some are aggressive, some dangerous, and compassion is well, compassionate.
Sorry Erik, I still do not really grasp what you mean by pure.
Erik Richardson 10+
Consider a meme like "limiting offspring will increase material wealth." This idea will replicate and spread, but at the same time the function of its execution/acceptance is a limiting of offspring. In parallel, consider a computer virus that had no secondary effects - it didn't erase files, it didn't generate advertising spam, it didn't dump spyware onto your computer. If its _only_ goal was to spread, then it would be "pure" in the sense I was exploring.
Amily shaw 10+
when i think more about how DL would come up with his idea of happiness, i notice that his religion also focus very much on being kind ,being compassionate.so for non-believers ,would it be different when they follow the rule ?i mean to what extent his belief(or world view ,value,what matters to him) contributes to happiness and chances are he could misattribute "mere compassion" to happiness.
i ll be very curious if he could live like anyone one of us working towards dealines ,developing plans,paying bills for a while and then see how practising compassion can help.overall, it is a very good calling to people to be passionate .
Ed Schulte 30+
Re the HHtDL quote "If happiness comes only from being compassionate, then: our compassion for others means we want them to be happy "
Because the "other" person is You....or "You" = they .....events of Compassion are Non-Dual (above 500 LOC) and not to be confused with lower level Consciousness (Dualistic level such as the "Golden Rule)
Are there others ....the researchers of all fields of science have reported tangible evidence of "altruistic" nature "out there" in the farthest reaches of their exploration ....Their higher Selves smiling back at them.
Erik Richardson 10+