From the nondual Buddhist viewpoint, compassion is not necessarily connected with materially helping people, although that may also occur. Compassion flows naturally from our nature when we understand how things really exist and how they really work:
- It seems we naturally wish to be happy and to avoid suffering.
- It also seems difficult to really see ourselves as separate from others. When we ask, “Who am I?” it is unrealistic to limit this to the very porous boundary of our skin. We interact with other people, physically, emotionally and socially, and also with animals, plants, the air and, it seems, with everything.
So, by fully appreciating ourselves as part of a larger ecostructure we call the universe, we naturally try to look after ourselves by looking after everything. Ultimately it is the same thing. This is more realistic.
As the Buddha said, “If someone needs something, give it to him.”
This someone may of course be you yourself.