"That meal was beyond belief." "The sunset was beyond belief." We use this phrase to describe something so phenomenal, so incredible, that we don't have concepts to appropriately capture it. Something outside the confines of anything we could believe or conceive of.
"Compassion is beyond belief." We can approach this quote in different ways, each revealing something essential about the nature of compassion itself.
Simply, we can relate to how fantastic compassion feels. A sincere state of compassion feels so good. It's one of the most elevated expressions we can offer to another living thing, and it feels so good for ourselves in the process. Everyone wins. "Compassion is beyond belief" reminds us of how good compassion feels, and how good it is for everyone.
And we can approach this quote from a different angle as well. We can interpret "beyond belief" more literally. A belief is a finite set of possibilities. It's a set of possibilities we're investing in, and take comfort in. We find security in the knowing that comes from the limited and manageable set of possibilities accompanying a specific belief. Genuine, uncontrived compassion however, does not arise from a belief. It arises from beyond belief.
Compassion is an unfiltered outpouring of one's heart. It is the unadulterated desire to see pain and suffering disappear. Not just some suffering, not just the suffering we deem worthy of relief, but all suffering, wherever it exists. True compassion doesn't discriminate between deserving and undeserving recipients. It responds to suffering itself, not to our judgments about who merits our care.
If we approach a situation filtered through a belief, then what results starts to take on the seasoning of that belief, or beliefs. In cases, this may appear positive. For example, a belief that nobody should be assaulted by another may inspire a response that resembles compassion, and may be, but could also be a mix of sympathy and judgment. In this case, there is a victim and a perpetrator. That may serve a necessary purpose in seeking justice. But it's wrapped up in our belief about how the world should work.
This is where compassion beyond belief becomes most challenging and profound. Uncontrived compassion sees suffering everywhere, even in the perpetrator. It recognizes the pain that leads to causing pain, the wounds that create wounders. This doesn't mean condoning harmful actions or abandoning justice. It means that compassion, which is beyond belief, touches all suffering without first checking our beliefs about who deserves it.
Beliefs tend to obscure compassion. "I'll feel compassion if they're innocent," "I'll feel compassion if they're trying to change," "I'll feel compassion if they're like me." But genuine compassion has no such conditions. It doesn't arise from what we think or believe about a situation. It arises from recognizing suffering as suffering, pain as pain, regardless of the story surrounding it.
Perhaps compassion emerges from recognizing ourselves in all suffering, seeing that the capacity for both pain and causing pain exists in all of us. When we look deeply, we might see that anyone, given the right conditions, could find themselves in any position. The one who suffers, the one who causes suffering, both carry pain. Compassion beyond belief sees this without needing to take sides.
The sheer, uncontrived and spontaneous arousal of compassion is not polarized. It flows for all pain and suffering, which is everywhere. We cannot manufacture this genuine compassion through belief or will. It naturally reveals itself when we avail ourselves of what lies beyond belief. When we step outside our frameworks of right and wrong, worthy and unworthy, us and them, something else becomes possible. In that space beyond our beliefs about how things should be, compassion flows freely, touching everything and everyone without discrimination.
Compassion has no limit, beliefs do. Every belief, no matter how noble, creates boundaries around our compassion. It says compassion goes here but not there, includes these but not those. But pure compassion, which arises from beyond belief, knows no such boundaries. It's like the sun, shining on all without asking who deserves its warmth.
This doesn't mean we stop discerning or acting to prevent harm. It doesn't mean we become passive in the face of injustice. It means that our actions, even firm ones, can arise from compassion rather than from our beliefs about good and evil. We can protect the vulnerable, stop the harmful, work for justice, all while holding compassion for everyone involved.
Pure compassion is beyond belief because it doesn't need belief to exist. It doesn't need our stories, our frameworks, our justifications. It simply meets suffering with the wish for that suffering to cease. All suffering, for all beings, without exception. This is compassion beyond what we might believe possible, beyond what our beliefs would typically allow. This is compassion as a force of nature, flowing wherever there is pain, bringing the possibility of relief to all it touches.
