It Is So Blissful: Widening the Circle of Compassion

By Siri Korale

The author has documented his final version of conclusions that are in congruence with each other and can be integrated into a philosophy of life for humans, arising from his ideas, opinions, values, priorities and virtues he has developed based on his investigations of experiences throughout his encumbered life.

He believes that these together build a system of measuring tools in the form of strong inner feelings in a human's intellectual book of rules that every human uses to make decisions at any point in his life. He also believes that one's tormenting experiences are not all that bad in transforming human intelligence into wisdom in a wide range of engagements in one's life. "A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528969406

Siri Korale

The author grew up in a family of eleven children with the hard-labour ride, looking after the family's cows in the countryside Sri Lanka. He struggled, until his adult years, with his education and an underpaid teaching job. He later managed to become an IT professional and worked as an IT consultant in Colombo, Copenhagen and Riyadh. In 1988, he migrated to Australia with his wife and two children.

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About the Author

The author grew up in a family of eleven children with the hard-labour ride, looking after the family’s cows in the countryside Sri Lanka. He struggled, until his adult years, with his education and an underpaid teaching job. He later managed to become an IT professional and worked as an IT consultant in Colombo, Copenhagen and Riyadh. In 1988, he migrated to Australia with his wife and two children.

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Siri Korale (2020)

The right of Siri Korale to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528938105 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528969406 (ePub e-book)

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Introduction

The roots of thinking are the needs that are hardwired in the physical body of animals or humans or anything else in the Mother Nature and universe. They are the basic needs of the physical unit that turn to desires in the form of thoughts with living beings. These root needs are in fact outcomes of Math, Physics and Chemistry of the Mother Nature although they have become too complex with humans. The need of planets to rotate and the need of the plants to grow towards the sun are of the same kind. With human beings, physically wired needs give rise to feelings and they become thoughts with the help of a language. With the evolution of the brain, human desires have become way too complicated above the physical root needs. In fact, this complex mechanism has even added extra needs back to the human being’s physical mass. With animals, this has not been so weird due to lack of intelligence and a comprehensive language. A baby calf would not need to think to get up and suck milk from the mother at the very first time, it had the need to do so. Those needs are hardwired in the calf’s physical unit just like the need for plants to grow towards the sun. Humans may find it easy to believe that the root needs of non-living things would be the outcomes of the mechanisms of the Mother Nature. The truth is that our thinking is also based on the reactions of the same processes of the Mother Nature and that is the root level thinking of humans and all other objects around us. In reality, this is not basic at all with what we can see in front of our eyes. There is a different form of thinking with everything around us, an urge to move or change or grow. It is hard to grasp this concept but by looking at human thinking as something that initially comes from the hardwiring of our physical body that the Mother Nature created, makes it easier. Humans have long got used to think that desires are their own purposes of life, but they are often misled by body needs to find pleasure in things that are totally disgusting in other situations. There is no magic here. Even the unimaginable processes such as pumping blood throughout the human body and even our thinking are results of scientifically explainable active mechanisms. Human body has separate parts similar to those in a motorcar to serve the end desires and thinking is one of the additional features for the system to work. Religions have found ways to explain this in terms of God or gods or Karma or some other. That is how it has had to happen as it is an integral spiritual part of humanity and that is okay and may have a reasonable argument to support it.

We humans have developed weird complex expectations in life but just because of that, we are not overly separable from the rest of the Mother Nature as something totally different. We are a very complex form of robots created by the nature. We behave the way we have been programmed to behave at the root level also with the ability to reprogram ourselves in some ways with intelligence and emotions. Therefore, humans can be under control and have the right vision about the Mother Nature and universe with compassion. Genuine compassion in humans can expand to the whole around us and humans can have the pleasure of being in love with the Mother Nature, be wiser, be amazed by the existence of the universe and be in a trance (dhyana) from time to time in their journey of life.

1 – The Basis of Original Sermons

I sometimes felt: What’s the point? Do I have to write this? Would anyone be enlightened with this, I mean, in some way? Even the most intelligent people in this world live with the learned ignorance from their family and the rest of the society, ignoring the constant questioning arising from their inside. On the other hand, like I read in one of Dr Phil’s books, Psychology works for those who least need it. This book is not meant for psychology, but the same thing can happen with these writings. The people who would benefit will be those decent people who would not need any of my advice. Others will declare that they are the best, they are already enlightened, and they have been following these guidelines for a very long time even before they read this book. I am trying to convince myself to write these views of mine with some serious experience, I have had some time ago. There was a time, I had some serious issues in life through ignorance, together with some really good but vague guidelines for myself. I needed assurance for my own vague vision. It was not easy to get out of the old box to see the world clearly. This was the time, I read some really good advice and watched TV programmes that were hosted by a few wise people, and that gave me the assurance that I needed to change my life with my new thinking. So, I think it would not be that much waste of time to write what I am targeting to present. Some people who are struggling and awaiting assurance from an external source will definitely benefit from these guidelines. On the other hand, if someone taught me what I am writing in this book at a young age, then I could have been a much better person with high morale for a very long time. I am sure there are millions of people who would need the help, I needed at one stage in life.

My world in those dark times was like: I am right, I needed to embrace what I think is right, I know stuff more than anyone else around me, I am more intelligent than others, My thinking is perfect, I get very angry and that is because others make me angry, I say hurtful things/yell and scream in family because others are so ignorant, Others in family should surrender to my authority, It is embarrassing and intimidating to listen to the foolishness of others. This was what my old box was full of. This was what I had learnt, perhaps, from my own parent’s family and the rest of the society. Human intelligence does not seem to have too much power on long practiced ignorance because both come from the same brain. The new concepts, in fact, changed my life. Who is right does not matter that much anymore. Can I be happy, is the question to ask? What is so good about being right and unhappy, if that is the cause of misery? This is my family and no one should be in fear of another, in it. These are the parts of my new concepts. I don’t care that much any more about being right or even the hurtful things others would say and do to me. I just want to be peaceful. No hate, no fear, no pain and no suffering. I just want to tell you, with this newfound power inside me, I have written very powerful letters to many people to have justice done in matters where innocent people were victims of fraud or the victims of power of authority. I have appeared in courts on behalf of some of these victims and I have written letters to judges and spoken to judges during the case hearings. Every time I did, each and every one of them was successful and I was never questioned by a judge of my rights to do so. With what you just read, you already have an idea about what empowerment is like and how it feels to be empowered. I am only human, so please don’t take my words way out of context. With my experiences of several decades in life, I believe, a great majority of humans in the world are kind, compassionate, forgiving and empathetic people with true humaneness, but all that is buried under perhaps one single affection of mind, such as hatred or jealousy or anger, and they can’t get over it. They suffer more than others because they blame themselves for what is happening with them. In the times of Jesus or Buddha or other authors of humane religions, these were the kind of people who were healed the most, I believe.

This book is for the believers of all humane religions and believers of compassion, and for any human being who wants to be empowered. We need to find our talents and passions that would lead to incredible skills and success in life that are buried in jealousy, hatred, misbeliefs inherited from tradition-and-culture and fanaticism with distorted versions of religions. These are very subtle conditions in human mind until we find ourselves and become open to the amazing core-traits we have brought to this world. That is the empowerment I am talking about. Even with some minor matters like, electrical failure, we are sometimes convinced that there is no fault in my house and the problem is with the main supply line and we become totally blind to the actual fault. What we are discussing in this book is about a cover that blinds our entire vision, our intelligence and the sources of our wisdom. As you become reasonably empowered, you realise that you and most other people speak the same things the same way, but at the same time, you will see a huge difference between your feelings and attitudes, and theirs, towards other people. You will also find out how a vast majority of human beings are arguing to disprove, through this blindness, what is obvious in front of our eyes. Humans have accomplished things that were not even supposed to be achievable. Just think of the Great Wall of China or just the GPS that has the ability to position an actual geographical location of a vehicle, using a satellite picture, on a man-made digital street map. In other words, human beings, when they actively engage in life’s battles, as they often do, get consumed by urges to retaliate, overpower, be above and even to commit a crime and limit their lives to a few of their poor selfish needs. Empowerment is about being in control with these urges, to let their inborn talents and passions to emerge from their soul and see the light to nurture and grow. Empowerment will lead you gradually to achieve what was supposed to be unachievable, in your mind. That is what can transform a suicide bomber to a great human being. They are not plain stupid as they seem to be. They should be very intelligent people who are consumed by a false belief that killing some innocent people is heroism. They only need to have the true power in their soul. We, almost all human beings, are consumed by myths at various levels.

Compassion is the nucleus of Buddhism as described by the honorary label, ‘Maha Karuna’ (A person of immense compassion), for Buddha. This, I believe, is the equivalent of the words of Jesus, Love thy neighbour as yourself. I have also seen, My mercy encompasses all things with Islam and Among the wealthy, compassionate men claim the richest wealth with Hinduism. This is not a book of Buddhism. This is a book of life strategies leading to empowerment. ’Buddhism’ is used as a tool to explain the information overload and obvious misconceptions with religions, irrational practices, and to explore the ‘compassion’ element that lies at the bottom of all humane religions. The word ‘Seela’, I have often used, can easily be translated as ‘Virtuous practice/Virtuous mind’ for the purpose. Most importantly, all we need for empowerment is the very same basics of all humane religions. There is no humane religion without compassion at the root because no compassion means not humane. When authors of humane religions delivered their sermons, they were making their self-expression to the world and that was the expression of their compassion.

Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it is the true test of spirituality. But there have always been those who’d rather put easier goals, like doctrine conformity, in place.

– Karen Armstrong

The comments, I have made on today’s Buddhism are based on my experiences with Sri Lankan community in Sri Lanka and Australia for the last thirty years. This book changed from one version to the next for the last two decades, and I grew up with it to be wiser, older and be more empowered until the final version.

The characters, I have described in this book, are all fictional. I have made notes on poor behaviours of many people, including myself, for a very long time even before I started writing it and I have put them all into the lives of a few fictional characters so that it would not be confusing to the reader. Very often, it looks like I am talking about one particular person but that is a strategy I used to make it more personal to me and the reader. It was much better than saying ‘many people’ all the time. However, the poor demeanours, I have explained here, are true and existed with ‘many people’ in society. It is not strange that those forgiveness worthy people who had kind of venomous poor behaviours died younger or suffered ill health generally more than others. They did not seem to have that much compassion in their souls. Poor behaviours are ill health by themselves. I have to believe that bad things can happen to really good people, but less empathetic people are more vulnerable to disaster, in my opinion.

As you follow through the guidelines of this book, in the process of empowerment, it is expected that one can be looking at oneself away from oneself. It is like you are looking at yourself as you are looking at someone else. This is really good grounds for ‘self-diagnosis’, for who and what you have come to be at this moment. I have included my own life story as a supplement to this book in chapter nine, so that you can use it as an example to do your own.

2 – Why Should One Be Empowered

I have witnessed that many animals making huge noises as if they are trying to force their opinions on others. Maybe they are saying to their young ones Don’t behave like humans and this chapter is about that.

It is quite normal that readers get the message, usually, after reading a whole book to the end because when they read earlier chapters, they don’t have an idea of what it is precisely about. This chapter is also meant to fill that uncertainty gap with a summary of this book, at the end of this chapter.

Following examples, referring to individuals in some communities,