SZ: You say that yawning when you are sleepy is compassion. Could you explain that a bit?

NP: Sure. We can try to answer this question on two levels.  We tend to view the world from two primary vantage points: the point of view of the linear mind and the point of view of essential reality.

Essential reality is, and contains, every moment— ten thousand years ago, right now, and ten thousand years ahead—these are one.  However, our brain (and some say our left brain) cannot conceive of this.  Our brain is such that we see things in a linear fashion.  One thing happens after another, and this is what we refer to as the linear mind.  From this point of view—the pragmatic, everyday point of view—yawning when you are sleepy is compassion.  Why?  Because the body is rather limited in its ability to function—it cannot continue to do good for others, do acts of compassion, without allowing itself to rest. Yawning is the body’s natural action to take in more oxygen when it is tired or sleepy.  In order to allow our bodies to continue helping others, it needs to rest.  It takes yawning as a cue.  So we rest.  We are regenerated and ready ourselves to be sensitive enough to feel who needs us and in what way they need to be helped. So put very simply, yawning when we are sleepy is compassion.

Essential reality can only be experienced.  From a conceptual point of view, it is like seeing the picture of a cup of tea, or listening to someone who has tasted tea describe its flavor to us.  Most of us have tasted tea, so this analogy is not a very effective one; it is difficult for us to extract ourselves from the experience of having tasted tea and put ourselves in the shoes of the one without that experience.  However, there is a tropical fruit called durian and most have no idea what that fruit is like. If I were to tell you that durian has a very offensive smell —the smell of wet garbage—but has a lovely exotic taste, you will be amazed.  Most durian connoisseurs will attempt to describe the taste this way:  It tastes creamy, like a mixture of butter and chocolate, etc. etc. But you just have to taste it to know.  Like durian, an experience of essential reality cannot be understood and can only be experienced.

Therefore, the following explanation will receive huge nods from people who have had the experience.  The more profound their experience the louder their “yes” will resound.  For persons who have not had an experience of essential reality, they can choose to believe or not believe, or choose a point in the spectrum of complete belief and complete disbelief.

My own sangha reacts with so much doubt when I talk about how everything is perfectly beautiful just the way it is.  How can one say that?  What about war and murder?  One of the most beautiful explanations that I have read is by Thich Nhat Hanh in his book, Paths of Compassion.  He tells the story of a little boat girl who throws herself into the ocean to kill herself after she is raped by a pirate at sea.  He then turns the story around and makes us open our eyes of compassion by looking at the life of the pirate—it really is a must read.

Every infinitesimal fraction of every movement or action is a perfect manifestation of Essential Nature.  Some call this Buddha Nature, Essential Reality, Self Nature or other names.  Every mountain, every river, each little flower and weed, each breath I take, each word you utter, each step you take.  Each one is totally the other.  In an experience we see this clearly and we know and understand.  Without the experience, and with only our linear brain, we can only try to understand and believe this based on the experience of others.

Each thing, each action, and each being is perfect and complete just as they are.  But these are just words.  We must sit and go fervently into our practice until, little by little, more and more our eyes get clearer and clearer and with each sit we are able to bring into our daily life this beautiful experience of how everything is beautiful just as it is.

Yawning when Sleepy is Compassion