Conducive to purpose
 

Self-awareness and loving kindness is how 'Buddhism' operates subjectively, so this topic is not prescriptively defined, but a kindly disposition and appropriate intent will generate the thoughts and feelings of mutually beneficial discourse. The purpose is made clear in Buddha's teachings: the resolution of suffering, and compassionate intent is conducive to that purpose. People do not need to study reams of Canons to know it, and indeed, I state the obvious, for the heart is extended to the suffering child with subliminal empathy. These levels are not instilled by religious text. If anything, the text arose from the pure intent that suffering cease and all beings be happy. Similarly, if this wish is true of our hearts, noble discourse shall arise here.

As the Dalia Lama has said. "We work on one person at a time" inclusive of those that do not generate strong feelings in us and ultimately, our enemies.

The Dalia Lama has enemies? Can you provide the source of this quote? I'd like to read the whole talk. I never knew DL said he had enemies and assumed we all do. I'd also like to know what he meant by "work on." I posted your quote in google and nothing came up.

What are you feelings about the sharing in the OP? Don't be too distracted by my sharing. There is an important message that I feel, is offered in the OP. Perhaps you have something to offer around your own understanding of that share.

It was part of a quote I once read. I wont post the whole quote, as I am not sure about the rules, regarding a quote that might be over the quota of copy and paste rules.


Dalia Lama -Again, we begin by taking a neutral person, a person who inspires no strong feelings in us, as our object of meditation. We then extend this meditation to individual friends and family members and, ultimately, our particular enemies.
We must use a real individual as the focus of our meditation, and then enhance our compassion and loving-kindness toward that person so that we can really experience compassion and loving-kindness toward others. We work on one person at a time.”

He doesn't use the word enemies but ' People we are not fond of '
You'll find it in one of his books ' An open heart ' also the Meditation which is called ' Tonglen '
It's a lovely book :smile:



You can get it free, google PDF..

' People do not need to study reams of Canons to know it '


As this is a Section on Buddhism I think you will find Suttas/Sutras are a very important part of Buddhism regardless of what you keep repeating.

Suttas...
 

Why should I read the suttas?
They are the primary source of Theravada Buddhist teachings.
If you're interested in exploring the teachings of Theravada Buddhism, then the Pali canon — and the suttas it contains — is the place to turn for authoritative advice and support. You needn't worry about whether or not the words in the suttas were actually uttered by the historical Buddha (no one can ever prove this either way). Just keep in mind that the teachings in the suttas have been practiced — with apparent success — by countless followers for some 2,600 years. If you want to know whether or not the teachings really work, then study the suttas and put their teachings into practice and find out firsthand, for yourself.
They present a complete body of teachings.
The teachings in the suttas, taken in their entirety, present a complete roadmap guiding the follower from his or her current state of spiritual maturity onwards toward the final goal. No matter what your current state may be (skeptical outsider, dabbler, devout lay practitioner, or celibate monk or nun), there is something in the suttas to help you progress another step further along the path towards the goal. As you read more and more widely in the Pali canon, you may find less of a need to borrow teachings from other spiritual traditions, as the suttas contain most of what you need to know.



https://www.accesstoinsight.org/befriending.html

What I said was, people don't need to know the Buddhist texts to understand that compassion is conducive to the resolution of suffering.

Again you put everyone in the same boat, there are plenty of people who don't know, if you read Suttas/Sutras Buddha has pointed out many times that some who have lead dysfunctional lives have been turned around after pondering and following his teachings.

Are you trying to to argue that people need to know Buddhist philosophy to understand that compassion is conducive to resolving suffering?