The Great Responsiveness Meditation

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‘Great Responsiveness’ is an ancient understanding of what came to be known in India, and then in the rest of Asia, and much later the whole world, as Mahākarunā. Today, it is often mistranslated as “great compassion,” but compassion is a feeling that we have for the suffering of others, and even a feeling of wanting to help them — but that is not what 'Great Responsiveness' means. It is the ‘automatic,’ or even better, the immediate, effort that arises from within our very being to help all beings, including oneself, equally. It is our omninclusive response to the suffering of all beings. It is that which our modern culture necessarily suppresses.

Great Responsiveness Meditation is the practice that is described in the Surangama Sutra as being that of Avalokitasvara and Buddha Shakyamuni — in fact, that of all Buddhas. Why? Because Buddhas arise in the absence of any Dharma teachings, and this meditation technique is the only one that can bring you to enlightenment in the absence of teachers and teachings. It is also the practice that is mentioned in the prophecy ‘compiled’ by Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro in which the Buddha enjoins everyone to do this meditation throughout the period from 2026 to 2032 in order to minimize the trauma of what is happening already and will get worse over this six year period.