Exploitation is what lust is. Love is not exploitation. So compassion is not love in the ordinary sense, and yet it is love in its real sense. Compassion only gives, it knows no idea of getting back. Not that it does not get back, no -- never think that for a single moment. When you give without any idea of getting, you get a thousandfold. But that is another thing; that has nothing to do with you. And when you want to get too much, in fact you are only deceived; you don't get anything. Fin ally, you are only disillusioned.

Each love affair ends in a disillusionment. Have you not observed it, that each love affair finally leaves you in a ditch of sadness, depression, of being cheated? Compassion knows no disillusionment, because compassion does not start with an illusion. Compassion never asks for any return, there is no need. First, 'Because it is not my energy that I am giving, it is god's energy. who am I to ask anything for it?' Even to ask for a thank-you is meaningless.

That's what happened when a man came to Jesus and Jesus touched him and he was cured. And the man thanked Jesus -- naturally, he was in tremendous gratitude. He had been suffering from that disease for years and there was no cure and the physicians had told him that 'Now nothing can be done, you have to accept it.' And he is cured.

And Jesus says, 'No sir, don't be thankful towards me, be thankful towards God. It is something that has happened between you and God! I am nobody in it. It is your faith that has healed you, and it is God's energy that has become available because of your faith. I am, at the most, a bridge -- a bridge through which God's energy and your faith have joined hands. You need not be worried about me, you need not be thankful to me. Thank God. Thank your own faith. Something has transpired between you and God. I come nowhere.'

This is what compassion is. Compassion goes on giving, but knows no feeling of giving, knows no feeling that 'I am the giver'. And then existence goes on responding in thousands of ways. You give a little love and from everywhere love starts flowing. The man of compassion is not trying to snatch away, he is not greedy. He does not wait for the return, he goes on giving. He goes on getting -- but that is not in his mind.

 

-Osho, "Zen: The Path of Paradox, Vol 2, #3"

 

 

 

Compassion means you have transcended biology, you have transcended physiology. You are no more a slave, you have become a master. Now you function consciously. You are not driven, pulled and pushed by unconscious forces, you can decide what you want to do with your energies. You are totally free. Then the same energy that becomes passion is transformed into compassion.

Passion is lust, compassion is love. Passion is desire, compassion is desirelessness. Passion is greed, compassion is sharing. Passion wants to use the other as a means, compassion respects the other as an end unto himself or herself. Passion keeps you tethered to the earth, to the mud, and you never become a lotus. Compassion makes you a lotus. You start rising above the muddy world of desires, greed, anger. Compassion is a transformation of your energies.

 

-Osho, "Walking in Zen, Sitting in Zen, #2, Q4"