VOLUME 6 • ISSUE 1 • March 2026

BISHOP’S CORNER
Awakening to Compassion in Our Lives

At a time when our world feels increasingly divided, many of us find ourselves asking: Where is compassion today?

News headlines often tell stories of violence, exclusion, and suffering. Walls — both visible and invisible — seem to separate people from one another. We see a tendency to include only those who agree with us, benefit us, or fit within familiar boundaries, while others are ignored, disregarded, or even treated as though their lives do not matter.

In such times, Shinran Shonin’s teaching offers us a profound and deeply grounding perspective on compassion.

Shinran Shonin reminds us that true compassion does not begin with our own strength, goodness, or moral effort.

If compassion depended solely on our intentions or abilities, it would quickly become limited, fragile, and conditional. Instead, Shinran Shonin taught us that true compassion is nurtured only when we awaken to a compassion far greater than our own — the boundless compassion of Amida Buddha.

Shinran Shonin once wrote, “I do not have even a little compassion.”

Shinran Shonin was not denying kindness or concern for others. Rather, he was honestly acknowledging the human condition — that our compassion is easily distorted by self-centeredness and circumstances.

Our goodwill often depends on who the other person is, how they treat us, or whether we feel comfortable with them.

Yet, alongside this honest self-reflection, Shinran Shonin awakened to a liberating truth: Even such a limited and imperfect being is never abandoned by Amida Buddha.

Through his teacher, Honen Shonin, Shinran Shonin learned that he was already affirmed and embraced — just as he was. Not because he was virtuous, wise, or compassionate, but simply because he was a human being living with blind passions.

This realization brought him deep joy and comfort. He lamented his limitations, yet rejoiced in the fact that he was not excluded, not rejected, and not left behind. It was precisely within this warm embrace of Amida Buddha that Shinran Shonin experienced what it meant to be truly “saved.”

This awareness has profound meaning for how we live our lives today.

When we awaken to the reality that we are the primal recipients of Great Compassion, our perspective begins to change. Before encountering this compassion, we may feel as though we are walking alone on a dark and uncertain path.

But upon awakening to Amida Buddha’s compassion, we realize that we are walking together with others, illuminated by a light that never abandons us.

Compassion, then, is not something we are commanded to practice or forced to produce. It naturally emerges from gratitude. Saying Namo Amida Butsu is our expression of appreciation — thank you for embracing me just as I am. From that gratitude, we are gently nurtured to live with care, humility, and openness toward others.

A story shared by Professor Taitetsu Unno beautifully illustrates this working of compassion.

He once told of a woman who had been estranged from her father for 15 years due to a serious misunderstanding. She had lived with bitterness and resentment, unaware that during all those years, her father had been asking about her every week— about her health, her life, and how she was doing.

When she finally learned of her father’s compassion, she was overwhelmed with shame and gratitude. That awakening not only restored her relationship with her father but also transformed how she related to others, returning to the world the care and compassion she herself had received.

In this story, compassion was not created through effort or obligation. It emerged when the woman became aware that she had been cared for all along.

Shinran Shonin expressed this same awareness when he wrote, “Although my eyes, blinded by passions, do not see the warm light that embraces me, great compassion never tires, constantly casting light upon me.”

Even when we are unaware, distracted, or overwhelmed, compassion continues to work upon us.

When we look at our society today, we may feel discouraged by the lack of compassion we see around us. Yet Shinran Shonin’s teaching invites us to begin not with despair, but with awakening — awakening to the compassion that already sustains us. From that awakening, we are nurtured to see others’ suffering as our own and to stand in solidarity with those who are in need.

This does not mean that we suddenly become perfect or free from blind passions. Rather, we live with greater humility, knowing our limitations, and with greater tenderness, knowing that we ourselves are embraced despite them.

In this way, compassion becomes not a heroic act, but a way of being—rooted in gratitude, shaped by humility, and expressed through small, everyday encounters. A listening ear, a gentle word, a willingness to remain present with another’s pain. These are the natural expressions of gratitude in a life touched by Great Compassion.

Especially in times of turbulence and uncertainty, may we continue to immerse ourselves in the compassion that flows within us. And may that compassion quietly, steadily, and sincerely manifest in our words, actions, and relationships.

Namo Amida Butsu