You don't need to have universal soul in order to have
compassion.
I wrote in 2011:
In attempting to find and locate where thought comes from, reside,
and go to, it is realised that thought is ungraspable, unfindable,
unfathomable... A magician’s magical apparition, like everything
(the experiential universe) is... A wonderful display of luminous
emptiness, dependent origination. Yet after this is seen, it is
nothing resembling nihilism or non-existence... When someone lights
up his lighter to burn an innocent ant, compassion just arise... A
magical universe demands magical response and compassion from no
one to no one
Later I found another article that said about the same
things:
http://luminousemptiness.blogspot.sg/2007/11/gampopa-and-compassion.html
Excerpt:
The third form of Compassion Gampopa talks about is that of
'Compassion without Reference Point'. This is where we have
developed sufficiently that we see something of the true nature of
things. We have some experience of Shunyata, of Emptiness, and
therefore we no longer cling to the notion of person, of illness,
of helping as solidly existent 'things'. As a result of seeing the
play of mere appearances in mind, we don't attach to these illusory
notions, and therefore we don't suffer whilst helping alleviate
suffering. We see this play of appearances, which are ultimately
empty, but at the same time, we recognise that the 'person' before
us does not see this.
We also see that the difference between seeing things as they are,
and of grasping onto the solidity or reality of things, is, in a
sense, razor thin. The difference is so slender between seeing, and
not seeing.
When the experience of emptiness arises, we see that seeing how
things are, and seeing with ignorance is the most subtle shift, in
a sense, (and yet the most enormous shift, in another sense!!!!).
We see how easy it is to lose this 'view', both during, and between
meditations. We slip into it and out of it so easily. So, we have
an appreciation of how small a shift it is, in a sense, and how
'easy' it could be for those suffering beings to see in accordance
with the nature of things, to act in accordance with the nature of
things, and therefore not suffer. That recognition of how 'easy' it
would be for them to not suffer becomes the cause for a great
compassion to arise in us. The recognition of how unnecessary that
suffering is, indeed, how unnecessary and how easily thrown
off.
Further, the recognition from the previous stage (and
classification) that we ourselves self-cause our own suffering is
deepened here - with the addition of now seeing the potential
'ease' of throwing it off.
At this stage, our compassion arises without having an object, as
we no longer 'see' any being to be the object of our compassion.
Indeed, we no longer see 'ourselves' as being compassionate, nor
see the 'act' of compassion either. We see the play of empty
appearances - and yet, and yet ... we act. How is this? How can we
act, when we no longer see sentient beings, as such? Well, from my
very limited experience, this Compassion is the natural response,
the natural outpouring of the mind that sees things as they are.
It's as if when we take all this mistaken understanding and seeing
out of the way, what lay beneath - the sun behind the clouds - can
pour forth its energy, which had been previously obscured and
dammed up.
- an attempt to clarify in my own mind my own confusion, and
previous potentially confusing post ... in the hope it might also
be of help to others -
may we all give rise to the Compassion that has no reference point
...