- Is it possible for a person to be averse to compassion, or for whom compassion is a element of struggle and difficulty?
When the heart is not yet pure & there are the typical stored inner defilements, for some people, compassion meditation can create a direct impacting & conflict with these defilements thus both bringing these defilements to the surface & creating a tension with them. If this occurs, it is probably best to stop the compassion meditation and let go, allowing the body & mind to naturally breathe away the defiled emotions. This is part of balancing effort.
- Is it perhaps easier for some people to meditate on emptiness or wisdom in order to indirectly generate compassion? Would such a
possibility be less 'wholesome' than actual compassion meditation or
even than compassionate acts?
Meditating on emptiness, which generates the quality of letting go, can be a better vehicle for some people because it allows defilements to more naturally & proportionally rise to the surface & dissolve. There are often times in the purification process where intentional thought or reflection (such as compassion meditation) is an obstacle to the purification that must be achieved through non-thinking or, otherwise, non-effort & patience.
- Is it possible to forego compassion meditation completely and solely rely on compassionate action to develop this quality?
Yes. Developing moral virtues such as generosity, helpfulness, harmlessness, unselfishness & self-sacrifice have always been considered to be prerequisites for path development. Placing the moral interests of others before ourselves actually helps in the meditative development of letting go.
The Buddhist suttas say little about how to develop compassion. Generally, compassion is developed after the Path is developed. In other words, one's personal intention to end suffering within one's own mind is itself a manifesting of compassion. When this succeeds, the mind will be pure and the compassion (the intention to end suffering, but now for others) will remain.
