The Axis of the Passion of Christ: Compassion and Wisdom
The Axis of the Passion of Christ: Compassion and Wisdom
By Justin F. Miles, LCPC-S LGADC-S Founder, Miles Institute of Integral Living and Hiphop Alive
Introduction
The conventional understanding of the Passion of Christ centers on the suffering and death of Jesus during the events leading up to and including his crucifixion. It encompasses key moments such as the Last Supper, his prayerful anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal and trial, the excruciating crucifixion, and his death and burial. Traditionally, this narrative is seen as the ultimate act of divine love and sacrifice, where Jesus willingly endures physical and emotional torment to atone for humanity’s sins and reconcile them with God. This perspective emphasizes themes of atonement, obedience, and the redemptive nature of Christ’s suffering.
A fuller understanding sees the Passion not merely as an act of endurance but as a profound expression of the union of compassion and wisdom, embodying the transformative power of divine love. This perspective invites reflection on the Passion as the culmination of Christ’s entire mission to awaken humanity to truth and interconnectedness.
Axis of Passion
The Passion of Christ reveals the profound intersection of compassion and wisdom—two essential dimensions of his life, teachings, and ultimate sacrifice.
Compassion opens the heart to the suffering of others, transcending self-centered concerns and allowing unconditional care to arise naturally.
Wisdom, on the other hand, sees through the illusions of ego and self-deception, perceiving the impermanence and interconnectedness of all things with clarity.
Together, compassion and wisdom form the foundation for awakening, offering a path to live fully in truth and love.
These qualities are not abstract ideals but deeply practical ways of being that Jesus embodied throughout his life and ministry.
Compassion flows from overcoming ego-clinging, while wisdom sees reality as it is, without distortion. Recognizing their interconnectedness and cultivating both in daily life allows for a more profound understanding of Christ’s teachings and a life rooted in selflessness and clarity.
Passion: The Fusion of Openness and Clarity
The word passion holds profound significance in the context of Christ’s life and teachings. Rooted in the Latin word passio, meaning “suffering” or “endurance,” passion conveys the depth of Christ’s love and commitment to humanity—a love so profound that it willingly embraces suffering for the sake of others. Yet, passion is not merely about pain or sacrifice; it is the intense, driving force that unites the heart’s capacity for compassion with the mind’s clarity of wisdom.
To describe compassion and wisdom as the axis of Christ’s path is to recognize their centrality in his life and message. Just as an axis holds a wheel in balance, allowing it to move forward, these two qualities ground and guide the entirety of Christ’s journey.
Compassion opens the heart, enabling Christ to act with boundless love and selflessness.
Wisdom provides the clarity to see the true nature of reality, enabling his actions to be skillful and transformative.
Together, they form the core of Christ’s passion—his unwavering dedication to awaken humanity to the truth of the kingdom of heaven within, between and as all things and non things.
Passion, in this sense, is not limited to the suffering of the cross. It is the enduring, fiery devotion to living and embodying divine love and truth in all aspects of life.
Christ’s passion is both a path and an invitation, calling his followers to live with the same depth of love, selflessness, and insight. By walking the axis of compassion and wisdom, we align ourselves with Christ’s teachings and become vessels of transformation, capable of alleviating suffering and revealing the inherent beauty and interconnectedness of all creation. This is the essence of living as Christ intended: a life rooted in the passionate pursuit of love, truth, and awakening.
The Roots of Passion
The word passion traces its origins not only to the Latin passio (suffering or endurance) but further back to the Sanskrit root pati, meaning “to undergo,” “to bear,” or “to experience.” In both traditions, the term signifies more than mere suffering; it captures the essence of engaging deeply with life, embracing its joys and sorrows, and fully experiencing the transformative potential of existence.
In the Sanskrit tradition, pati carries connotations of surrender and openness to the flow of life. It implies a willingness to endure and engage with the challenges of existence as part of the journey toward growth and enlightenment.
Similarly, in the Christian tradition, Christ’s Passion is not simply about his physical suffering on the cross but about his profound willingness to bear the weight of humanity’s pain, sin, and alienation. Through this act of ultimate surrender, Christ transforms suffering into redemption, demonstrating the profound interplay of compassion and wisdom.
By aligning the Latin and Sanskrit roots of passion, we see a shared understanding of the word as a pathway to transcendence. Whether through Christ’s Passion or the teachings of ancient wisdom traditions, pati points us toward a life of deep engagement with reality—a life that does not shy away from suffering but instead embraces it as an opportunity for awakening. It is through this willingness to bear and endure that the axis of compassion and wisdom emerges, offering the strength to transcend ego-clinging and the clarity to see life as it truly is.
Passion as the Integration of Compassion and Wisdom
In both linguistic and spiritual contexts, passion reflects the fusion of the heart’s openness (compassion) and the mind’s clarity (wisdom).
Compassion, rooted in the willingness to bear and care for the suffering of others, reflects pati’s essence of experiencing life fully and selflessly.
Wisdom, on the other hand, enables us to bear life’s challenges with insight, seeing through the illusions of separateness and impermanence.
Together, compassion and wisdom form the complete expression of passion: a life lived with courage, presence, and transformative power.
Christ’s life is the demonstration of this passion. From his acts of healing to his teachings of forgiveness, and culminating in his crucifixion, Christ shows how compassion and wisdom are not separate but interdependent. His compassion arises from a wisdom that sees the interconnectedness of all beings, and is inseparable from his boundless love for humanity. By embracing the Sanskrit pati and the Latin passio, we can see that passion is not merely about suffering but about living with a profound and unwavering commitment to truth and love.
This understanding invites us to live passionately in the truest sense—not by avoiding life’s challenges but by engaging with them fully, bearing them with compassion and wisdom. Through this axis, we align ourselves with Christ’s teachings and the ancient wisdom of pati, transforming suffering into a path of awakening and love.
Compassion: The Heart of Christ
Compassion as Selflessness
Compassion in Christ’s teachings is far more than an emotional response to suffering. It is a radical openness to others, born from transcending the boundaries of “self” and “other.” Ego-clinging—the fixation on a separate and solid sense of self—is the root of this division, which leads to indifference, fear, and judgment. True compassion dissolves these barriers, allowing a natural care and love to flow, untainted by self-interest.
Jesus’ acts of healing and service provide clear examples of this selfless compassion. His interactions with those marginalized by society—healing the lepers (Luke 17:11-19), dining with tax collectors (Matthew 9:10-13), and showing kindness to sinners—demonstrate an unwavering commitment to see beyond external labels and social norms. His compassion was not conditioned on worthiness but arose from a profound recognition of shared humanity and divine presence in all.
Transcending Self and Other
The depth of Jesus’ compassion is most evident in the Passion itself. In the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46), Christ’s surrender to God’s will illustrates a complete transcendence of self-concern. On the cross, his words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), reflect a heart fully open to the suffering of others, even those who caused his pain. This compassion is not enabling or passive—it is fierce, courageous, and transformative, born from a selflessness that sees no separation between one’s own suffering and that of others.
True compassion is not simply about alleviating pain but about recognizing and addressing the deeper causes of suffering. It arises from the understanding that others are not separate from oneself, and it seeks to guide them toward their own liberation. This is the compassion Christ calls his followers to embody: one that loves unconditionally while also pointing toward truth.
Genuine Compassion
Christ calls his followers to live with compassion that is both courageous and discerning. Genuine compassion, as Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche describes, arises from a heart that is open, raw, and fearless. It does not enable harmful behaviors or avoid difficult truths but seeks to benefit others in ways that lead to awakening. Helping someone recognize their inherent goodness while encouraging them to confront their suffering is an act of true love.
Jesus’ life demonstrates this balance. His healing and forgiveness were always accompanied by an invitation to transformation. To the woman caught in adultery, he says, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more” (John 8:11), offering both unconditional love and a call to change. This is the essence of genuine compassion—helping others not from a place of superiority but from a recognition of shared humanity and the desire to alleviate suffering at its root.
Wisdom: Seeing Things as They Are
Wisdom as the Nature of Reality
Wisdom, as Christ taught and embodied, is the ability to see beyond surface appearances to the deeper truths of existence. It is the clarity that perceives impermanence, interconnectedness, and the ultimate nature of reality. Wisdom dismantles the illusions of ego and reveals the freedom that comes from seeing things as they truly are.
Throughout the Gospels, Christ demonstrates this penetrating wisdom. In his teachings about the kingdom of God, he challenges conventional notions of power and wealth, emphasizing instead the eternal and unchanging presence of God within. His parables, such as the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), invite listeners to look beyond superficial judgments and see the deeper reality of love and service as the path to eternal life.
The Necessity of Clarity
Compassion without wisdom can easily become misguided. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche refers to this as “idiot compassion,” where attempts to help others may stem from ignorance or a desire to avoid discomfort rather than a true understanding of what is needed.
Wisdom, on the other hand, ensures that compassion is effective, not born of ego and transformative.
Jesus’ interactions with others often reveal this balance. When the rich young ruler asks how to inherit eternal life, Jesus lovingly yet firmly tells him to sell all he has and give to the poor (Mark 10:17-22). This truth was difficult for the man to hear, but it pointed directly to the attachments holding him back. Christ’s wisdom saw through the surface of the man’s question to the deeper issue of ego-clinging, offering guidance that, while challenging, was ultimately liberating.
Experiencing Compassion and Wisdom Through The Threefold Purity
The Buddhist teaching of threefold purity—no self, no action, no other—provides a profound framework for understanding selflessness and the interconnectedness of all things. It invites practitioners to transcend the ego-based distinctions between the doer (self), the deed (action), and the recipient (other). This teaching dismantles the illusion of separation, revealing that acts of love, kindness, or service arise naturally when one recognizes the inherent unity of all existence.
Christ’s teachings reflect this same understanding, as demonstrated in his life and words. He consistently emphasized egolessness, selfless service, and the interconnectedness of humanity under God. When Jesus washed the feet of his disciples (John 13:12-17), he modeled a humility that transcended notions of superiority or separation, embodying the truth that in serving others, we serve God and ourselves. His call to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31) reflects the wisdom of threefold purity, dissolving the boundaries between self and other.
This alignment between Buddhist and Christian teachings provides a powerful path for spiritual practice. Through the lens of threefold purity, Christ’s message becomes a call to act with love and compassion free from ego-clinging, understanding that all actions flow from the interconnected nature of existence.
Understanding Threefold Purity
The Three Purities are:
1. No Self: Recognizing that the self is not a fixed or independent entity. Instead of acting from a sense of ego or personal gain, we act from a place of openness and interconnectedness. Jesus demonstrated this in his teachings, saying, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves” (Matthew 16:24), pointing to the necessity of transcending ego for spiritual growth. Absent ego fixation is the pure.
2. No Action: Seeing that actions are not performed by a separate, autonomous self but arise naturally from the interdependence of all things. This aligns with Jesus’ words, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19), which highlight the surrender of personal will to the divine flow. Absent fixation on actions is the pure.
3. No Other: Understanding that the recipient of an action is not separate from the one performing it. In loving and serving others, we love and serve God and ourselves. Jesus taught this interconnectedness when he said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Absent fixation on other is the pure.
The Pitfall of Eternalism and Nihilism: Clinging to Christ as Ego’s Extremes
When reflecting on Christ’s teachings and life, discussions often veer toward two extremes: eternalism, which asserts Christ’s literal, everlasting existence, and nihilism, which denies his existence entirely. These polarities, though seemingly oppositional, share a common root—ego. Eternalism clings to permanence, seeking certainty and stability in an ever-changing world, while nihilism clings to denial, rejecting the possibility of transcendent meaning or connection.
Both distortions stem from the ego’s refusal to engage with the mystery of existence.
This clinging is not limited to theological debate; it reflects our false notions of how the self, others, and reality exist.
Eternalism creates a rigid framework where Christ is externalized as a savior, absolving us of the responsibility to embody his teachings.
Nihilism, by contrast, dismisses Christ’s relevance, isolating us from the compassion and wisdom his life exemplifies. In either case, the ego remains entrenched, blocking the transformative power of Christ’s message.
However, Christ’s teachings, understood through the lens of threefold purity—purity of the actor (self), action, and recipient (other)—invite us beyond these extremes. This non-dual approach offers a way to directly experience the compassion and wisdom of Christ, free from the conceptual traps of eternalism and nihilism. By releasing these fixations, we can more fully realize the potency of his teachings, the trust to practice them, and the drive to benefit all beings.
The Threefold Purity: Christ Beyond Ego’s Extremes
The Buddhist teaching of threefold purity—no self, no action, and no other—provides a profound lens through which to engage with Christ’s life and teachings. It invites us to transcend the ego’s clinging to separation, revealing the non-dual nature of existence. When applied to Christ’s teachings, the threefold purity allows us to see Christ not as an object of belief or disbelief but as a living embodiment of wisdom and compassion. This perspective dismantles the barriers created by eternalism and nihilism, opening the path to a direct, transformative encounter with his message.
1. No Self: Purity of the Actor
Eternalism and nihilism both reinforce ego-clinging by centering the debate on the self—whether Christ exists to save us or whether his absence invalidates us. In eternalism, we project our fears and desires onto an eternal savior, avoiding the vulnerability of taking responsibility for embodying Christ’s compassion ourselves. In nihilism, we isolate ourselves in disbelief, rejecting the possibility of shared meaning and connection.
Through the purity of the actor, we transcend the fixation on Christ as “other” and recognize that his compassion and wisdom are also within us. This selflessness mirrors Christ’s teaching: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves” (Matthew 16:24). By relinquishing ego-clinging, we awaken to the truth that Christ’s path is not something external but a reality we embody through love and wisdom.
2. No Action: Purity of the Action
Clinging to Christ’s existence or non-existence skews the way we engage with his teachings. Eternalism often reduces practice to transactional religiosity, where actions are performed for divine favor. Nihilism dismisses Christ’s teachings as irrelevant or outdated, paralyzing meaningful action.
The purity of the action invites us to engage with Christ’s teachings without attachment to outcomes or self-centered motives. When Jesus healed the sick or forgave sins, his actions arose naturally from divine love, free from the ego’s grasp. Similarly, our actions can flow from the same wellspring of interconnectedness, as Christ taught: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). In this surrender, action becomes pure, arising from the natural flow of love and wisdom.
3. No Other: Purity of the Recipient
Eternalism and nihilism distort how we relate to others. Eternalism often creates exclusivity, dividing the “saved” from the “unsaved.” Nihilism reduces relationships to material transactions, dismissing the sacredness of human connection.
The purity of the recipient dissolves the boundaries between self and other. Christ’s teaching, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40), reflects this truth. By seeing others as not separate from ourselves, we act with compassion and wisdom that benefits all beings. This purity amplifies the transformative power of Christ’s teachings, making them accessible to all without exception.
Non-Dual Compassion and Wisdom: Christ Beyond Ego
Through the threefold purity, Christ’s compassion and wisdom emerge as non-dual qualities, transcending the ego’s extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Compassion opens the heart to the suffering of others, while wisdom provides the clarity to see through the illusions of ego and separateness. Together, they create a life of boundless love and profound insight.
Zac Non-dual compassion and wisdom dissolve the boundaries between self and other, action and inaction, belief and disbelief. They invite us to experience Christ not as a distant savior or a relic of history but as a living reality that arises within, between, and as all beings. This perspective transforms Christ’s teachings from mere concepts into a direct, embodied experience of love and truth.
When we embrace non-dual compassion and wisdom, we overcome the ego’s clinging to certainty and control. Eternalism and nihilism fall away, revealing a path of practice rooted in the present moment. This path aligns us with Christ’s message of selfless love and clarity, empowering us to act skillfully and courageously for the benefit of all beings.
Living the Axis of Compassion and Wisdom
Christ’s life and teachings reveal the profound interplay of compassion and wisdom as the axis of awakening. By transcending the ego’s extremes and practicing the threefold purity, we embody Christ’s message in its fullness. This is the path of transformation he invites us to walk—a path that dissolves the barriers of self and other, eternalism and nihilism, and awakens us to the boundless love and truth that unite all creation.
Through this integration of compassion and wisdom, we align ourselves with Christ’s passion, living as vessels of divine love and awakening. This is not a distant ideal but a practical way of being that transforms every moment into an opportunity to embody the kingdom of heaven, here and now.
Practicing Threefold Purity in Everyday Life
To embody threefold purity in daily life, we must cultivate awareness of selflessness, interconnectedness, and the natural flow of action. Below is a simple practice to help integrate this teaching into everyday interactions:
Prepare Your Mind:
• Begin your day with a moment of reflection or prayer. Contemplate the interconnectedness of all life and set the intention to act selflessly throughout the day.
• Reflect on Jesus’ teaching: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Meditate on the truth that in loving others, you are also expressing love for yourself and God.
Engage in a Selfless Act:
• Identify a small, meaningful way to help someone—a kind word, a supportive gesture, or an act of service.
• As you perform this act, practice recognizing the absence of a fixed self or other:
• No Self: Realize that this action does not enhance or diminish your identity. You are simply part of the natural flow of love and service.
• No Action: Reflect on how the action arises spontaneously from interconnectedness, not as something “you” do alone.
• No Other: See the person you are helping as not separate from you. In serving them, you are serving God and the collective whole.
Pause and Reflect:
• After the act, take a moment to rest in stillness. Reflect on the experience without judgment or attachment.
• Contemplate the teaching of Jesus: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and recognize how the act reflects the unity of all things.
Extend the Practice:
• Throughout your day, look for opportunities to embody threefold purity. This could include listening without judgment, offering a helping hand without expectation of gratitude, or simply being present with others in their joy or suffering.
Fruition: Natural Compassion and Wisdom Integrated in Everyday Life
Through the practice of threefold purity, we begin to see life from a perspective free of ego-clinging and separation. Compassion arises naturally, not as an effort to “do good,” but as a spontaneous expression of our interconnected nature.
Wisdom deepens as we see the emptiness of self, action, and other, allowing us to act skillfully and lovingly in every situation.
This is the life Jesus calls his followers to live—a life of unconditional love, selfless service, and awakened understanding. By embracing threefold purity, we align with Christ’s teachings and embody his message in the world, not as isolated individuals but as expressions of divine unity. This practice allows us to walk the path of compassion and wisdom, transforming our everyday actions into reflections of the kingdom of heaven.
The culmination of Christ’s teachings is a life that integrates compassion and wisdom, transforming how we see and engage with the world. Compassion opens the heart to others’ suffering, while wisdom provides the clarity to act skillfully and effectively. Together, they create a life of selflessness, courage, and profound connection.
This integration is not a final goal to achieve but an ongoing process—a rhythm of growth, surrender, and service. As we cultivate compassion and wisdom, we align ourselves with the mind of Christ, living as vessels of divine love and truth. This way of living benefits not only ourselves but also others and the world, embodying the kingdom of heaven in the here and now.
To walk this path is to live fully awake, with a heart open to suffering and a mind clear in its understanding. It is to embody the selflessness, courage, and love that Christ demonstrated, becoming instruments of transformation in a world that deeply needs it.