Question: Is there such a thing as ‘perfect compassion’?
Answer: Perfect compassion is compassion that is applied the most effectively and skilfully for a given situation, to help or guide another being to advance towards True Happiness (Buddhahood) in one way or another.
Question: If there is a scale of 0 to 100 for compassion, 0 being no compassion at all, and 100 being perfectly compassionate, isn’t 100, being at the extreme good end of being compassionate a form of extremism? How then does perfect compassion fit in the concept of the Middle Path?
Answer: As perfect compassion is as defined above, then it cannot be an extreme, in a negative sense. Perfect compassion is always appropriate, and is thus never extreme. For example, the Buddha gave all his teachings out of perfect compassion, to best benefit the beings he came across, teaching and exemplifying them as according to the Middle Path. He didn’t express his compassion in unfruitful overbearing ways. In this sense, 100 on the scale of compassion would represent being on the Middle Path perfectly!
