Is compassion a prerequisite for enlightenment?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question (Q): Dear Sir, I have gone through a couple of books. As I am traveling I have time in my hands.

I know what you meant when you said, the last stage is the absence of the thinker. “To study the way of the Buddha is to study oneself. To study oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to be enlightened by everything in the world. To be enlightened by everything is to surrender your body and mind.”

About Shoonyata, I found this: “All phenomena arise and disappear, all the time constantly changing. NO matter what the commonsense view is, there is no solidity. We have to be content with the realization that this astonishing phenomena is an appearance we can neither hold nor possess.”

I also read about Nagarjuna and the Madhyamika school(very much like Wittgenstein of the West), involving the rejection of language and words based on apparent contradictions. I also read about Zen Buddhism and how the concept of no-self is developed. Also about humor. I find it resound with Osho’s Naacho, Gao Dhum machao video.

Sir, I have a question though. I am pondering on it but would love to have your inputs about the same. Osho talks about, ‘Zorba- the Buddha’ and rejects…