Compassion

Compassion (Pali and Sanskrit karuṇā) is the heartfelt wish that beings be free from suffering, together with the readiness to help bring that about. Buddhist teachers often describe it vividly as the heart's "trembling" or quivering in response to another's pain — a warm, active caring, distinct from cold pity or from distress that simply makes us look away.

In the early teaching, compassion is one of the four "divine abodes" (brahmavihāra), a set of boundless attitudes cultivated in meditation: loving-kindness (the wish for beings' happiness), compassion (the wish for their freedom from suffering), sympathetic joy (gladness at others' good fortune), and equanimity (balanced, non-grasping care). Compassion is carefully distinguished from its "near enemies" — states that masquerade as it: it is not the sorrow that drowns in another's pain, nor a superior pity, but a steady, clear-eyed wish to relieve suffering that keeps its own balance. Its opposite, or "far enemy," is cruelty.

In the Mahāyāna traditions (the broad movement centered on the ideal of becoming a buddha for the sake of all beings), compassion is elevated to one of the two great pillars of the entire path, paired with wisdom — the insight into how things really are. The image is of two wings: wisdom keeps compassion from becoming naive, and compassion keeps wisdom from becoming detached. The bodhisattva, the being who vows to work for everyone's liberation, is moved above all by this great compassion (mahākaruṇā). Across all forms of Buddhism, compassion is something deliberately trained and grown, not merely a mood one happens to feel.