Compassion
Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquillity and happiness we all seek.
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The practice of compassion has for centuries been a guiding principle in the world’s major religious and ethical traditions, but it has never been more urgently needed than it is today.
By developing compassion and loving kindness both for ourselves and others, we discover a stable sense of self-esteem and a healthy, nourishing love for ourselves. This supplies the basis from which we can begin to direct our minds to relieving the suffering of all beings.
Compassion is not simply a sense of sympathy or caring for someone who is suffering, not simply a warmth of heart toward the person before you, or a sharp clarity of recognition of their needs and pain. It is also a sustained and practical determination to do whatever is possible and necessary to help alleviate their suffering.
The particular strength of the Buddhist teaching is that it shows the ‘logic’ of compassion, as well as the damage that a lack of compassion has done to us.
When studying and practising compassion, we develop a more wholesome, less selfish way of being. We gain knowledge and awareness by looking at compassion from Buddhist, personal and modern scientific points of view and then deepen it through personal analysis and reflection.