Compassion

 

The term "compassion" originates from the Latin word "compati," which means ‘to suffer with’ or ‘to suffer together.’ It's commonly defined as ‘a feeling of sympathy, sadness, or concern for the suffering or misfortune of others, accompanied by a desire to alleviate the suffering. Compassion stands apart from empathy or pity in its inclination to take action for the benefit of others. What’s not usually acknowledged in these definitions is that compassion is a natural expression of love for those experiencing suffering or hardship.
 

Embracing compassion opens a pathway to recognizing and expressing love as an inherent aspect of our true selves. Our ability to access this compassion may be hindered by the fears ingrained in us during our upbringing in an imperfect world. Therefore, from a spiritual standpoint, our task is to reconnect with our essence, where compassion naturally flows. Some teachings advocate practices to heighten our awareness of compassion, aiding in overcoming our inner resistance—most notably, engaging in acts of kindness.
 

Spiritually, compassion entails a profound understanding of another's suffering without feeling compelled to alleviate it. This might challenge our belief that we must always intervene, but such a belief stems from our conditioned personality, which presumes to know what's best. Compassion is genuine love, free from attachment to specific outcomes, illuminating situations rather than fostering unnecessary worry, anger, or sadness. It's from this place that spontaneous action, inspired by divine wisdom, may or may not arise.

 

Quotes

 

 

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It’s healthy to be a compassionate, warm, kindhearted person. If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate much more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You'll find that all human beings are just like you, and you'll be able to relate to them more easily.

~ Dalai Lama

 

The more evolved you become, the more compassionate you become, the more you show loving kindness to everything, to the mineral kingdom, to the vegetable kingdom, to the animal kingdom, and to the human kingdom. You show total compassion, loving kindness. You become an embodiment of love simply because everything is you.

~ Robert Adams 

 

The sooner one develops compassion in this journey, the better. Compassion lets us appreciate that each individual is doing what he or she must do, and that there is no reason to judge another person or oneself. Merely do what you can to further your own awakening.

~ Ram Dass

 

Compassion: This is the aspect of loving kindness that is needed to experience and accept one's hurts and wounds, without defense and without resentment.

~ A. H. Almaas 

 

The teachings on love given by the Buddha are clear, scientific, and applicable… Love, compassion, joy, and equanimity are the very nature of an enlightened person. They are the four aspects of true love within ourselves and within everyone and everything.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Operating from ideas, one has an option to be kind and loving. All choice comes from mind, totally influenced by one’s beliefs in right and wrong. Without thought-identification, compassion happens, kindness happens, generosity happens, care and tenderness happen. What flows through naturally is not edited by mind before, during or after—there is no mind involved where there is emptiness.

~ Jac O'Keeffe

 

Our compassion is the fruit of our spiritual lives; it actually arises spontaneously when formed by intention in our spiritual practice. Love and compassion are always the goods of the spiritual journey, and they are guided by divine wisdom, which then shapes compassion in the concrete situations of our existence.

~ Wayne Teasdale

 

The state of the sage is one in which suffering has been known and then transcended. It is this that gives the sage the capacity for infinite compassion. 

The sage's innocence is grounded in the certainty that all suffering is unreal.

~ Wayne Liquorman

 

In today's world, people experience two types of poverty: the poverty caused by lack of food, clothing and shelter, and the poverty caused by lack of love and compassion. Of these two, the second type needs to be considered first because if we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter.

~ Mata Amritanandamayi

 

Compassion may be defined as the capacity to be attentive to the experience of others, to wish the best for others, and to sense what will truly serve others." ~ Joan Halifax

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. 

~ St. Thomas Aquinas

 

The best part of all is that no matter how long you practice, or what method you use, every technique of Buddhist meditation ultimately generates compassion.

~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

 

You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.

~ Meister Eckhart

 

The act of compassion begins with full attention, just as rapport does. You have to really see the person. If you see the person, then naturally, empathy arises. If you tune into the other person, you feel with them. If empathy arises, and if that person is in dire need, then empathic concern can come. You want to help them, and then that begins a compassionate act. So I'd say that compassion begins with attention.

~ Daniel Goleman

 

When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

 

Each of us is a product of our family, environment, friends, education, culture, and society. These conditions lead to a certain way of seeing things and a certain way of responding to things. When we see this, we have compassion for everyone, including ourselves. We see that if we want something to change, we also have to help change his or her family, environment, friends, education, culture, and society. We are responsible, directly or indirectly, for each person's consciousness attitudes.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

 

The beginner's mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

~ Shunryu Suzuki

 

Unless and until you have developed a heart inundated with compassion, do not sit on the seat of judgement.

~ Sri Chinmoy

 

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

~ Pema Chodron

 

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

~ Jack Kornfield

 

Love, not as an expression of separateness based on emotion, but as compassion, is that which holds the world together in Unicity. In Unicity we do not love others we ARE them. 

~ Ramesh Balsekar 

 

There is an unshakable strength in love that is often overlooked. Love has been limited, conceptualized, and perceived as "frail." Yet, love endures and shines through fears and difficulties, showing us the way of compassion and courage.

~ Pamela Wilson

 

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and ...to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

~ Albert Einstein

 

The key to joy is the unconditional kindness to all life, including one’s own, that we refer to as compassion. Without compassion little of any significance is ever accomplished in human endeavor.

~ David R. Hawkins

 

I am often asked, “What exactly is grace?” One definition is that grace is the direct experience of divine love, in which we know our existence as profoundly blessed.

When I say love, I mean the oceanic fullness that lies within the depth of our heart – that wants to open and connect with all that is real and meaningful in life; that healing presence that is naturally generous, compassionate and joyful; and most exquisite of all – wants to share it with another, with the world.

~ Miranda Macpherson

 

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all being in the world. 

~ Lao Tzu

 

It is only when without ego, and there is no individual, that the act of absolute compassion takes place through your form. From emptiness, selfless giving takes place. It is then that there is nothing personal in such actions and it is impossible not to act without love.

~ Jac O'Keeffe

 

If you are seeking liberation, my son, avoid the objects of the senses like poison and cultivate tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment, and truthfulness as the antidote. 

~ Nisargadatta

 

. . .  it has become dramatically apparent that there is a need for the realization of both the strength and clarity of our masculine nature and the balance of our heart-centered compassionate feminine qualities for a healthy integration in the human psyche.

~ Craig Holliday

 

Love, compassion, kindness, and generosity change their function from being motivations for practice to becoming expressions of realization. They don’t disappear, they don’t lose their value; they simply become the way realization expresses itself. When we are realized, when we are in the condition of being truly what we are, we can’t help but be kind and loving and selfless. It is natural.  .  . The flow of the dynamism of reality happens naturally and is revealed as what we are.

~ A.H. Almaas

 

The intellect is a beautiful servant but a terrible master.

Intellect is the power tool of our separatness.

The intuitive, compassionate heart .... is the 

doorway to our unity. 

~ Ram Dass 

 

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. 

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. 

~ The Dalai Lama

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