What is compassion?

[Dana Sheets]

In my recent copy of "Wired" there is an article about the study of the brainwaves of Buddhist Monks and how when they meditate on compassion or loving kindness they are able to synchronize the pattern of their brain waves in a way that seriously exceed the average person's ability to do so. That's nice...but it doesn't help me better understand the role of compassion in society.

compassion is:
a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering
(princeton dictionary)



compassion.org

Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy. Compassion is not a moral commandment but a flow and overflow of the fullest human and divine energies. --Matthew Fox



The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, forgiveness. --H.H. the Dalai Lama

Compassion is the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of emotional maturity. It is through compassion that a person achieves the highest peak and deepest reach in his or her search for self-fulfillment. --Arthur Jersild

....
How can deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering will influence our actions? How does a lack of this awareness also influence our actions?

Is compassion an element of self-improvement? Is it an innate human quality?
Does it matter?

[2Green]

Hi Dana:

I felt a response to this question was relevant in relation to the inflammatory cartoons currently making news.

If we believe that compassion (as I do) defines an empathetic relationship to other humans sharing this earth due to no choice of their own, then i say on this matter that "the boundaries of free speech are defined by the knowledge of what may insult or outrage our fellow-humans."

Yes, you may say what you are allowed to, legally. But, how do you treat others in your daily speech?

(Quick Bible quote, if i may...Jesus was once asked by the rulers of his religion "what should we eat or drink?"
His reply was brilliant:
He said: " It is not what goes into a person's mouth that defiles them, but what comes out.")

There are all kinds of things I'm allowed to say.
However, in my daily affairs, I temper these freedoms by my consideration for the feelings of the people I encounter, whether strangers or friends.

I feel the same way about the cartoons which have caused 9 deaths so far.
Why deliberately (knowing in advance the expected response) make a point of jabbing people in a sensitive area? Isn't that being deliberately cruel just to make a point?

And getting back to the relevancy of MA to our daily life, should not our compassion (from a presumed position of power) preclude any such probing of sensitive points?
Shouldn't we be the beacons of sensibility and, yes, compassion on these issues?

NM