Compassion

Karuˆå is the Påli word translated as compassion. Contemporary writers have spoken of it thus:

"It is defined as that which makes the heart of the good quiver when others are subject to suffering, or that which dissipates the suffering of others."¹⁵

"Compassion is a virtue which uproots the wish to harm others. It makes people so sensitive to the sufferings of others and causes them to make these sufferings so much their own that they do not want to further increase them."¹⁶

"This (compassion) isn't self-pity or pity for others. It's really feeling one's own pain and recognizing the pain of others  . Seeing the web of suffering we're all entangled in, we become kind and compassionate to one another."¹⁷

The above definitions vary. Yet central to all is the claim that karuˆå concerns our attitude to the suffering of others. In the Buddhist texts the term often refers to an attitude of mind to be radiated in meditation. This is usually considered its primary usage. Nevertheless, the definitions of Buddhist writers past and present, as well as the texts themselves, stress that it is also more than this. Anukampå and dayå, often translated as "sympathy," are closely allied to it.¹⁸ In fact, at least three strands of meaning in the term "compassion" can be detected in the texts: a prerequisite for a just and harmonious society; an essential attitude for progress along the path towards wisdom (paññå); and the liberative action within society of those who have become enlightened or who are sincerely following the path towards it. All these strands need to be looked at if the term is to be understood and if those who accuse Buddhist compassion of being too passive are to be answered correctly. 

The foundation for any spiritual progress within Buddhism is the Five Precepts. Rites, rituals, ascetic practices, and devotional offerings are all subservient to the morality they stress. Compassion for the life, feelings, and security of others is inseparably linked with the first, second, and fourth precepts.

1. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from injury to living things (påˆåtipåtå veramaˆ¥ sikkhåpadaµ samådiyåmi).

2. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from taking what is not given (adinnådånå veramaˆ¥ sikhåpadaµ samådiyåmi).

3. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from false speech (musåvådå veramaˆ¥ sikkhåpadaµ samådiyåmi).

For instance, the ideal of ahiµså (non-harming) of the first must flow from compassion if it is to be effective. The Vasala Sutta makes this relationship explicit, although the word dayå, usually translated as sympathy or compassion, is used and not karuˆå:

"Whoever in this world harms living beings, once-born or twice-born, in whom there is no compassion for living beings-know him as an outcast."¹⁹

(Ekajaµ vå dijaµ vå pi yo påˆåni hiµsati, yassa påˆe dayå n'atthi taµ jaññå 'vasalo' iti.)

Important to the exercising of this kind of compassion is the realization that life is dear to all, as shown in the following Dhammapada verse:²⁰

     "All tremble at violence
      Life is dear to all
      Putting oneself in the place of another
      One should neither kill nor cause another to kill."

(Sabbe tasanti daˆ¶ assa Sabbesaµ j¥vitaµ piyam Attånaµ upamaµ katvå Na haneyya na ghåtaye.)

Here, non-harming and compassion flow both from a sensitivity to our own hopes and fears and the ability to place ourselves in the shoes of others. Compassion towards self and compassion towards others are inseparable.

The Buddha's teachings about statecraft and government also embody compassion as a guiding principle. The Cakkavatti S¥hanåda Sutta describes a state in which the king ignores his religious advisers and does not give wealth to the poor. Poverty becomes widespread and, in its wake, follow theft, murder, immorality in various forms, and communal breakdown. The culmination is a "sword period" in which men and women look upon one another as animals and cut one another with swords. In this sutta, lack of compassion for the poor leads to the disintegration of society. Lack of social and economic justice leads to disaster. In contrast, the ideal Buddhist model for society, as deduced from the texts, would be one in which exploitation in any part of its structure is not tolerated. Such a society would be rooted in compassion. Compassion is its prerequisite.

To move to the second strand, I have already stated that the word "karuˆå" was most often mentioned in the texts in the specialized context of meditation to denote an important form of mind training. Here the emphasis is on each person's pilgrimage towards Nibbåna rather than on interaction with other beings.

For example, the Kandaraka Sutta describes the path of a person who "does not torment himself or others." Moral uprightness is stressed initially but the final stages of the path are seen purely in terms of meditation and mind-training. At this point, no mention is made of outgoing action:

"By getting rid of the taint of ill-will, he lives benevolent in mind; and compassionate for the welfare of all creatures and beings, he purifies the mind of the taint of ill-will."²¹

In this context, the development of karuˆå plays an essential part in the meditation practice that leads towards wisdom (paññå) and the destruction of craving. The importance of this must not be underestimated. The development of a compassionate mind is a direct preparation for right concentration (sammå samådhi) and a prerequisite of Nibbåna:

"If from a brahman's family, if from a merchant's family, if from a worker's family,and if from whatever family he has gone forth from home into homelessness and has come into this dhamma and discipline taught by the Tathågata, having thus developed friendliness (mettå), compassion (karuˆå), sympathetic joy (muditå), and equanimity (upekkhå), he attains inward calm-I say it is by inward calm that he is following the practices suitable for recluses."²²

Karuˆå is one of the four "brahma-vihåras" or sublime states, along with mettå, muditå and upekkhå. The higher stages are seen to rest on them because they have the power to weaken the defilements of lust, ill-will, and delusion and to bring the mind to a state of peace. Rarely is meditation mentioned without reference to them.

Yet a distinction must be made between mettå and karuˆå. The two are linked together at one level through the brahma-vihåras. Yet, in the texts, mettå constantly remains a disposition, an interior attitude. Karuˆå is more than this. Significant here is Buddhaghosa's treatment of the word in the Visuddhimagga. When referring to the brahma-vihåras, he treats karuˆå in a similar way to mettå. Yet, in a later definition, his words can be translated as:

"When there is suffering in others it causes good people's hearts to be moved, thus it is compassion. Or, alternatively, it combats (kiˆåti) others' suffering and demolishes it, thus it is compassion. Or, alternatively, it is scattered upon those who suffer, or extended to them by pervasion, thus it is compassion."²³

Bhikkhu Ñåˆamoli, in the notes to his translation, stresses that kiˆåti here does not come under the usual meaning of "to buy" but is linked with the Sanskrit kr@ˆåti, to injure or kill. Therefore he chooses to translate it as "combat," unmistakeably connecting Buddhaghosa's definition of karuˆå with action.

In a later paragraph, Buddhaghosa adds that compassion succeeds "when it makes cruelty subside and it fails when it produces sorrow."²⁴ To Buddhaghosa, karuˆå was both a deliverance of the mind and liberative action or, more exactly, a quality compelling people towards such action.

This emphasis on liberative action is seen supremely in Ócariya Dhammapåla's words about the great compassion (mahåkaruˆå) and wisdom (paññå) of the Buddha.²⁵ The passage is structured in a series of parallel sentences, each one contrasting and comparing the fruits of the two qualities. The following are selected from the longer whole:

"It is through understanding (wisdom) that he fully understood others' suffering and through compassion that he undertook to counteract it. It was through understanding that he himself crossed over and through compassion that he brought others across"

"Likewise it was through compassion that he became the world's helper and through understanding that he became his own helper."

In the above passage, paññå or wisdom is connected with knowledge and insight, and karuˆå or compassion with liberative action. The two are held in corrective balance, counteracting the view that karuˆå is linked only with the passivity of meditation. For the Enlightened One, karuˆå was what impelled him to remain in society as teacher and liberator. He saw the need of the murderer, Angulimåla, and a destructive life was put on another course.²⁶ For forty-five years, he preached in the face of criticism, opposition, and misunderstanding, in the knowledge that the Dhamma would be understood only by a few. He did not hide the fact that suffering is universal, but made compassion the reverse side of this truth, as is shown in the traditional stories of his encounters with Pa†åcårå,²⁷ Kisågotam¥,²⁸ and the slave girl Rajjumålå.²⁹ He was not slow either to admonish monks who were unwilling to tend the sick among them or to do the tending himself, however distressing the illness was: "Whoever would attend on me should attend on the sick" (yo maµ upa††haheyya so gilånam2 upa††haheyya) has come down the centuries as words he said on one such occasion.³⁰

This ideal was placed before the whole monastic Sangha. Although many members of the Sangha may have failed to reach it, it is certain that some attained a stage where compassionate, loving action had replaced selfishness. In the final stage of the path, there is a sense in which action ceases. Yet it is the kind of action which is dictated by attraction or aversion which must stop, action which has kammic results, not that which flows from a purified mind filled with compassion. The mission he set for himself and for the Sangha was one of compassionate, liberative action. The first sixty arahants were sent out with the words:

"Go forth, bhikkhus, for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, benefit, and happiness of gods and men. Let not two go by the same way."³¹

Mahåkassapa is praised because "he teaches the doctrine to others out of pity, out of caring for them, because of his compassion for them."³²

For the above disciples, all that had to be done for their release had been done. They now embodied compassion. Compassion was their nature-Mahå-karuˆå, great compassion, rather than the elementary compassion which the novice on the path attempts to radiate and practise. For these disciples, all desire for self-promotion and self-achievement had been replaced with outward-moving energy. Therefore, any statement which describes the enlightened Buddhist disciple as distant from society would be false, or, more exactly, would be using inappropriate categories. The strength of the concept of compassion within Buddhism is that it is both a powerful form of mental purification and a form of liberative action.

Final Reflections

This paper began with questions raised by observers about the Buddhist notions of detachment and compassion. They centre around two main points: that the two concepts seem to represent contradictory forces, the one moving away from society and the other towards it; that the Buddhist concept of compassion is not active enough, being more connected with personal spiritual growth than the altruistic reformation of society.

Part of the problem is the linguistic framework and the modern connotations surrounding such concepts as "detachment." The question would not arise in the same form for those thinking exclusively in Påli and using the terms viråga and karuˆå. It would be evident to them that viråga does not imply apathy and indifference but a freedom from passion and attachment that is necessary if actions are not to become biased or partial. For what passes as compassion can cloak emotions of a very different kind, such as anger, attachment, or the wish to interfere.

With reference to the second point, a distinction in terms must be made. There is a form of concern for self which is compatible with and even essential to altruism. The care for oneself which enables one to feel empathy with others can be termed "autism." Autism is necessary for altruism, since it is necessary to be able to accept and even love oneself before one can show true empathy and compassion for others, before one can feel what they feel. Autism is not egoism. Egoism is the enemy of both autism and altruism. Egoism seeks to use others for the material welfare and gain of self. Its "love" is possessive and manipulative. Egoism has to be destroyed if karuˆå is to develop.

Viråga, viveka, karuˆå and anukampå are inter-related terms within Buddhism. Compassion needs the clear insight that viragå can bring. The challenge for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike is to realize this in our lives. All societies need the active, liberative compassion which seeks to relieve the suffering of others, establish greater justice, and assert the dignity and equality of human beings. Karuˆå should certainly be seen in its concentrated meditative form as a powerful and peace-giving discipline of the mind and an important part of any spiritual path. But it should never be confined to this framework. It breaks the framework as liberative action to relieve suffering and oppression.