Hii Examiner, this is a good point and I think, to see such a thing, one should have a good level of attention to oneself (I am not the perfect person). I think while reading the psychology of the opposite person if we are able to see “I am the other” the division will start dissipating automatically.
After analyzing for the last two days, I felt that it is the suffering that makes us feel empathetic towards others when we observe. Suffering is the one that connects human beings with our natural instinct of compassion deep rooted in us.
Yes, if we are aware of our thinking patterns at different levels. In that awareness we don’t see the conflict for most of the time and therefore compassion is an automatic response.
Friends, to keep the thread self-contained and reduce the confusion on the aspect of compassion, I want to explain the meaning of compassion which I have learned very recently.
A natural sense of concern arises inside a person, in the phase of suffering or pain of someone accompanied by the wish to see the relief of the situation. In some religions, there is an understanding that compassion is something to do with other people’s suffering and needs. There is also an understanding that compassion is connected with a particular need in a given situation. Some people say acting if the person acts out of kindness, then he/she is compassionate. In fact, the English word Com + passion is derived from Latin, which is referred to as “Suffer with”.
I want to say that compassion is not just empathy, let us keep this distinction inside us. Empathy is more at the level of emotional feeling towards the opposite person. Whereas compassion is having an additional component to empathy. From a neurological perspective, when compassion arises the motor regions of our brain are activated, whereas in empathy only the pain matrix of the brain is more activated. Having said that one could see the distinction between compassion and empathy.
Friends, if there is any ambiguity please do ask the questions I will try to give my answers.
Yes, this seems to be correct. Although the compassion that K is talking about probably has to do with the depth to which suffering is understood. Can suffering be understood at such a great depth of intensity that it is entirely dissipated through insight?
As you say, true compassion is very likely more than simply empathy. But it may also be more than what current neurological measurements are capable of detecting, so we should be careful not to read too much into the apparent neurological effects of what the scientists are calling “compassion”. They may be measuring something people call “compassion”, but that K would not call true compassion (because for him true love and compassion are ‘outside’ the brain).
I see that in a practical world suffering is unavoidable and I personally feel this is one of the sources for connection , with deeper levels of insight maybe some part of it could be dissipated.
This is very nice point you have raised, I see that empathy is the root of compassion, which is an added dimension to it. Acting out of such an inner dynamic may appear to the opposite person as kindness. We do need empathy to allow us to connect together (In the way our mothers do it to us in general).
Okay, I am trying to validate as much as I could. And then I am trying to share my understanding on the aspects of compassion. If there is any doubt do ask questions .
When I wish everyone well and happy, I’m trying to feel good about myself because people can’t be any happier and healthier than they care to be, and most people don’t care to be any happier or healthier than their imagined identity can allow.
Most people (ourselves included) are socialized to the point of obliviousness. That is, most of us don’t realize how socialized we are, and until/unless we do realize how socialized we are, we’re just playing out who we think we are.
Empathy and compassion may not have much to do with each other. Empathy may be no more than involuntarily mirroring the pain and suffering of another; the animal instinct of sharing the experience.
Hi sir, thanks for your reply.
It seems that having an intention of being happy and well seems to be limited in your conclusions. I remember the statement said by Buddha, “You are your own enemy and you are your own savior”. From this standpoint, I see that having an intention and working upon ourselves is a good thing.
Yes sir,
In empathy there is only emotions to the other but there is no action to get out of it. Where are in compassion there is an actions in which we try to get the opposite person out of conflict.
We all have intentions and we all think we know what “ourselves” are. A “good thing” would be to question whether “working upon ourselves” is self-deception.
We may wish to be compassionate and caring towards each other and yet we may find ourselves more self-interested and judgmental in a day. The relationship between conscious intentions and instant motivations for any given situation is quite complex in nature. With persistent awareness and reflections, we can bring our motivations and intentions to come in line. Dalai Lama has suggested some questions to check our motivations,
Is it just for me or others?
For the benefit of the few or for the many?
For now or for the future?
It is important to remember that there is always an opportunity to reset our intention.
A personal note of mine, the above content is not my own findings but it is just my understanding of compassion meditation which I am working at present. Please do ask questions, such that I can work and give an appropriate response.
A Buddhist scholar (Jinpa) mentioned that giving importance to someone who we are concerned about, will make us show some interest in his/her well-being. In this process, we reach outside of ourselves, and life will reach in and touch us.
Hi friends, I want to share something which I faced today.
Today, while I was walking aside the busy road, I felt to eat some junk food. At that moment I saw a kid, who is selling some roasted peanuts on the roadside. I went to him and asked him the rates, and he said depending on the size of the paper cone, the rates are 20, 30, and 40 rupees.
Initially, he asked me to take the 40 rupees one, and I have said him that for me the smaller one is enough. After seeing the quantity he gave me, I asked him to put some more peanuts. This kid, instead of convincing me of the quantity which he put, at the moment he smiled (Wholeheartedly) and gave some extra quantity without saying a second word. Soon, I realized that I am nothing in front of the smile this kid has given me. At the moment, I simply paid some extra amount and went off (Even though I can’t value it). I know that I will not forget that smile very easily for the rest of my life.
At the moment, I feel this kid may be poor in terms of money but this guy is richer than many individuals in my surroundings when it comes to the heart. Anyways, this is a small anecdote, I wanted to share with you people. Thank you.
Actually, at least as far as I know, Buddhism emphasizes emptiness which is inherent to thought, to what K called the reality, being compassion the essence of emptiness. As for K himself, in a conversation with DB and someone else (a psychiatrist) he says, referring to the listener of these conversations, well, we have removed everything, he has nothing now, so what´s left?, and then he claims that it is love or compassion what has been left which is far away from the trap of nihilism many people seems to fall into when all these issues that are beyond thought´s understanding are discussed.
As far as I understand it, this compassion on which Buddhism as well as K talk, has a lot to do with comprehension, a comprehension that arises from the heart and go through the eyes, shaping the way we look at the world, others and even at ourselves as being “part of nature”. It also could be said that this comprehension is closely related to the perception of the basic ignorance, didn´t K say that sorrow is the no perception of ignorance? The ignorance that doesn´t see the emptiness inherent to thought and, therefore, doesn´t comprehend and can´t embrace reality as it is. In Advaita Vedanta it is also said that, having realized our true nature, it is only when we can look back at the world and see it as it is and what it really is, that the work is done.
Empathy, helping others, caring and so on is something else, probably the manifestation of true compassion in relationships with others and the world that we perceive as or take for the very compassion itself. Agreed that the first one can be cultivated but not the second one.
Empathy is not related to compassion. Empathy is mirroring. For instance, when it hurts to see someone else get hurt, it isn’t because one has compassion, but because the brain is mirroring the experience.
According to K, compassion is beyond the conditioned brain.
I like to think of Sunyata/emptiness thusly : Reality isn’t really filled with the things we project into it.
And compassion being the understanding that we are all experiencing reality from this same center of fear.
Unfortunately, under this narrative, its not obvious how emptiness leads to compassion - The only way I can make it work is thusly : it is only with the death/absence of self, that our shared delusion becomes evident. (before that I feels so real and unique)
That´s true, there is nothing that can make us think or infer through logic and reasoning that realizing the emptiness inherent to thought leads to compassion, isn´t it amazing? I´d say that it must be a finding, a great, totally unexpected finding : surprise, surprise …