Compassion (Four Immeasurables)

Compassion, or Karuna, is the second of the Four Immesurables, and is described as the wish that all beings experience happiness and well-being. Yet the wish for others to be well is not a passive “hoping” — but a deep recognition that our suffering is bound inextricably to the suffering of others. Compassion calls us to love not from a place of charity, but from a place of recognizing our shared humanity. Zuisei says: “Buddhism says all beings are interdependent, which means we’re more than equal. We are one and the same. Great beings with many hands and eyes. We are Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the one who hears the cries of the world. The one who responds to that which needs to be taken care of, that needs to be healed.”