Never be misled by simplicity it can take a long, hard journey to arrive at such clarity

Over recent years, I have written a fair amount on the subject of love and yet surprisingly little about compassion. And so today I’m asking: What exactly is compassion?

We can easily define this as an ability to feel for others. When compassionate, we’re able to sympathise with the suffering and misfortune we might witness. We can empathetically feel the pain of others. Even so, if we possess this ability, but then fail to act, of what use is compassion?

If we combine compassion with love, would this create the correct environment for action?

I feel that it would. Compassion alone is of little value if we fail to love. Consider how much power, compassionate thoughts have, when they concern someone we love. Consider the compassion we understand for a vulnerable child that we love. How would it be if we saw this child within everyone? How would it be if we saw this child, even within violent adults, that are being used as pawns within games?

And so, when people talk of meditating on compassionate thoughts and feelings, it is of far greater value to see those we seek to feel compassion for as children. After all, it could be said we are all children struggling to grow. And we never really lose that fear and vulnerability, felt so strongly, as a child. It just weakens slightly as we age.

As with most things, it does all start with ourselves. If you want to find compassion, this is, of course, where it begins: within. Through meditating on compassionate feelings and then offering this to the vulnerable child within ourselves, we stand a far greater chance of feeling this for others. When we look at any child, how can we fail to love? If we fail at this, compassion has no meaning. Learn to meditate.