What is Compassion Karuna?
Compassion (Pali and Sanskrit: karuna) is the wish that others be free from suffering. It is the second of the four divine abodes, or brahmaviharas, which are four prized emotions or mindstates that cultivate positive behaviors and minimize harmful ones. Karuna is the desire to remove harm and suffering from others; while mettā is the desire to bring about the well-being and happiness of others. Unlike empathy, which merely resonates with another’s pain, and sympathy, which may involve looking down from a distance, practicing compassion allows us to recognize the suffering and difficulties that all living beings experience and respond with a genuine desire to alleviate that suffering. It’s a deep and active form of empathy that motivates compassionate action.
Origins & lineage
The Pāḷi Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. Karuna appears throughout these texts, particularly in discourses on the brahmaviharas. The life of Śākyamuni Buddha, especially his missionary work of forty-five years, is a manifestation par excellence of compassion. The cruciality of compassionate deeds for the attainment of supreme enlightenment is evident in the jātakas, a collection of fables recounting the previous lives of the Buddha. In the Pāli Canon, Buddhas are also described as choosing to teach “out of compassion for beings.”
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, karuna underwent significant elevation. Karuṇā is one of the two qualities, along with enlightened wisdom (Sanskrit: prajña), to be cultivated on the bodhisattva path. The path to arhatship appears tainted with a residual selfishness since it lacks the motivation of the great compassion (mahākaruṇā) of the bodhisattva. In Tibetan Buddhism, one of the foremost authoritative texts on the Bodhisattva path is the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra by Shantideva. The text’s eighth section treats compassion meditation extensively.
Karuna is not exclusively Buddhist. The word comes from the Sanskrit kara, meaning “to do” or “to make,” indicating an action-based form of compassion. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras specifically emphasize the concept of Karuna. The verse advocates for the cultivation of friendliness (Maitri), compassion (Karuna), joy (Mudita), and equanimity (Upeksha) in response to life’s dualities. This practice, according to Patanjali, is instrumental in achieving a state of mental tranquility.
How it’s practiced
As with many qualities on the Buddhist path, we can cultivate compassion through meditation practice. There are many ways to do this. The most common is through an offering of compassion phrases to various people. We do this by starting with ourselves, offering phrases toward the suffering. Practitioners then extend compassion to an “easy” person, a neutral person, and finally a difficult person. Common phrases include: “May you be free from suffering. May you be at peace.”
The practice of tonglen, also known as “sending and taking” is another form of meditation that offers a way to facilitate compassion for others. In tonglen practice, we visualize taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath. This reverse logic practice originates in Tibetan Buddhism, particularly in the Lojong (mind training) teachings.
In the Tevijja Sutta the Buddha instructs that we should pervade “the entire world with a mind imbued with compassion.” In conversation with a young student Subha, the Buddha instructs him to “spread a heart full of compassion to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of compassion to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.”
Compassion Karuna today
Contemporary practitioners encounter karuna through multiple channels. Insight Meditation (Vipassana) centers worldwide offer brahmaviharas retreats where karuna is taught alongside mettā (lovingkindness), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekkhā (equanimity). Teachers like Sharon Salzberg, Pema Chödrön, and Jack Kornfield have made these practices accessible to Western audiences through books, recordings, and online courses.
Self-compassion meditation is similar to metta, focusing on directing well-wishing phrases toward yourself. Psychologist Kristin Neff has conducted extensive research validating the psychological benefits of self-compassion practice, bridging Buddhist contemplative methods with clinical psychology. Online platforms like Insight Timer and Dharma Seed host thousands of guided karuna meditations. Some training programs integrate karuna explicitly; Karuna Training, developed in Germany in the mid-1990s and now offered in seven countries, combines Buddhist psychology with contemplative practice in a two-year certificate program.
Throughout the Mahāyāna world, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit; Chinese: Guan Yin; Japanese: Kannon; Tibetan: Chenrezig) is a bodhisattva who embodies karuṇā. Devotional practices invoking this figure remain common in Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese Buddhist communities.
Common misconceptions
Karuna is not pity. The “near enemy” (quality which superficially resembles karuṇā but is in fact more subtly in opposition to it), is (sentimental) pity: here too one wants to remove suffering, but for a partly selfish (attached) reason hence not the pure motivation. Pity creates hierarchy; compassion recognizes shared vulnerability without condescension.
Compassion does not require self-sacrifice or enabling harmful behavior. Setting boundaries, declining requests, and allowing natural consequences can all be expressions of wise compassion. The practice includes discernment about what will genuinely reduce suffering versus what merely soothes one’s own discomfort at witnessing pain.
Karuna is not the same as empathy or emotional flooding. According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive — it’s not empathy alone — but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and lovingkindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom). Without wisdom, compassion can devolve into burnout or codependency.
Finally, karuna is not reserved only for the virtuous. Compassion extends even to those causing harm, recognizing that harmful actions arise from confusion and suffering. This does not mean condoning wrongdoing; it means holding both accountability and care.
How to begin
Start with a simple daily practice: Sit quietly for five to ten minutes. Bring to mind someone experiencing difficulty. Notice any feelings in your chest or heart area. Silently repeat phrases such as “May you be free from suffering. May you find peace.” If resistance arises, begin with yourself or with someone for whom compassion flows easily.
For structured guidance, Sharon Salzberg’s Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (1995) includes accessible karuna instructions. Pema Chödrön’s books and audio teachings offer tonglen practice in contemporary language. The Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification), a 5th-century Theravada commentarial text by Buddhaghosa, contains classical instructions on developing the brahmaviharas, available in English translation by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli.
Many Insight Meditation centers offer introductory workshops on the brahmaviharas. Online platforms provide guided meditations ranging from ten minutes to an hour. The key is regularity: brief daily practice outweighs occasional longer sessions.