Key Terms/Karuṇā
Basic Meaning
The wish for beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering
Has the sense of
It is the wish for others to be free from all forms of suffering. When we are able to feel that in relation to all beings and wish for them to be free of even the subtlest suffering that is called great compassion
Study details
- Abhidharma (Indo-Tibetan): Karuṇā (T. སྙིང་རྗེ་) is a wholesome mental factor that serves as the direct antidote to the mental affliction of cruelty or viciousness (vihiṃsā). It is defined as the aspiration for sentient beings to be free from suffering. It is traditionally counted as one of the four immeasurables (brahmavihāra or ཚང་པའི་གནས་བཞི་). In this context, it is cultivated by meditating upon the sufferings of all beings and aspiring for their relief.
- Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): In the Mahāyāna tradition, karuṇā is of supreme importance, culminating in mahākaruṇā (great compassion
,T. སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་).
- Mahākaruṇā is the compassion that perceives the suffering of all sentient beings throughout the six realms and works ceaselessly and universally for their liberation. It is considered the root of bodhicitta (the mind of enlightenment) and is one of the defining qualities of a bodhisattva.
- Great compassion is understood as the upāya (method or skillful means) aspect of the path, which must be united inseparably with prajñā (wisdom, the realization of emptiness) to achieve the complete enlightenment of a Buddha. Compassion prevents one from falling into the extreme of merely tranquil nirvana, ensuring one continues working for others.
- Vajrayāna (Indo-Tibetan): Karuṇā (thugs rje) continues to be the indispensable method aspect, representing the activity and responsiveness of the awakened mind. It is inherently non-dual with wisdom (prajñā). The very spontaneous manifestation of enlightened qualities and the capacity to perceive the suffering of others is an expression of this great compassion.
- Dzogchen/Mahāmudrā (Indo-Tibetan): In the context of the ultimate nature of mind, karuṇā (*thugs rje*) is seen not merely as an emotional state but as the spontaneous, all-pervasive, and unobstructed capacity of the ultimate nature (dharmakāya or rigpa).
- It is the energetic potential (rtsal) or light-like radiance that arises naturally from the emptiness (stong pa nyid) of the true nature.
- It is the unimpeded, responsive luminosity of the mind's ultimate essence, which manifests in forms and activities to benefit beings. This view emphasizes the inseparability of emptiness and compassion as the two aspects of reality.
- Theravāda/Pāli Tradition Context: In the Pāli tradition, karuṇā is one of the four sublime abodes (P. brahmavihāra) along with loving-kindness (mettā), sympathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekkhā). The cultivation of karuṇā is a meditative practice aimed at purifying the mind by radiating the wish for all beings to free from suffering, thereby opposing ill-will and cruelty.
(T. snying rje; C. bei; J. hi; K. pi 悲). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “compassion,” or “empathy”; the wish that others be free from suffering, as distinguished from loving-kindness (MAITRĪ; P. mettā), the wish that others be happy. Compassion is listed as the second of the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) along with loving-kindness, empathetic joy (MUDITĀ), and equanimity (UPEKṢĀ). As one of the forty topics of meditation (P. KAMMAṬṬHĀNA), compassion is used only for the cultivation of tranquillity (ŚAMATHA), not insight (VIPAŚYANĀ). Compassion is to be developed in the following manner: filling one’s mind with compassion, one pervades the world with it, first in one direction, then in a second direction, then a third, a fourth, then above, below, and all around. Of the four divine abidings, compassion, along with loving-kindness and empathetic joy, is capable of producing the first three of the four stages of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). This mainstream Buddhist notion of compassion is to be distinguished from the “great compassion” (MAHĀKARUṆĀ) of the BODHISATTVA, whose compassion inspires them to develop BODHICITTA, the aspiration to achieve buddhahood in order to liberate all beings from suffering. This great compassion is distinguished both by its scope (all sentient beings) and its agency (one personally seeks to remove the suffering of others). Great compassion thus becomes the primary motivating force that enables the BODHISATTVA to endure the three infinite eons (ASAṂKHYEYAKALPA) necessary to consummate the path to buddhahood. In Mahāyāna literature, numerous techniques are set forth to develop compassion, including acknowledging the kindness one has received from other beings in past lifetimes.
ཚངས་པའི་གནས་པ་བཞིའི་ནང་གསེས། ནད་སོགས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་མནར་བའི་སེམས་ཅན་དེ་དག་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་བྲལ་ན་ཅི་མ་རུང་སྙམ་པ་སྟེ། རྣམ་པར་འཚེ་བའི་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཉེན་པོའོ།
ནད་སོགས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་མནར་བའི་སེམས་ཅན་དེ་དག་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་བྲལ་ན་ཅི་མ་རུང་སྙམ་པའི་སེམས་བྱུང་དེ་ཡིན། ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཡིན་ཏེ། ཆོས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡུད་པའི་མདོ་ལས། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐོབ་པར་འདོད་པས་ཆོས་མང་པོ་ལ་བསླབ་པར་མི་བགྱི་། ཆོས་གཅིག་ལ་བསླབ་པར་བགྱིའོ། ། དེ་གང་ཞེ་ན་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོའོ་ཞེས་གསུངས། སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་འཁོར་བ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་གནས་ལས་སྒྲོལ་བའི་ཁུར་འཁྱེར་བ་ནི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་རག་ལས་ཏེ། མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་ལས་། དང་པོ་རྩ་བ་ཐ་མ་འབྲས་མཆོག་ལྡན། འདི་ནི་སྙིང་རྗེའི་ལྗོན་ཤིང་ཆེན་པོ་ཡིན། རྩ་བ་སྙིང་རྗེ་མེད་གྱུར་ན། །དཀའ་སྤྱད་བཟོད་པ་ཉིད་མི་འགྱུར། ། ཞེས་གསུངས། དེ་ལྟར་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་འབྱུང་གནས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་དེ་དཔེར་ན་ཤིང་གི་རྩ་བ་དང་སྡོང་པོ་སོགས་འོག་མ་འོག་མ་གོང་མ་སྐྱེ་ཞིང་། དེ་མེད་ན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་དང་འདྲ་བར་། སྙིང་རྗེ་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་སྐྱེས་པར་བྱེད་པ་གལ་གནད་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེའོ། །
