Karuna and Compassion

Clarifying the words and meaning

"[Karuna is] the intention and capacity to relieve and transform suffering and lighten sorrows. Karuna is usually translated as 'compassion', but that is not exactly correct.", Thich Nhat Hanh

One of the central themes and teachings in Buddhism is that of Karuna and Mahakaruna. It is so important in fact that we cannot even speak of a Buddhist path, or outlook towards the spiritual path, without understanding and applying this principle. However as the Dharma enters the western culture, and is translated into western languages we inevitably find certain challenges. Karuna is one of the biggest challenges.

The most common translation into English is the word compassion. But it is not the only one, we find also translations such as: sympathy, empathy and piety.

Translating Karuna into English in a correct form is as important as the importance of the principle in itself, because without a correct understanding of its meaning, our view and path will drift towards directions that are not in accordance with the meaning of the Buddha Dharma.

Karuna is a word common to both Sanskrit and Pali languages, and it appears frequently in Buddhist Sutras and commentaries. In the Sutras the Buddha states the importance of cultivating Karuna within the mind as necessary to realization in the path. This article explores the meaning of Karuna based on several early and modern sources as its of crucial importance to unravel the authentic meaning of Karuna, and why 'compassion' can become a very problematic translation which is used requires interpretation.

If we look at the many uses of the word Karuna in Indian literature the problem becomes much more apparent, and if we investigate some early Buddhist commentaries where the word is explained again we get a glimpse that the word 'compassion' is perhaps very much off the mark when we compare it to the common and vernacular use understanding of the world in english.

Just as an example to illustrate the issue, in root sources, we find uses of the word karuna that seem to point to: sorrow, a state of dumbfoundedness, a facial expression that looks sad or with tears, benevolent, the state that arises from losing something that is loved, sympathy, empathy, piety, mercy, gentle affection, the wish to remove suffering, moving, affecting, mournful, grief and others.

In general language the common meaning of Karuna would be closer to 'to mourn', 'to lament'; and even though the Buddhist meaning is quite different, this understanding seems to have influenced greatly the common choice of translation as compassion.

karuṇaṃ, rāhula, bhāvanaṃ bhāvehi. karuṇañhi te, rāhula, bhāvanaṃ bhāvayato yā vihesā sā pahīyissati.

“Develop the meditation of karuna. For when you are developing the meditation of karuna, cruelty will be abandoned.” - Maha-Rahulovada Sutta (MN 62)

With such importance, both at the level of the view, and also meditation and practice, surely how this term is to be understood should not be taken lightly.

In the Buddhist canon Karuna is one of the four 'divine abodes', or brahmaviharas, sometimes translated as 'Boundless qualities', and usually rendered in English as compassion, love, joy and equanimity.

Buddhaghosa in his commentary on the visuddhimagga writes:

1) When there is suffering in others it makes good people’s hearts move, thus it is karuna.

2) It combats others’ suffering, attacks and demolishes it, thus it is karuna.

3) or it is dispersed over the suffering, is spread out through pervasion, thus it is karuna.

In this explanation from Buddhaghosa perhaps we could say that the first point reflects the meaning of karuna to be cultivated. The second point reflects the meaning of karuna as it manifests for advanced practitioners on the path, and the final meaning would refer to mahakaruna, the activity of the Buddhas. And in these three aspects we find our first solid understanding of the multilayered meaning of Karuna.

Also Dhammapala writes:

It is through understanding (= wisdom) that he fully understood others' suffering and through karuna that he undertook to counteract it... It was through wisdom that he himself crossed over and through karuna that he brought others across...Likewise it was through karuna that he became the world's helper and through wisdom that he became his own helper.

And in several sutra references we find passages such as:

The Buddha visited and comforted the sick ‘out of karuna’ (Anguttara ikaya 3. 378), he taught the Dhamma ‘out of karuna’ (Anguttara Nikaya 3. 167).

It is obvious that in the Buddhist context the word Karuna is pointing to a mind that cares. A mind that is not indifferent to what is happening in the known field of experience. Another important aspect that is often neglected is that Karuna in the Buddhist sense is imbued with wisdom. Often we hear the words 'wisdom and compassion', or the need to cultivate 'wisdom and compassion'. However from a Buddhist point of view these two aspects are only expressed separately as a pedagogical tool because in reality they are inseparable from the start.

The meaning here is that if there is no wisdom then there is no Karuna in the Buddhist sense. Karuna without wisdom is not the Buddhist Karuna. Perhaps this is a subtle point that we can dismiss as being a linguistic detail, however that is not the case; to think of wisdom and karuna as separate 'things' that need to be developed is similar to think that a fire and the heat are different things, and that first I must develop the fire and then later I must develop the heat, when in reality fire and heat arise simultaneously from the start. Karuna and Wisdom are inseparable always, speaking of them as separate is only a pedagogical tool. This point is crucial enough to deserve some emphasis:

if there is no wisdom then there is no Karuna in the Buddhist sense. Karuna without wisdom is not the Buddhist Karuna.

The other aspect to distinguish is between Karuna and Mahakaruna. Mahakaruna, which is the aroma, or spontaneous benefit that arises from a Buddha Mind is the activity aspect of Karuna, which is spontaneous and non-discriminating. Practitioners on the path do not practice mahakaruna, but they cultivate karuna.

What about the word 'compassion'?

But is the meaning and general understanding of the word compassion in english and in our culture suitable for a Buddhist understanding of Karuna? Is the use of the word compassion in many western spiritual circles that associate it with Buddhism actually correct from the Buddhist perspective?

If we look at the root of the word compassion it arises from Latin, and it means co-suffering, or suffering-together, or a shared-passion. It means to share in another's suffering. The first problem with translating karuna in a way that relates to experiencing suffering is because an awakened mind, or a Buddha mind, does not experience suffering, and yet the awakened mind is imbued with pure mahakaruna. As to the simple Karuna (or as it sometimes referred to, worldly-compassion), if we were to understand it as the english meaning of compassion (suffering-together), would the Buddha truly be asking his students to actively develop a mind 'of suffering' ? It seems unlikely.

In common language, and in the Buddhist sense also, compassion has taken a very 'heavy' tone. Perhaps influenced by our historical and cultural christian background with the image of the Christ suffering in the cross to save humanity, it is easy to bring this idea of compassion into our Buddhist understanding.

On the other hand, compassion is also very much related to 'passion', it is a fiery state, it is emotional, it reacts to suffering in an emotional way. Often compassion as an inner state is mixed and confused with empathy, even though they are not really the same state. Another common issue addressed by some translators is that if trying to translate karuna as mere 'sympathy' that seems to fall short of the meaning, on the other hand, 'compassion' goes too far and into areas that are just not part of the meaning of karuna.

In other words, if 'sympathy' is too passive and neutral, 'compassion' is too active and emotional.

In VIOLENCE AND COMPASSION, a dialogue between the Dalai Lama & Jean-Claude Carriere, a passage in the book states that Karuna in Buddhism is not what we usually in our culture would call a 'feeling', that is, is not 'feeling based'. Even though feelings and emotions may arise in a person when observing another in suffering, that is not the basis for 'karuna'. Karuna in Buddhism is what arises from wisdom and understanding the actual condition of the situation of life and the way beings live; but also joined with the understanding that we are all interconnected. This type of Karuna is not a 'passion' or an 'emotion', it does not have this fiery nature of ordinary compassion.

Jennifer Goetz in her Study "Research on Buddhist Conceptions of Compassion: An Annotated Bibliography", offers a very interesting overview of several key aspects that I will summarize here:

The general western understanding and meaning of compassion is:

- a spontaneous feeling, an emotion

- it is a passion, hot

- it is directed towards a situation or individual

- it is the result of caring and concern, anyone can have it

The Buddhist meaning of Karuna:

- it is not an emotion, it is the result of understanding, reflection, contemplation and wisdom

- it is not hot, it is calm and cooling

- it is not individualized

- true karuna is inseparable from wisdom (prajna), otherwise it can be harmful

If we just glance at these differences it is obvious that the general understanding of 'compassion' and the meaning of 'karuna' have quite important differences.

In fact many teachers in the west have attempted to explore and clarify this problem, most notably Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in his unique style, coined the term 'idiot compassion' to refer to the common western understanding of compassion when applied to Buddhism, he has said:

"Idiot compassion is the highly conceptualized idea that you want to do good to somebody. In order that your compassion doesn’t become idiot compassion, you have to use your intelligence. At this point, good is purely related with pleasure. Idiot compassion also stems from not have enough courage to say no."

and

compassion is not being kind and nice necessarily; it is more openness. you are willing to relate to the whole process. Generally the experience of compassion is that of somebody is rich and willing to give something away because of their charity. you are healthy and are going to save somebody from an unhealthy situation. you know much more than other people do, you have more information, you are going to try to save those people from trouble. That is idiot compassion. Such compassion is based on levels: something is better than that. The basic idea of compassion is based on sunyata and not comparisons. (...) once you see the hopelessness of the whole thing, you give up expectations. Because you give up expectations, you become more generous. Therefore you are willing to relate with what is there without expectations. And because of that non-expectation, you are more equipped when you are relating to other situations. that is the path of compassion.

(From the collected works of Chogyam Trungpa, Volume 2)

From this short exploration perhaps its possible to understand the importance of this topic for someone walking the Buddhist path. Also it should be clear that the issue of the word 'compassion' is not to be taken lightly. Some suggest that it does not matter so much as long as the Buddhist meaning of the word is explained, however I do not think that is so simple. The conceptual mind is deeply connected to linguistic programming and patterning, and once a certain word makes it into the conceptual inner framework and assumes a place and meaning in the view of the world, then the simple offering of an alternative definition for a word does little to replace the deep seated imprints that are carried in the mind.

Some of the obvious issues are that compassion, as its usually understood in our western culture, is an emotional response, it is imbued with suffering. Also the word compassion many times seems to be associated with 'action' and judgment, as Chogyam Trungpa also mentions, the idea that something is better and something is worse; that someone is better and someone is worse. This duality of good and bad has no place in Karuna, much less in mahakaruna. The path of the Buddha is not a path of discrimination, judgment and condemnation. If we take the meaning of compassion in this ordinary sense, or as Trungpa Rinpoche says, "idiot compassion", it is full of judgment. From this form of compassion very easily can arise anger, frustration, sadness, despair, fear etc. From here we feel we want to save the world but we do not have even the wisdom to understand ourselves. Many times the type of actions that arise from this type of compassion are confused actions, out of place and narrow minded. As the old saying goes: "Hell is full of people with good intentions".

In that sense perhaps a better translation for Karuna would be something like: "caring heart" or just "caring nature". In this sense it means that we care, we are not indifferent or callous. As Buddhaghosa wrote in his definition of Karuna "When there is suffering in others it makes good people’s hearts move".

It we are indifferent to the suffering and pain around us, we are disconnected, we are somehow closed of. If we are closed of then the only space where we are moving is that of our own ego and conceptual mind. Not being indifferent means we care. We care what happens. We care that beings suffer. Caring and being able to help, or knowing how to help are not the same thing. Sometimes we can help, and we know how to help, other times we don't - but we still care. In caring, Karuna, there is a sense of calm, of understanding - of wisdom!

The other problem is this tendency to separate wisdom and karuna as separate and distinct aspects. This cannot be done. Sometimes we hear someone say: "I have a lot of compassion, but my wisdom is not so much". Such statements reflect an incorrect understanding of karuna as explained earlier, because wisdom and karuna cannot truly be separate. Genuine wisdom, genuine Prajna, is always inseparable from Karuna in the same 'amount'. If we feel like our wisdom is much less than our compassion, than this compassion is not Karuna. In the same way, Karuna is always manifesting Wisdom. Wisdom and Compassion, if we are to use these two english words, are inseparable. It is not that the practitioners needs to somehow pick a piece of compassion, pick a piece of wisdom and then blend them together in their mind. This is the reason why the path can be approached from either side.

This article does not attempt to offer a solution, because perhaps there is no good solution for this. Some have suggested that some words are better left untranslated exactly for this reason, words such as Vidya (tib. Rigpa), Karuna, and several others are inherently hard to accurately translate into english. However a word such as karuna, or compassion, considering that it relates to a deep inner movement of the heart and mind, if we ignore the inherent issue of neuro-linguistic programming, and just try to redefine the word will leave its true meaning fully within the conceptual realm, becoming very hard to really drive deep within the heart and mind. So perhaps it is better to leave it untranslated.

Teaching compassion has become the 'bread and butter' of most forms of Buddhism, in particular in the west, today. Considering that Karuna is indeed one of the key aspects of the path its important to really look at this principle. The common use of the word compassion in the west has led to profound misunderstandings towards the nature of the Buddhist path, many times drifting into some sort of naive utopian humanistic position. Such position takes away from the profound and deep meaning of Karuna, the incredible wisdom and caring-kindness of the awakened mind beyond dualism. In the authentic karuna that we speak of in Buddhism we find this inherent view that ultimately there is no truly existing self, nor duality between subject and object. If we lose this sense and drift into emotionally based, dualistic, good and bad, right and wrong, justice and injustice, type of compassion, we are headed in the opposite direction. In the Buddhist sense of the word karuna it is deeply related to the release of self-grasping, there is nothing more important than that. With the realization of our real nature, and the release of self-grasping, automatically karuna, or compassion, appears as the natural display of the innermost nature, beyond self and other, beyond duality. In the classical definition of compassion (karuna) in Mahayana Buddhism when discussing the four boundless qualities, compassion is defined as "the inner movement that wants to dispel suffering", and love is defined as "the inner movement that wants to promote happiness". However, we need to remember very clearly what 'suffering' and 'happiness' mean in the Buddhist context, and this is something that is often lost, or dropped, in the migration of Buddhist ideas into certain western movements that attempt to use Buddhist principles, very often misappropriating them.

This happens by calling something 'Buddhism' when it is not, but also by using many of its core ideas, and then reframing them according to western psychology or other ideologies creating much confusion to unsuspected readers or listeners. In the Buddhist context both suffering and happiness have very precise meanings which are at the heart of the entire Buddha Dharma. In brief suffering is related to ignorance, or in other words it is defined by the Second Noble Truth which says that the cause of suffering is ignorance of our real nature. So compassion is the wish to release all beings (ourselves included) from this ignorance of our real nature. To break free from this dream-like illusion of duality, name and form. If we lose sight of this, then its no longer Karuna. That is not to say that mere normal compassion is not important, but we should not mix it with Buddhist terms because the Buddhist principles serve a very specific purpose in the path to awakening.

The great state of the primordial wisdom is great compassion because it is knowing of the way things really are. It is not compassion because living beings suffer; it is compassion because it knows that their suffering and their self clinging are illusory, and their authentic condition is Great-Perfection. Knowing that the real nature of all beings and reality is Great-Perfection, that is Great-Compassion

with love

by Ajanatha

Karuna and Compassion Clarifying the words and meaning

Karuna and Compassion

Clarifying the words and meaning

What about the word 'compassion'?

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