Introduction:
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
-Plato
Compassion plainly defined is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” [1] It is the culmination of the values of sympathy and empathy. While with sympathy one feels for the other’s suffering and with empathy, one is sharing the other’s hardship and suffering, compassion is actively trying to reduce the other person’s suffering.
It is moving away from kind words and entering into the realm of action and determination. Compassion is a noble ideal and a value that has been the centrepiece of human society since the dawn of civilization.
The etymological root of compassion is the Latin word compati which means “to suffer together with”. Compassion is said to be the essence of humanity and nearly every religious tradition of the world ranks compassion as one of the most important virtues for one to have. A detailed discussion of compassion and religion is described later in this document.
In this document we also discuss why people should be compassionate as well as discussing the biological events that lead to one being compassionate.
We also discuss compassion in terms of the workplace and professional ethics. Needless to say, it goes a long way in forging great workplace relationships and obtaining strong results from your subordinates.
Finally, every good thing regrettably has a dark side to it. For compassion, we discuss how compassion can take a saccharine form as well as how normally compassionate people can stop being compassionate due to circumstances.
Why should people be compassionate?
According to noted scholar Thupten Jinpa, compassion is a sense of concern that arises in us in the face of someone who is in need or someone who is in pain. And accompanied by a kind of a wishing (i.e. desire) to see the relief or end of that situation and wanting (i.e. motivation) to do something about it. [2] Humans are social animals. The success of humanity in the evolutionary scale is due to our ability to form complex societal units. Poet John Donne famously said, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;”. [3] It is no secret that the essential secret to success of society is compassion. Compassion is understanding the human condition.
Humans as a species are unique in their own quirky ways. Therefore, understanding and helping each other forms the cornerstone of our society. Only by identifying with each other can a society come together as a whole. This need is so ingrained in our behaviour that even babies start by mirroring their mother’s movements and facial impressions. It is no secret that the first smile of a young baby is treated as a developmental milestone, as the value of compassion starts developing within him/her.
Being a compassionate individual is essential for one to be part of the Universal Human Order. Compassion is a value that gives birth to other values such as forgiveness or kindness.
Without compassion we would have a “society” made out of narcissistic and selfish individuals which would collapse within a few days as people turn to their baseline animalistic instincts.
Some other reasons for being compassionate are as follows:
1. Compassionate individuals generally lead longer lives due to low stress.
2. Compassionate individuals have a large group of people they can depend on to help them in times of need.
3. Compassionate societies are the happiest and it is like a chain reaction which spreads prosperity in a community.
Having established why people should be compassionate, we should deal with the question of why people are compassionate in the first place.
Evolutionary Pathways of Compassion
According to a widely quoted study done by American scientists [4] it was found that the mesolimbic pathway lit up when performing acts of compassion. For reference, it is the same pathway associated with pleasure derived from eating food, which means that being compassionate is in the very genes of mankind since the earliest times. By putting the needs of others before the needs of self it was found that the regions of the brain associated with community and well being lit up.
Thus, we can conclude that compassion is a hard wired, basic emotion that is tied directly with the pleasure centres of the brain.
Religious Perspectives
Religious tradition across the world is united on at least one point, i.e. people should aim towards having a compassionate mind. This is reflected across the world in not only in Hinduism and Abrahamic religions but also in eastern tradition. What follows is a brief discourse on a few religious perspectives on compassion.
Hinduism
In classical Hindu literature, compassion is described using words like करुणा, दया and अनुकम्पा.
Gandhi claimed that the concept of compassion to all living beings is a central part of Hindu philosophy. [5] The ancient texts, Puranas describe compassion in detail. The Padma Purana defines दया as “virtuous desire to mitigate the sorrow and difficulties of others by putting forth whatever effort necessary”. Compassion is said to be one of the basic prerequisites to being happy according to the Matsya Purana. Tulsidas claimed that compassion is the essential part of leading a dharmic life and said it is the direct antagonist to arrogance.
The Indian cultural tradition of vegetarianism is another example of compassion in practice. Moreover, the freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi had ahimsa as its guiding principle which is one of the purest forms of compassion. Compassion is to be delivered to all living beings, regardless of their allegiance to you.
Even in the Mahabharata and other similar epics we have ample examples of how compassion is described to be one of the most important virtues to have.
Thus, we can see how the noble ideals of compassion are reflected in Hinduism.
Jainism
Jainism has compassion as its core principle. Jains take compassion to the next level. Killing another being in Jainism is considered to be a crime against nature and against humanity itself. Some highly devout sects of Jains wear a mask to minimize the number of microscopic particles they inadvertently kill. They go beyond vegetarianism and enter the realm of veganism, completely rejecting any product obtained from cruelty towards another being.
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic religion and it describes God as the source of all compassion in the world. Christian religious tradition describes Jesus Christ as the embodiment of compassion and asks all Christians to act like him in order to attain heaven. Interestingly, he also advocated compassion towards people hated by society such as prostitutes and criminals.
He is described as a benevolent and compassionate saviour who was willing to sacrifice his own life to save the world from sin. The Bible is full of stories similar to this that extol the virtue of compassion through Jesus and his disciples. An example Bible quote would be:
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you. — Ephesians 4:32
Compassion is described as the virtue that will make a utopia on Earth.
Islam
Islamic tradition describes the creator as the merciful and compassionate. Similar to Christianity, it describes God as the source of all compassion. Every prayer begins with the invocation of the compassion of God and encourages all Muslims to emulate that virtue in their life.
Having established that religious tradition has compassion as one of the core virtues, we can further move on to discuss practical compassion in the workplace.
Compassion in Professional Life
Compassion being such an important virtue has great application in the workplace. I shall be elaborating on a few examples below:
Medicine
The medical profession is probably the one where compassion is most needed. Only if you can understand the patient’s pain, you are able to help them. Doctors are supposed to be caring and expressive. The Hippocratic Oath states, “First do no harm”. Truly great doctors are highly compassionate and medical breakthroughs have occurred just because doctors were able to listen to their patients and move away from the assumed course of treatment and explore new dimensions based on feedback from the patient.
Engineering
Compassion in engineering comes in the form of ergonomic design. It is engineering design that is not only about efficiency but also comfort of the human users. Compassion is also reflected in the form of making sturdy devices that are built to last and do not break due to planned obsolescence.
Compassion in engineering also comes into play when dealing with biomedical devices which improve the quality of life for people.
Management and Leadership
A compassionate manager is a good manager. Peter F. Drucker said “Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”, that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” [6]
Only if a manager is compassionate and understands the needs of the employees, he can lead them to greater heights. Subordinates are not simple cogs in the machine. Only with compassion can you be a true leader.
Therefore, we can see how compassion is an important value to have as a professional and being compassionate would be of great help for one in their career.
People who embodied compassion across History
Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi was known as a freedom fighter but his various acts of compassion are very well documented. Gandhi promulgated the philosophy of ahimsa which can be said to be an ultimate expression of compassion since it asks you to be kind to everyone, including the enemy. Gandhi directly worked with patients who were terminally ill with leprosy. He also worked with marginalized women and raised their standards of living. He also inspired people across India to become compassionate as well. He was truly a shining beacon of compassion and humanity.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa, now known as Saint Teresa is a Christian missionary who worked with the poorest of the poor in Kolkata. She showed love and care to those who were abandoned by society. Her selfless compassion led her to establish the Missionaries of Charity which provided healthcare to the poor as well as education and support to the underprivileged.
Japanese Senior Citizens in Fukushima
This is an example of compassion showed by the whole rather than individuals. After the disaster in Fukushima in Japan in 2011, there was the danger of radioactivity to the workers who had been assigned to clean up the area. Several senior citizens volunteered instead to clean up the area as they were already near the end of their lives. They won’t be affected by infertility and the cancers associated with radioactivity as much as the younger workers would be.
They worked to reduce the suffering of the citizens of their country as well as their younger colleagues, sacrificing their own bodies in the process. This is a true example of compassion and humanity.
When compassionate people aren’t compassionate
This is the dark section of this document. It aims to discuss how being compassionate can be hard sometimes. Normally compassion is the key to leading a happy life. However, individuals who have spent a vast portion of their lives caring about others tend to experience fatigue and burnout.
This phenomenon is known as compassion fatigue and it happens because people internalize other’s suffering beyond the safe limit. It can be easily averted by practicing self-care activities and taking a break from time to time. As said earlier, no man is an island and therefore it is okay to share the load from time to time.
However, this discussion on compassion fatigue has become vastly more complex in current times.
News media and the internet have made suffering the prime time. The drama of death and destruction plays out on TV screens and people have stopped caring. In times of great suffering and chaos, people become averse to the suffering of others. Even right now, we can see how people across the country are suffering in the grip of the coronavirus. Lives are getting extinguished every minute and yet, the majority of the country chooses to ignore it.
Continuous exposure to disasters and disaster imagery has desensitized people to suffering. For example, when a husband stabbed his wife to death on a busy Delhi road, nobody paid attention to him. [7] People were busy recording the incident and not a single person bothered to help the woman.
Even during the current COVID disaster in the country, people have become desensitized and are still violating COVID norms even after witnessing the devastation sweeping the country.
Thus, compassion isn’t a monolith. Even normally compassionate people can end up displaying signs of being cruel and heartless when confronted by suffering that overloads the human senses.
However, it is also seen how moments of absolute barbarity can lead to humanity shining through, as was seen during the holocaust. Several people protected Jews in their homes at great personal risk to themselves. This pattern of behaviour has been seen over and over again across history.
Conclusion
After a long discussion on the various facets of compassion we can conclude the importance of compassion to humanity as a whole. Having observed how compassion is hardwired into our biology and how helping others gives us pleasure makes it no surprise that all the major religious traditions of the world preach compassion as a means of salvation.
Therefore, we can conclude that compassion is an essential human value and we all must strive to inculcate it.
References
(n.d.). Retrieved from Compassion | Definition of Compassion by Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com).
(n.d.). Retrieved from Compassion is Natural. So Why Is It So Hard for Us? — Big Think.
(n.d.). Retrieved from ‘No Man is an Island’ — John Donne (dal.ca).
(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/656219-leadership-is-not-magnetic-personality-that-can-just-as-well.
(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/delhi/story/delhi-rohini-murder-video-pictures-caught-on-camera-man-stabs-wife-1789563-2021-04-10.
Human fronto–mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation, PNAS 2006:103(42);15623–15628. (n.d.).
M.K. Gandhi, Hindu Dharma, ISBN 978–8122201086, Orient Paperbacks. (n.d.).
[1] (Compassion | Definition of Compassion by Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com), n.d.)
[2] (Compassion is Natural. So Why Is It So Hard for Us? — Big Think, n.d.)
[3] (‘No Man is an Island’ — John Donne (dal.ca), n.d.)
[4] (Human fronto–mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation, PNAS 2006:103(42);15623–15628)
[5] (M.K. Gandhi, Hindu Dharma, ISBN 978–8122201086, Orient Paperbacks)
[6] (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/656219-leadership-is-not-magnetic-personality-that-can-just-as-well, n.d.)
[7] (https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/delhi/story/delhi-rohini-murder-video-pictures-caught-on-camera-man-stabs-wife-1789563-2021-04-10, n.d.)
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