Compassion
How being compassionate can change the world
Paul Gilbert (he's a psychologist, although he shares with Mr. Big's
guitarist the love for rock music) defines compassion as a
sensitivity to suffering in self and
others with a commitment to try to
alleviate and
prevent it.
Humans are hard-wired for compassion. We can choose, learn, and promote
this inner power!
Compassion can flow in three directions, which means that we can receive compassion from others, be compassionate to them, and have compassion for ourselves.
If we want to be compassionate, we've gotta act and do something!
We live in a world of gross inequalities and our societies emphasize self-interest and competition over caring and sharing. Compassion can help us find solutions to address many problems that we are struggling with right now. If we cultivate compassion in education, health, justice, science, business, arts, religion, politics, and media we can build worlds that we can all live in without oppression, unfairness, and poverty.