my friend in the wheelchair, we could agree upon the truth of his accusations and want perhaps. But it was in my power to publish or not publish these accusations, an though I recorded the length of them by hand, I was not legally bound to pursue his complaint, so I destroyed the transcript.

Compassion is an expression of spiritual love that holds humanity as susceptible to the universal law of Love, which blesses and embraces all in the reality and consciousness of mercy, justice and goodness. Pity holds mortals as being victims of matter and material or scarcity thinking and impresses thought with what seems insurmountable problems. Empathy enables us to feel another's need as our own while remaining open to ever-present good that is available and able to meet the need. Compassion moves and enables us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; it comforts and inspires healing by empowering humanity through our connection to Love divine, thereby giving freedom and understanding to overcome evil--obstacles, limitations and oppression--with the abundance and power of intelligent good.

Compassion is to listen with an open heart and fully focused on the needs of another. Compassion is to see in all people a reflection of the divine that we seek to serve. It is to know and to act on the truth that we are each other.

Compassion begins by being present, yes, this to me is one of the highest forms of compassion. When I can listen fully to another, be curious, instead of certain and suspend judgment than I truly am in a state of compassion.

Empathy, not pity for the poor! 37 million Americans live below the poverty line, yet 45% of those people work full time but do not make enough money to provide food, housing, or health care for their families. Good work with just pay for everyone, world-wide, should be part of a charter for compassion.

Compassion is the heart of the good life; thus it involves feelings, occurring in a heart that is open to the experience of others AS OTHERS. It requires the ability to 'pass over' (J Dunne) into the experience of the other without being absorbed by it or reducing our understanding of it to terms that reflect OUR thinking and feeling rather than those of the other person (this being one of the important distinguishing marks between empathy and sympathy, the latter having more in common with pity). Yet the capacity for sympathy is a prerequisite for the exercise of empathy - our subjectivity is the chief means by which we are able to have any grasp of the other person's feelings, what makes it possible for us to 'indwell' the other person's experience (Polanyi). But empathy is a more disciplined and a more genuinely other- directed use of the insight we may gain into the needs and feelings of others through our subjectivity. It is not more 'objective' than sympathy; it is more accurate because it is more subjectively attentive to the needs, rights, interests and feelings of each other person as (s)he experiences them.

Compassion is the heart of the good life; thus it involves feelings, occurring in a heart that is open to the experience of others AS OTHERS. It requires the ability to 'pass over' (J Dunne) into the experience of the other without being absorbed by it or reducing our understanding of it to terms that reflect OUR thinking and feeling rather than those of the other person (this being one of the important distinguishing marks between empathy and sympathy, the latter having more in common with pity). Yet the capacity for sympathy is a prerequisite for the exercise of empathy - our subjectivity is the chief means by which we are able to have any grasp of the other person's feelings, what makes it possible for us to 'indwell' the other person's experience (Polanyi). But empathy is a more disciplined and a more genuinely other- directed use of the insight we may gain into the needs and feelings of others through our subjectivity. It is not more 'objective' than sympathy; it is more accurate because it is more subjectively attentive to the needs, rights, interests and feelings of each other person as (s)he experiences them.

Empathy, pity - shades of the same color, water from the same well, beats of a shared heart - compassion. Pity requires connection to another; empathy deepens connection, brings it closer to self - I becomes We. Compassion extends and broadens connection - we are together (com) in powerful and compelling feelings (passion). A generative and creative force, compassion moves us to action.

Compassion is embracing another...pity is condescension. Compassion celebrates the uniqueness and value of her attention...pity's intent is the uniqueness of the one granting pity. Compassion seeks not her own merit nor recognition but rather the inclusion of another in her life. Compassion is a transformation of the heart...pity is simply a delaying of the inevitable.

Human being have inborn nature of compassion which is expressed in empathy. Our communication and interaction do have limitations and this is the reason why we are very close with some than others. Our role and challenge is to bring each other together with their capacity to express their true compassion with empathetic values.

Compassion is meeting an other's pain with love, not fear.

Compassion is a sense of someone else's within. It is the reflection of need, want, motive and desire, returned unto our own souls. Compassion is the tear one feels when s/he sees something heroic and the commonplace. Compassion connects us through the power of empathy.

Empathy is a feeling of concern usually provoked by observing the suffering of another. Compassion conflates such emotion with action (or beneficial inaction) appropriate to mitigating the perceived distress. Pity may resemble empathy or compassion, though it is absent of any requirement to acknowledge the sufferer as an equal. The works of pity are sullied by its subtly contemptuous and remote nature.

Compassion encompasses the Lakota tradition "Mitakuye Oyasin," (We are all related.) Compassion links our many paths with everyday kindness, ordinary thoughtfulness. Compassion rises above our confusion, our trouble, and brings us to a place of shared humanity, a place where love works hard and isn't afraid of pain.

The internalization and integration of "one-ness"; as though we were walking in the shoes of another. We relate to the 'human experience'; We respect the experience of another without judgment.

The Buddhist idea of compassion is the wish (read aspiration and engagement to act so that this comes about) that all sentient beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. Love is the wish that all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. Joy in the happiness of others is the wish that they never separate from a happiness that is unmarred by suffering... And all this is based on universal equanimity: the abandoning of partisan attachment to those considered near and dear and dislike for the alien and unknown. This - surely - is the firm basis of all that needs to be recognised and then shared, no?

Compassion is our innate inner flowing feeling of love for all living things. Which expresses itself in our hearts and wants happiness for all beings at all times.

Compassion includes a meaningful understanding of the truth and significance of the phrase "We Are One." Compassion for ourselves and for others is the spiritual and ecological lifeline to our common future. To feel our own needs being met in the well-being of others, and enter with generosity into a universal perspective is the most evolved social path. The Golden Rule is demonstrated for humankind by highly evolved species, who have achieved sustainable harmony within the Natural Order for more than 30 million years. "You help me help you help everyone." articulates what I have come to think of as "Dolphin Economics," the example of values that human economics must be modeled after for us to live sustainably.

Compassion is to look at every person as equal and a prime creation of the Omnipotent Almighty as if from one's family.If some one is in grief, one should feel his/her own grief, if some is doing harm, treat what should be done if I had commited it. Urge for bettermrnt and feel belongingness of every one is compassion.

Compassion is about accepting the persons personal belief system while still respecting your own. As long as we stay focused on our own moral progress, there will never be a problem with the other

In my opinion many of us who were raised with significant religious dogma in our lives have learned that taking pity on those of less fortune is very much a part of the mindset. Acts of compassion are seemingly those things we do once we have found misfortune or need. Pity is NOT to be discredited. It is that which most of us understand. When we can actually appreciate someone else's happiness and contentment for that sake alone and not our preconceived notion as to what constitutes happiness from our own perspective then perhaps we can begin true compassion. Not enjoying our own quality of life does not mean that others cannot be happy and content. Contentment and happiness are a state of mind that is a positive without quantitative predispositions. Being empathic toward that idea will serve compassion globally to a far greater degree than wanting western conveniences and standards for those whose most urgent need is food and water. Find someone who appears to have needs and then ask them what those are. Defining someone else's standards from our own can appear to be a source of pity and self-righteousness if not truly be such. It takes getting to know one another. Start small and learn to truly get to know other's and their needs from their perspective if you want to distinguish compassionate acts as truly benevolent unselfish empathic acts of compassion versus our own need to make a difference or our own need to be perceived as benevolent, a.k.a. pity.

הרחמים מחייב שנרד מכסא המלכות העצמית ונעבור ממרכז העולם של עצמנו, ושנשים את האחר שם במקומנו. רחמים אינם חמלה מתנשאת, אלא שהמשמעות המקורית של המילה היא היכולת להרגיש יחד עם האחר ולהיכנס בנדיבות וברוחב לב לתוך זוית הראיה שלו. זאת כוונת המצווה העיקרית - ואהבת לרעיך כמוך.

The true meaning of compassion and its power derives from the hidden truth that the distinction between Self and Other is an illusory one, that All are One as seen from the ultimate perspective of the Ancient and Everlasting Eye of Reality. Though we may perceive ourselves as separated beings whose individual wellbeing depends only on one's own isolated happiness, this is the Great Lie that stands ever in opposition to Divine Truth. The challenge of life on earth is to become liberated from the limitations, delusions, and terrible suffering that arises from the false assumption of our separation and division from one another; and to grow into the heavenly understanding of our inherent connection, interdependence, and responsibility toward one another, which enables us to secure our own happiness as we strive to create happiness for others, and thus to rise into the station of reunion with our innermost spiritual nature and potential. Compassion is not a grudging or condescending pity for those who do not conform to our own individual standards, norms, beliefs and assumptions, or those of our particular religious faith, about the "correct" way to think, feel, live and be; rather it is the ability to empathize with others, to put ourselves in each other's shoes as the Divine Spirit walks in the lives of us all: the recognition that all others are worthy of love, care, respect and freedom as we are ourselves.

Compassion is the pathway through which true empathy can be realized. It is about identifying with the good in another's experience and gaining from that and recognizing where we can offer another assistance from what we are grateful for. Pity is lowering ourselves to another's situation instead of recognizing their true value.

Pity is not compassion. Pity is what one has for someone in a worse situation than oneself. Pity is extremely dualistic, is in most situations condescending, and rarely of any real help. Empathy is also not compasssion. Empathy is the ability we are all born with to feel what others feel. It is what makes language acquistion happen so automatically and why we understand each other so easily most of the time. In spite of all the negative manifestations we read about and experience, empathy is also why for the most part people tend towards being kind to each other. While empathy is not compassion, it is nonetheless essential for the development of compassion. If we could not feel the suffering of others, there would never be any cause for compassion to ever arise. Spiritual practices, for example, are at some level about learning to feel what we feel without filtering it, justifying it, explaining it and categorizing it, or in any way conceptualizing it. When one allows oneself to actually feel the suffering of others in that way, if one listens to one's empathy without trying to shape it, then compassion naturally arises Compassion then is a development beyond feeling what others feel. Even infants can feel what others feel. Compassion is also a level of sophisitication and understanding, that generates not just the aspiration but the drive to actiually do what would be helpful to alleviate suffering, the to actually do something useful.