Theme

Compassion

Karuna — the trembling of the heart in response to the suffering of another. The second of the four immeasurables and the ground of the bodhisattva path.

Knowledge6

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Teachings5

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Knowledge

Ancient Indian stone statue of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, holding a lotus

Concepts

Karuna

Compassion as the spontaneous wish that all beings be free from suffering. In the Mahayana, karuna is the second of the four immeasurables and, together with wisdom, the very engine of the bodhisattva path.

Stone relief carving of a bodhisattva on a Central Javanese temple wall

Core TeachingsMahayana

Bodhicitta

The aspiration to attain complete buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings — the defining commitment of the Mahayana path, and the seed from which the bodhisattva's entire activity grows.

Antique manuscript painting of the Buddha calming the ferocious elephant Nalagiri through loving-kindness, from the Wellcome Collection

Concepts

The Four Immeasurables

Four boundless qualities of heart — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity — cultivated as meditations and lived as the everyday architecture of relation.

Archival photograph of a Borobudur relief panel depicting the Mahisa Jataka, a past-life tale of the Buddha illustrating the perfections

Core TeachingsMahayana

The Six Paramitas

Six perfections that the bodhisattva cultivates across countless lifetimes: generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyous effort, meditative concentration, and wisdom. The structural curriculum of the Mahayana.

Portrait of Pema Chödrön, who teaches tonglen widely in the West

PracticesVajrayana

Tonglen — Giving and Taking

The Tibetan practice of breathing in the suffering of others and breathing out one's own happiness in return. The bodhisattva's reversal of the ordinary impulse.

Portrait of Sharon Salzberg, teacher of loving-kindness meditation

Practices

Metta — Loving-Kindness

The cultivation of unconditional good-will toward all beings. The first of the four brahmaviharas, the 'divine abidings' — and the antidote the Buddha gave to a forest of monks who could not stay in their forest.