Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us: like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be cultivated. Humanism is itself a religion without God—not all religions, of course, are theistic. Our ethical secular ideal has it's own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people the means of finding faith in the ultimate meaning of human life that were once provided by the more conventional religions.
Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us: like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be cultivated. Humanism is itself a religion without God—not all religions, of course, are theistic. Our ethical secular ideal has it's own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people the means of finding faith in the ultimate meaning of human life that were once provided by the more conventional religions.
A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers in himself harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion…
A Jew must be sensitive to the pain of all human beings. A Jew cannot remain indifferent to human suffering… The mission of the Jewish people has never been to make the world more Jewish, but to make it more human.
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Compassion: cum patior – to undergo with, to share solidarity with. Suffering with is quite different from pity. “Pity” shares its root with “piety,” connoting condescension, and condescension implies separateness from someone else’s weakness or misfortune. But compassion derives from awareness of our shared vulnerability.
Baruch merachem al haaretz
Baruch merachem al habriot
Blessed be the One who has compassion upon the earth.
Blessed be the one who has compassion upon Her creatures.
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Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy. Compassion is not a moral commandment but a flow and overflow of the fullest human and divine energies.
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One must love the mirror in the face of truth, only if one loves the outlook of your inner compassion.
The divisions of mankind into two groups - men proper, and some other, lower, order of beings . . . permits men to look on many millions of their fellow men as not quite human, to slaughter them without a qualm of conscience, without the need to try to save them or warn them. Such conduct is usually ascribed to barbarians or savages - men in a pre-rational frame of mind, characteristic of peoples in the infancy of civilisation. This explanation will no longer do. It is evidently possible to attain to a high degree of scientific knowledge and skill, and indeed, of general culture, and yet destroy others without pity, in the name of a nation, a class, or history itself. If this is childhood, it is the dotage of a second childhood in its most repulsive form. How have men reached such a pass?
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
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I tell you the truth, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
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Source type: Sacred Text
Bible
Matthew
25:40
http://
Contribution #1693
Happiness is a skill,
emotional balance is a skill,
compassion and altruism are skills,
and like any skill they need to be developed.
That's what education is about.
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True patriots believe that freedom from responsibility is selfishness, freedom from sacrifice is cowardice, freedom from tolerance is prejudice, freedom from stewardship is exploitation, and freedom from compassion is cruelty.
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Source type: Book
The True Patriot
Page 18
Published by True Patriot Network
Published in Seattle, USA
Published in 2007
http://
Contribution #1655
Do not treat others as you yourself would not be treated.
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Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.
Empathy is your pain I feel in my heart.
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Brilliance: Uncommon Voices from Uncommon Women
by Dan Zadra
Page 74
Published by Compendium Publishing
Published in Lynnwood, Wa., USA
Published in 2005
http://
Contribution #1537
Always treat people as ends in themselves, never as means to an end.
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Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785
http://
Contribution #659
Find and follow the good path and be ruled by compassion. For
if the various ways are examined, compassion will prove the means to liberation.
Pity arises when we are sorry for someone.
Compassion is when we understand and help wisely.
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Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications
Published in Temple City, CA
Published in 2003
http://
Contribution #1468
Kindness
is giving others happiness.
Compassion
is removing others' bitterness.
Joy
is freeing others from suffering.
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Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications
Published in Temple City, CA
Published in 2003
http://
Contribution #1448
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
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Heart of a Buddha
by Amita Society
Published by Amitabha Publications
Published in Temple City, CA
Published in 2003
http://
Contribution #1419
With kindness, with love and compassion, with this feeling that is the essence of brotherhood, sisterhood, one will have inner peace. This compassionate feeling is the basis of inner peace.
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Tenzin Gyatso - 14th Dalai Lama
Viewed on April 9, 2008
Contribution #339
Perfect wisdom,
Perfect tranquility,
Perfect compassion,
arise from
Our love,
Our sincerity.
Our understanding.
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Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications
Published in Temple City, CA
Published in 2003
http://
Contribution #1359
I hate it when people kill animals, even insects, after God went to all that trouble to make them.
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The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.
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Hanh, Thich Nhat
Contribution #712
To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
Power is the ability to do good things for others.
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
The basic difference between being assertive and being aggressive is how our words and behavior affect the rights and well being of others.
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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
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Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us everyday.
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If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
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Lama, 14th Dalai
Viewed on April 13, 2008
Contribution #656
Come, Whoever you are! Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, Come. Ours is not a caravan of despair. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken your vow a thousand times, Still come. And yet again, come!
Unlike many principles I believe in as a humanist, compassion isn’t a "social policy" or a large-scale principle. Compassion is a personal thing. It begins with the
person in the mirror and grows by example.
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
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While scholars are comparing and contrasting theories, debating intellectual questions, and dividing humankind into categories, the world is changed by persons with faith, spirit, emotion, compassion, intuition, and irrational thinking.
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
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Teach
this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service
and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
One should not hurt others even by words. One must not speak an unpleasant truth unnecessarily.
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One who sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, hates none.
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Who burns with the bliss and suffers the sorrow of every creature within his own heart, making his own each bliss and each sorrow; him I hold highest of all the yogis.
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Humanists affirm that individual and social problems can only be resolved by means of human reason, intelligent effort, critical thinking joined with compassion, and a spirit of empathy for all living beings.
Compassion is the
wish-fulfilling gem whose light of healing spreads in all
directions.
The unloving belong only to themselves, but the loving
belong to others to their very bones.
My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious
revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow
other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a
call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with
self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are
connected, and for conduct which recognizes others interests alongside our
own.
None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.
I believe that at every level of society the key to a happier world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities.
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Compassion is not just being sentimental and feeling with someone, but seeking to change the situation. If you are going to be compassionate, be prepared for action!
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Compassion begins at home, and it is not how much we do but how much love we put in that action. Do not think that love has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.
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Each of us has response-ability for our unique piece of Creation, but only from the deeper wisdom and compassion of our Greater Self can we truly care for the world entrusted to us.
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The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
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Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
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A human being is part of the whole called by us 'universe'--a part limited in time and space. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
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How far you go in life depends on your being compassionate with the young, the aged, the striving, and the weak. Because, someday you will have been all of these things.
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The question is not, Can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, Can they suffer?
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Action for Animals: Taking Sides pamphlet
Contribution #536
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
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Action for Animals pamphlet
Contribution #537
I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives. I'm not talking about the short-term gratification of pleasures like sex, drugs or gambling (though I'm not knocking them), but something that will bring true and lasting happiness. The kind that sticks.
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Source type: Website
Viewed on April 1, 2008
Contribution #598
The
dew of compassion is a tear.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
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The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate.
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Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.
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You may call God love, you may call God goodness,
but the best name for God is compasion.
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Make no judgements where you have no compassion.
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For those who may not find happiness to exercise faith, it's okay to remain a radical atheist, it's absolutely an individual right, but the important thing is with a compassionate heart - then no problem.
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