State of Compassion
A State of Compassion is a state of concern for (personal desire to be of help to) a suffering agent.
- AKA: Desire to Help.
- Context:
- It can be (typically) associated with a State of Sympathy (for those with an empathy capacity).
- It can be (typically) be followed by an Act of Kindness.
- It can be achieved by a Cognitive Agent with a Capacity for Compassion.
- It can be strengthened by Compassion Training.
- It can range from being Compassion Towards Others, to being Compassion Towards Self (Jazaieri et al., 2013).
- ...
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Empathy, Ethic of Reciprocity, Generous, Kindness, Wellbeing.
References
2021
- Are Women More Compassionate than Men?
- QUOTE: ... The Dalai Lama recently argued that women have more biological potential for compassion than men. Does science support that claim? ...
... One reason we might think that women are more compassionate than [Compassionate Man|men]] is that we think of compassion in only one way: nurturance, kindness, softness, gentleness, and emotional warmth. We think of compassion in mostly feminized terms.
However, expressions of deep compassion are not always nurturing or maternal. Think of the many heroic acts that happen daily in which people throw themselves into dangerous situations to help others. These are fierce, courageous, and even aggressive forms of compassion.
Rather than suggesting that women are more compassionate than men, I would argue that they can differ in their expression of compassion. While women’s expression has culturally evolved to be expressed through nurturing and bonding behaviors, men’s compassion has traditionally evolved to involve a protective behaviors that helped ensure survival. Compassion may have taken on a different “look and feel” depending on our evolutionary needs for survival. While women tend to express “nurturing” compassion, men tend to express “fierce” compassion. ...
- QUOTE: ... The Dalai Lama recently argued that women have more biological potential for compassion than men. Does science support that claim? ...
2018
- (Wikipedia, 2018) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/compassion Retrieved:2018-1-23.
- Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, mental or emotional pains of another and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as having sensitivity, an emotional aspect to suffering, though when based on cerebral notions such as fairness, justice, and interdependence, it may be considered rational in nature and its application understood as an activity also based on sound judgment. There is also an aspect of equal dimension, such that individual's compassion is often given a property of "depth", "vigour", or “passion”. The etymology of "compassion" is Latin, meaning "co-suffering." Compassion involves "feeling for another" and is a precursor to empathy, the "feeling as another" capacity for better person centered acts of active compassion, in common parlance active compassion is the desire to alleviate another's suffering.[1]
Compassion involves allowing ourselves to be moved by suffering, and experiencing the motivation to help alleviate and prevent it. An act of compassion is defined by its helpfulness. Qualities of compassion are patience and wisdom; kindness and perseverance; warmth and resolve. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. Expression of compassion is prone to be hierarchical, paternalistic and controlling in responses. Difference between sympathy and compassion is that the former responds to suffering with sorrow and concern while the latter responds with warmth and care.
The English noun compassion, meaning to love together with, comes from Latin. Its prefix com- comes directly from com, an archaic version of the Latin preposition and affix cum (= with); the -passion segment is derived from passus, past participle of the deponent verb patior, patī, passus sum. Compassion is thus related in origin, form and meaning to the English noun patient (= one who suffers), from patiens, present participle of the same patior, and is akin to the Greek verb πάσχειν (= paskhein, to suffer) and to its cognate noun πάθος (= pathos). Ranked a great virtue in numerous philosophies, compassion is considered in almost all the major religious traditions as among the greatest of virtues.
- Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, mental or emotional pains of another and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as having sensitivity, an emotional aspect to suffering, though when based on cerebral notions such as fairness, justice, and interdependence, it may be considered rational in nature and its application understood as an activity also based on sound judgment. There is also an aspect of equal dimension, such that individual's compassion is often given a property of "depth", "vigour", or “passion”. The etymology of "compassion" is Latin, meaning "co-suffering." Compassion involves "feeling for another" and is a precursor to empathy, the "feeling as another" capacity for better person centered acts of active compassion, in common parlance active compassion is the desire to alleviate another's suffering.[1]
2013
- (Jazaieri et al., 2013) ⇒ Hooria Jazaieri, Geshe Thupten Jinpa, Kelly McGonigal, Erika L. Rosenberg, Joel Finkelstein, Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Margaret Cullen, James R. Doty, James J. Gross, and Philippe R. Goldin. (2013). “Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program." Journal of Happiness Studies, 14(4). doi:10.1007/s10902-012-9373-z
- ABSTRACT: Psychosocial interventions often aim to alleviate negative emotional states. However, there is growing interest in cultivating positive emotional states and qualities. One particular target is compassion, but it is not yet clear whether compassion can be trained. A community sample of 100 adults were randomly assigned to a 9-week compassion cultivation training (CCT) program (n = 60) or a waitlist control condition (n = 40). Before and after this 9-week period, participants completed self-report inventories that measured compassion for others, receiving compassion from others, and self-compassion. Compared to the waitlist control condition, CCT resulted in significant improvements in all three domains of compassion — compassion for others, receiving compassion from others, and self-compassion. The amount of formal meditation practiced during CCT was associated with increased compassion for others. Specific domains of compassion can be intentionally cultivated in a training program. These findings may have important implications for mental health and well-being.
2008
- (Lutz et. al, 2008) ⇒ Antoine Lutz, Julie Brefczynski-Lewis, Tom Johnstone, and Richard J. Davidson. “Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise." PloS one 3, no. 3 (2008): 41897.
- ABSTRACT: Recent brain imaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have implicated insula and anterior cingulate cortices in the empathic response to another's pain. However, virtually nothing is known about the impact of the voluntary generation of compassion on this network. To investigate these questions we assessed brain activity using fMRI while novice and expert meditation practitioners generated a loving-kindness-compassion meditation state. To probe affective reactivity, we presented emotional and neutral sounds during the meditation and comparison periods. Our main hypothesis was that the concern for others cultivated during this form of meditation enhances affective processing, in particular in response to sounds of distress, and that this response to emotional sounds is modulated by the degree of meditation training. The presentation of the emotional sounds was associated with increased pupil diameter and activation of limbic regions (insula and cingulate cortices) during meditation (versus rest). During meditation, activation in insula was greater during presentation of negative sounds than positive or neutral sounds in expert than it was in novice meditators. The strength of activation in insula was also associated with self-reported intensity of the meditation for both groups. These results support the role of the limbic circuitry in emotion sharing. The comparison between meditation vs. rest states between experts and novices also showed increased activation in amygdala, right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), and right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in response to all sounds, suggesting, greater detection of the emotional sounds, and enhanced mentation in response to emotional human vocalizations for experts than novices during meditation. Together these data indicate that the mental expertise to cultivate positive emotion alters the activation of circuitries previously linked to empathy and theory of mind in response to emotional stimuli.
- ↑ Sherlyn Jimenez, see article on Compassion, The Encyclopedia of Positive Psychology, Volume I, Editor: Shane Lopez, Wiley-Blackwell,