Compassion and Kindness

We posted a new biography today, documenting the compassion and kindness of Julie Henderson, at the Zapchen Somatics website. See the doc for bibliothings and the rest of the story, but here’s a delicious little taste:

…It may be initially helpful to consider what compassion is not. For example, compassion is not pity, nor sympathy, or even empathy. There is a wide range of views about compassion and kindness. Some of these views are narrow and small and others expansive. An Australian dictionary defines compassion as “feelings of distress and pity for the suffering or misfortune of another.” A somewhat broader view is that of Feldman and Kornfield, who state that compassion “is a deep, heartfelt caring for the dignity, well-being and integrity of every single life in our world – from the smallest creature to the most powerful person.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama, alludes to “great compassion”, which is the “wish that all sentient beings might be free of all suffering and the resolve to bring this about ourselves.” Another well-known Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche, states that “compassion is not true compassion unless it is active.” Within the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon there are numerous Buddas of Compassion. For example, Chenrezig is a four-armed Buddha of Compassion with the six-syllable mantra