What Does Compassion Mean?
Compassion
What does compassion mean?
While there is no single all-encompassing definition of compassion, it is generally understood to be a response to the suffering of another person.
The kind of suffering we're responding to could be a variety of things ranging from physical, emotional or mental pain brought on by anything from disease to injury to a general dissatisfaction with life. The cause of the discomfort may come form external or interpersonal events, real or imagined. In any case, it is our care or concern for the person suffering that is considered compassion.

What are the different types of compassion?
Compassionate Responses
As mentioned, there are many interpretations of compassion, focusing on different aspects of our response to suffering. One way to categorize different types of compassion is by the varying focus of our response, including our feelings, actions, concerns, and intentions:
- empathic compassion: focusing on feeling the emotions experienced by the person who is suffering.
- action compassion: focusing on actions that attempt to relieve physical and emotional pain.
- concerned compassion: concern for the person who is suffering, emphasizing the compassionate person’s motivation (a desire, urge, or feeling) to alleviate suffering.
- aspirational compassion: Buddhists describe something somewhat different, a compassion that is more cognitive than emotional, an aspiration or intention.
Compassion can also be distinguished by the immediacy of response: responding to the current or future anticipated suffering of someone.
- Proximal compassion: compassion to alleviate suffering felt right now. Proximal compassion is often closely tied with our current emotional state.
- Example: listening empathically to a friend in distress.
- Distal compassion: compassion to avoid suffering in the future. Distal compassion often involves more cognition as it involves 2 components:
- Recognizing the problem that lies ahead
- Being willing to engage in actions necessary to avoid future suffering, even if it requires some sacrifices now
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- Example: telling your child to wear their helmet when riding their bicycle to avoid injury.
We can feel compassion towards our family members, friends, strangers, and even animals. Dr. Ekman distinguishes four main targets of our compassion:

Is compassion an emotion?
Why compassionate actions feel good
- familial compassion: compassion we have for a family member who is suffering. Familial compassion is not a one-time event; it is an enduring feature, even when not evident, and it is ready to be called up when there is suffering, or a threat of suffering, or the anticipation of future suffering of offspring. Like the emotions, it is universal to the species, permanently in place and like the emotions, it can be observed in other species. Though, there are exceptions-parents who do not experience familial compassion- and various explanation for why and when this occurs.
- familiar compassion: compassion for people we have some form of relationship with. Presumably the closer the relationship, the more acknowledge interdependence, the greater likelihood that familiars compassion will be felt (although more research must be conducted to verify this hypothesis).
- stranger compassion: compassion for people we do not know. Unlike familial or familiars compassion, stranger compassion is not universal to our species or to any other species (although Dr. Ekman explores the possibility that stranger compassion may be universal early in life but not sustained without certain later experience.) Stranger compassion varies in the scope of those towards whom it is felt (for some it may encompass only those who share certain characteristics or identities). Stranger compassion also varies in the centrality or degree to which that concern is the organizing principle behind a person's life choices (i.e. ranging from an occasional act of compassion, to the motivation that guide's a person's life work).
- sentient being compassion: compassion towards all living beings (not just humans). This type of compassion is sometimes aligned with certain religions and philosophies.
What are the benefits of compassion?
Whether or not an action may be considered truly compassionate if it is also in some way self-serving, Dr. Ekman takes the stand that it is helpful to hold a perspective of enlightened self-interest, in which we consider the ways that helping others can also help ourselves. In that light, Dr. Ekman outlines three benefits of compassion:
- It generates an intrinsically good feeling (compassion joy).
- It can increase our self-regard; it supports a positive view of oneself, as well as a sense of well-being and purpose.
- It can elicit the approval of others: when other people learn about the compassionate action, accidentally or by design, their regard for the compassionate person may be increased. In turn this acknowledgment and approval may elicit further enjoyment in the compassionate actor.
What is Global Compassion?
It is Dr. Ekman's conviction that human society must move toward what he has called global compassion: a concern to alleviate the suffering of anyone, regardless of their nationality, language, culture, or religion. Global compassion is when compassion is felt toward all human beings, and it is a central concern in someone's life.
How to learn compassion
Additional Resources

