Compassion - Essay Example

of the English of the Teacher 14 March Compassion In a simplistic context people tend to think of compassion as being nice to others. To some extent compassion does mean being nice and good to others. However, this is just one facet of compassion. Actually speaking compassion is a word imbued with much deeper meaning and intent. Yes. It is true that compassion is a word that is used excessively in the contemporary world. It has come to be known to be a panacea for many individual and social evils and people do believe that being compassionate could solve many individual and social problems. Many people associate compassion with social fluency and camaraderie. They believe that they need to be compassionate so that they could really fit into their social ambiance and people do consider them to be a good and kind person. The irony is that ascribing selfish motives to a noble virtue like compassion robs it of its true intent and meaning. Compassion is about being nice. Compassion is about social cohesions and social harmony. However, in a realistic and virtuous context, compassion also does happen to be much more than that. Primarily speaking compassion is about adhering to certain deeply held values and beliefs in one’s life (Gilbert 134). It is about living by a code of conduct emanating from certain cherished and noble values and doing one’s best to ascribe to these values even at the cost of immense personal discomfort and sacrifice (Gilbert 134). Compassion is a vital requisite for today’s’ society, but not in a way that many people happen to interpret and consider compassion. What is today needed is a true and authentic sense of compassion. True compassion not only leads and motivates people to improve them self, but it also invokes them to improve society through personal virtue and ethics. People do love them self and aspire to be happy in life. It is indeed true that nobody wants to be in pain. However, if everybody begins to think only about oneself, this world will become a very selfish place where each and everyone will be worried only about one’s personal happiness and nobody will care about others and the larger society. Thereby, compassion is about transcending the need for personal happiness and coming to believe that everybody deserves to be happy and free from pain and suffering (Berlant 215). Compassion is about recognizing the fact that everybody has the right to be happy and pain free and it is about developing the ability to get into other people’s shoes. When a person is truly compassionate, one develops the ability to love others as one loves oneself. Compassionate people do develop the ability to look beyond personal comfort and joy, to think about the joy and happiness of others. A compassionate person does not need a reward or an incentive to do well to others or to think about the happiness and well being of others. It is when one develops the capacity to love others in a selfless and impartial manner that one could be deemed to be truly compassionate. Many people simply do not know as to what it means to be compassionate. Simply speaking, if an individual feels bad while being kind and good to others, it would be right to say that one is not truly compassionate. It is only when people help and extend service to others; even to the people they simply do not know or are not related to that they truly act compassionate. It is only when individuals transcend the personal limits and move beyond their comfort zone to serve others that they exercise true compassion. There is one other misconception that compassion means merely helping the needy. Again in a simplistic context, it may be true, but actually speaking compassion is not merely about helping the needy. True compassion takes into consideration not only the service one renders to others, but does also consider the actual and true motivation behind that service. Many people help the needy, yet, not all of them could be considered to be truly compassionate. People help the needy, nudged or motivated by a variety of reasons. Many people help the needy by going to the places where people do need them or by starting not for profit organizations for helping the poor and the needy. However, they fail to act compassionate owing to the underlying motives which move them to be of service to others. Many a time people help the poor and the needy so that others may praise and complement them and say good things about them. This is not compassion, but rather a form of self glorification. It is one other way people could pander to their hollow and selfish egos. Many people help the poor because they have a deed seated sense of guilt and an emotional void within them. They believe that they were lucky to be born in a privileged family or a rich nation and thereby they feel a deep seated need to help those who are not that privileged or are sick and poor. Again it is a form of personal therapy and no way could be deemed to be very compassionate. True compassion is when a person helps and serves others, not owing to any personal need, void or guilt, but rather because one feels happy and overjoyed to help others. True compassion does not need a reason to do well. Compassionate people are good because that is the way they feel natural and contented. The thing that needs to be understood is that compassion is not something that is one time and has a specific season and place. The thing is that compassion is a way of life, a way of thinking and an unwavering allegiance to some deeply held values, virtues and ethics. That way a compassionate person does not need a time or a place to exercise compassion, but rather one is imbued with compassion, wherever one is placed. Compassion is actually a philosophy of life that believes that others have as much a right to be happy and joyful as one oneself has. It is indeed ridiculous that many people do travel to other countries with the intention of helping the poor, the hungry and refugees, while such people many a time fail to recognize the suffering and pain of those living in their vicinity. This is really bad. People do need groups and an identity affiliation to help others does come out as being utterly silly and foolish. Actually speaking one does not need to belong to a special group or have a particular identity affiliation to help others. Compassion is a fruit that thrives in all seasons and times. A truly compassionate person does act kind, considerate and helpful, no matter where one is placed. To a compassionate person each person is one’s own family member and one considers the entire world to be a family. It is not about personal fears, voids and needs, but rather about selflessness and love. Conclusively speaking one does not need to go anywhere special to practice compassion, nor does one need to locate special groups and societies to practice compassion. One can act kind and compassionate wherever one is placed. There is a lot of suffering and pain in this world. Hence, a truly compassionate person does manage to locate a thousand ways of being of use and service to others. Compassion is never about self glorification or meeting personal needs and filling emotional voids in one self. Rather it is about owing allegiance to certain values, ethics and practices that teach being kind and good to others in a selfless and unselfish manner. To a compassionate person the whole world is one big family. Works Cited Berlant, Lauren. Compassion. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print. Gilbert, Paul. Compassion. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print. Read More