deepened through training and practice, otherwise it remains only a superficial thought. When it
does become a deep realization, it changes the way we behave and relate towards others.
This model – that a change in our view will change our behavior once it becomes deeply engrained
through training and practice – is called
lta-spyod-sgom-gsum
in Tibetan (pronounced “ta cho gom
soom”), which literally means “view, behavior and meditation”. Spiritual traditions across the world
acknowledge that a compassion that embraces others beyond one’s immediate friends and family
can indeed be cultivated, but that it does not come easy. Deep thinkers in the sciences, such as
Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin, have come to the same conclusion. Darwin wrote in
The
Descent of Man
, “As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger
communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social
instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to
him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies
extending to the men of all nations and races. If, indeed, such men are separated from him by
great differences in appearance or habits, experience unfortunately shows us how long it is before
we look at them as our fellow-creatures. Sympathy beyond the confines of man, that is, humanity
to the lower animals, seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions… This virtue, one of the
noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise incidentally from our sympathies becoming
more tender and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as
this virtue is honored and practiced by some few men, it spreads through instruction and example
to the young, and eventually through public opinion.”
This remarkable passage shows that
Darwin considered sympathy (the term he used for what we are calling compassion) a social
instinct that was inborn but that could be extended through cultivation and culture, even to the point
of being extended towards all sentient beings. Even more striking, he considered that such an
extension of our compassion could be taught to children and extended throughout society. Such a
view resonates with the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to spread the cultivation of
compassion throughout society through education and research.
In a similar vein, Einstein wrote in a private letter, “A human being is part of the whole called by us
universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as
something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of 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 the prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of
a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation
from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”
Lastly, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in his book
Ethics for the New Millennium
, writes, “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 otherworldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather it is a call for a
radical reorientation away from habitual preoccupation with the self. It is a call to turn toward the
wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others’
interests alongside our own.”
Our most current understanding of the brain is that its structure and function can be changed
through experience and training, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity (see
and
in
this volume). If we already have a biological basis for compassion, there is every reason to believe
that through training and practice this compassion can be extended, even on a neurological level.
In today’s world, we can draw from both the insights of the world’s spiritual traditions as well as the
findings of contemporary science to understand compassion and how it can be expanded for our
individual and collective benefit. Taking the biologically-given limited capacity for compassion that
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