What is Compassion Meditation?
Compassion meditation is a formal contemplative practice designed to cultivate karuna—the Pali and Sanskrit term for compassion, understood as the active wish for all beings to be free from suffering and its causes. Compassion, or karuna in Pali, is the wish that beings be free from suffering. Unlike general goodwill or kindness, compassion meditation specifically attunes practitioners to the reality of suffering and trains the heart to respond with care rather than aversion, overwhelm, or indifference.
Compassion meditation meaning differs from loving-kindness (metta) meditation in its focus. Compassion meditation is also about love, but there’s an added element of being aware of distress, dissatisfaction, unhappiness or pain. Here we’re focusing on the wish to lovingly relieve that suffering. Where metta cultivates the wish for beings to be happy, karuna focuses on the alleviation of pain. What is compassion meditation in practice? It typically involves bringing to mind beings who are suffering—beginning with those in moderate distress and gradually extending to all sentient beings—and silently offering phrases or visualizations that express the wish for their freedom from pain.
Origins & Lineage
One of the four brahma-viharas, it is a mindstate or disposition the Buddha instructed us to cultivate in and out of meditation practice. The brahma-viharas, or “divine abodes,” are four qualities taught by the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama in the 6th century BCE. Before the advent of the Buddha, according to Martin Wiltshire, the pre-Buddhist traditions of Brahmāloka, meditation, and these four virtues are evidenced in both early Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature. The Early Buddhist Texts assert that pre-Buddha ancient Indian sages who taught these virtues were earlier incarnations of the Buddha. Post-Buddha, these same virtues are found in the Hindu texts such as verse 1.33 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
One of the earliest records of this teaching comes from the Pali Canon. In the “Subha Sutta” a young Brahmin asks the Buddha, "Master Gotama, I have heard that the recluse Gotama teaches the path to the company of Brahma. The canonical instructions are preserved in the Anguttara Nikaya and Digha Nikaya.
It was compiled Buddhaghosa around the 5th Century. The most detailed classical instructions appear in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification), written in the 5th century CE in Sri Lanka. In the Path of Purification, Venerable Buddhaghosa has recommended that one should start compassion meditation by first selecting a person who is currently in distress and is suffering one way or the other from a situation such as ill heath, injury, bereavement, any other loss, discrimination, natural disaster etc. Choosing a person who is actually suffering is more likely to arouse a feeling of compassion and a wish to help and alleviate their suffering.
Buddhist compassion meditation practices changed dramatically during the millennium from the Buddha’s lifetime to the lifetimes of some of his most famous commentators. Using a paper by the gifted scholar Anālayo as a guide, we will look at the earliest recorded compassion practices and at practices found in works by the later philosophers and commentators Buddhaghosa and Vasubandhu.
In Sanskrit Mahāyāna tradition, karuṇā is one of the two qualities, along with enlightened wisdom (Sanskrit: prajña), to be cultivated on the bodhisattva path. According to scholar Rupert Gethin, this elevation of karuṇā to the status of prajña is one of the distinguishing factors between the Theravāda ideal of the arahant, and the Mahāyāna ideal of the bodhisattva. In Tibetan Buddhism, one of the foremost authoritative texts on the Bodhisattva path is the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra by Shantideva. In the eighth section entitled Meditative Concentration, Shantideva describes meditation on Karunā as thus: Strive at first to meditate upon the sameness of yourself and others. In joy and sorrow all are equal; Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself.
How It’s Practiced
Compassion meditation for beginners typically follows a structured progression through categories of beings. The most common is through an offering of compassion phrases to various people. We do this by starting with ourselves, offering phrases toward the suffering. We then move to an “easy” person, or someone toward whom extending compassion comes naturally. Next we go to a neutral person, perhaps a stranger. We then end with a difficult person.
Practitioners sit in meditation posture and bring to mind a specific person experiencing suffering. Compassion meditation techniques focus on developing feelings of kindness and empathy toward yourself and others. They involve visualizing the suffering of others, and then transforming that suffering with the breath into feelings of compassion and relief. Common phrases include “May you be free from suffering,” “May you find relief,” or “May you be at peace.”
The practice is often centered around the Tibetan Buddhist concept of Tonglen, which means “giving and taking” or “sending and receiving.” In tonglen, practitioners breathe in the suffering of others (visualized as dark smoke or heaviness) and breathe out relief, healing, or light. In Tibetan Buddhism there is a practice called tonglen which is a kind of meditation practice for helping us connect to our own suffering and the suffering of others. "Tonglen reverses the usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure and, in the process, we become liberated from a very ancient prison of selfishness.
Compassion meditation involves silently repeating certain phrases that express the intention to move from judgment to caring, from isolation to connection, from indifference or dislike to understanding. You don’t have to force a particular feeling or get rid of unpleasant or undesirable reactions; the power of the practice is in the wholehearted gathering of attention and energy, and concentrating on each phrase.
Compassion Meditation Today
Compassion is also starting to rival mindfulness as the next most popular up-and-coming form of secular meditation for mental health. Compassion meditations are now being used in hospitals, by psychotherapists, in corporate training, and by nonprofits to improve the mental health and well-being of both their patients and themselves.
Compassion Meditation and its variations are included in several Buddhist-inspired programs that aim to improve well-being with various compassion exercises, including Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT, an eight- to ten-week course originally developed by Lobsang Tenzin Negi, using exercises such as Compassion Meditation and Mindful Breathing to foster mindfulness, self-compassion, compassion for others, and other prosocial emotions); Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT, an eight- or nine-week program developed by researchers at Stanford University that focuses on fostering compassion “for oneself, loved ones, difficult people, and all beings”); and Compassionate Mind Training (CMT, a central technique i
Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator, is now focusing much of his effort on these secular applications of compassion through the Compassion Institute’s compassion training that he developed with researchers at Stanford University.
CBCT® was designed at Emory University by Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD. CBCT® is a secular adaptation of techniques derived from traditional Tibetan Buddhist methods for cultivating compassion known as lo-jong. Lo-jong translates as “thought transformation” or “mind training.”
Modern practitioners encounter compassion meditation through meditation apps like Headspace and Calm, weekly classes at insight meditation centers, multi-day silent retreats, and clinical settings. Guided compassion meditation recordings are widely available, and the practice has been integrated into Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs and trauma-informed therapeutic contexts.
Common Misconceptions
Compassion meditation is not the same as empathy. It’s helpful to understand that compassion is not empathy, and with practice and effort we can develop this quality in ourselves. Empathy involves feeling another’s pain; compassion involves the wish to alleviate it without necessarily absorbing the emotional distress.
The concept of near and far enemies was introduced in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga in the 5th century. In compassion’s case, the near enemy is often translated as pity. Pity is a quality that puts us “above” others who are suffering. Pity creates separation; compassion creates connection through recognizing shared vulnerability.
Compassion meditation is not about forcing yourself to feel a certain way. The practice is about intention and attention—repeatedly directing the mind toward the wish for others’ freedom from suffering, whether or not warm feelings arise immediately.
It is also not purely a concentration practice. Buddhaghosa is entirely clear: they are samatha meditation practices that occur in the section on samadhi. They are not a matter of sila or morality. While the brahma-viharas can lead to meditative absorption (jhana), they are distinct from moment-to-moment mindfulness or vipassana insight practices.
Finally, compassion meditation is not limited to Buddhists. While rooted in Buddhist tradition, secular compassion training programs are evidence-based and accessible to practitioners of any background or belief system.
How to Begin
Begin with a 10-15 minute session. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take several deep breaths. Bring to mind someone you care about who is experiencing mild to moderate difficulty—not catastrophic suffering, which can be overwhelming for beginners.
Visualize this person and silently repeat phrases such as: “May you be free from suffering. May you find relief. May you be peaceful.” If your mind wanders, gently return to the phrases and the image of the person.
After several minutes, expand your awareness to include yourself, using the same phrases: “May I be free from suffering. May I find relief.”
For structured guidance, explore recordings by teachers such as Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, or Pema Chödrön. Jack Kornfield’s The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace and Pema Chödrön’s The Places That Scare You offer accessible entry points. The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley offers free guided compassion meditations online.
For those interested in formal training, consider Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) through Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, or Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) through Emory University’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. Both are eight-week secular programs with extensive research support.