277. Compassion Is Chosen

Compassion is attention to the needs of living beings and action that responds to those needs. Needs include material needs — the physical resources required for survival — but they are not limited to just these. The need for truth, the need for connection with others, and the need for purpose and meaning are some of the other needs of a human being.

A person can also have needs they are not already aware of, including the need for awareness itself. While desires often arise because of needs, needs are not desires. Need is not merely what anyone wants, but rather what is necessary to survive and thrive. Compassion is passion for life, for the growth of life and its transcendence into more than it already is.

Compassion is never an obligation. It is not something anyone can be required to do because of an agreement with or duty to another person. Compassion is chosen simply because it is personally felt to be an absolute necessity when one is deeply aware of both self and world.

No one compels another person to be compassionate. A person must choose it for themselves as the necessary response to the needs they see. Just as everyone responds to hunger by eating food, the aware person responds to need by taking compassionate action. They respond in this way because they can see how unnecessary pain and suffering inhibit the success of life itself, of which they are a continuous part. Their awareness makes them sensitive to suffering and they can see how it arises from attachment to reflective intentions.

Awareness is thus a central need for a human being. Without awareness, a person will remain forever trapped in the cycle of suffering with no possibility of escape. Without awareness, they will not see how to loosen their attachments and attain real freedom. Without awareness, they will not see the need to assist others towards greater awareness. Without awareness, the needs of living beings will not be fully met. Without awareness, a person cannot live to their full creative potential and discover the joy of purposeful action, which is called compassion.