Knowra Compassion meditation Compassion meditation Compassion meditation is a contemplative practice that deliberately cultivates sensitivity to suffering and the intention to relieve it, often through phrases, imagery, or attention to others.
Loving-kindness meditation : A contemplative practice that cultivates wishes for well-being toward oneself and others. It emphasizes benevolent wishes, while compassion practice centers on suffering and its relief.
Suffering : An unpleasant experience involving physical pain, psychological distress, or serious loss. Recognizing suffering is the central focus that compassion practice asks practitioners to hold.
Buddhism : A religious and philosophical tradition originating in ancient India, centered on teachings associated with the Buddha. Many established compassion meditation forms developed within Buddhist traditions.
Compassion meditation research : Scientific study of how compassion meditation affects mental processes, behavior, and health. Studies examine which outcomes follow training and how reliably they can be measured.
Tonglen : A Tibetan Buddhist meditation that imagines taking in suffering and sending out relief or well-being. This is a specific compassion practice using breath and paired imagery.
Altruism : Behavior intended to benefit another person, sometimes at a cost to oneself. Compassionate intention can motivate altruistic action, though meditation alone is not action.
Mahayana : A major Buddhist tradition emphasizing the bodhisattva ideal and the liberation of all beings. Its ethical ideal of universal compassion informs several meditation practices.
Prosocial behavior : Behavior intended to benefit other people or society. Experiments investigate whether practice increases helping and other beneficial actions.
Compassion-focused therapy : A psychotherapy developed to reduce shame and self-criticism by cultivating compassion and emotional regulation. It adapts compassion training into a clinical treatment framework.
Emotion regulation : Processes that influence which emotions arise, when they arise, and how they are experienced or expressed. Practitioners may need to remain emotionally present without becoming overwhelmed by distress.
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