Karuṇā
| karuna | |||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 悲 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | mercy | ||||||||
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| Burmese name | |||||||||
| Burmese | ကရုဏာ | ||||||||
| IPA | [ɡəjṵnà] | ||||||||
| Tibetan name | |||||||||
| Tibetan | སྙིངརྗེ | ||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | từ bi | ||||||||
| Thai name | |||||||||
| Thai | กรุณา | ||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||
| Hangul | 자비 | ||||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||||
| Kanji | 慈悲 | ||||||||
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| Bengali name | |||||||||
| Bengali | করুণা kôruna |
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| Tamil name | |||||||||
| Tamil | கருணை karuṇai | ||||||||
| Sanskrit name | |||||||||
| Sanskrit | karuṇā | ||||||||
| Pāli name | |||||||||
| Pāli | karuṇā | ||||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | cíbēi |
| Wade–Giles | Tz'u2-pei1 |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Wylie | snying-rje |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Romanization | jihi |
Karuṇā (in both Sanskrit and Pali) is generally translated as compassion. It is part of the spiritual path of both Buddhism and Jainism.
Karuṇā is important in all schools of Buddhism. For Theravāda Buddhists, dwelling in karuṇā is a means for attaining a happy present life and heavenly rebirth. For Mahāyāna Buddhists, karuṇā is a co-requisite for becoming a Bodhisattva.
In Theravāda Buddhism, karuṇā is one of the four "divine abodes" (brahmavihāra), along with loving kindness (Pāli: mettā), sympathetic joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha). In the Pali canon, the Buddha recommends cultivating these four virtuous mental states to both householders and monastics. When one develops these four states, the Buddha counsels radiating them in all directions, as in the following stock canonical phrase regarding karuṇā:
He keeps pervading the first direction—as well as the second direction, the third, and the fourth—with an awareness imbued with compassion. Thus he keeps pervading above, below, & all around, everywhere & in every respect the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with compassion: abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.
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Wikipedia