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Karuna

karuna
Chinese name
Chinese
Literal meaning mercy
Burmese name
Burmese ကရုဏာ
IPA [ɡəjṵnà]
Tibetan name
Tibetan སྙིངརྗེ
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet từ bi
Thai name
Thai กรุณา
Korean name
Hangul 자비
Japanese name
Kanji 慈悲
Bengali name
Bengali করুণা
kôruna
Tamil name
Tamil கருணை karuai
Sanskrit name
Sanskrit karuā
Pāli name
Pāli karuā

Karuā (in both Sanskrit and Pali) is generally translated as compassion. It is part of the spiritual path of both Buddhism and Jainism.

Karuā is important in all schools of Buddhism. For Theravāda Buddhists, dwelling in karuā is a means for attaining a happy present life and heavenly rebirth. For Mahāyāna Buddhists, karuā is a co-requisite for becoming a Bodhisattva.

In Theravāda Buddhism, karuā 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 karuā:

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

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