Compassion & Peace

Abstract

Peace is a vital preoccupation of our time, and indeed of every time in recorded human history. But for a great many people past and present, peace has been and remains not only elusive, but an unknown, or at any rate an 'unfamiliar' or lesser-known compared to conflict, violence and war. We can question whether peace, in the fullest sense of the word, exists in more than a very few scattered places on the planet even today. For these reasons we need to dig beneath the surface if we wish to realize the human potential for peaceful behaviour and celebrate the most worthy kinds of humanity residing within us. One path leading in this direction is to investigate compassion. I'll begin by saying what compassion is and what distinguishes it from anything else to which it might be compared. Then I'll discuss the relationship between compassion and peace, and evaluate the role compassion must play in realizing a peaceful and nonviolent world order.