Compassion in Buddhism: Meaning and the Dalai Lama's Quote

By Tim Yu, Founder & Editor · Published 8 June 2026 · Updated 2 November 2026

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Compassion is, in the Dalai Lama’s words, “an active concern for others’ well-being”, and it “is not only part of religion, it also belongs to our lives as human beings.” In Buddhism the word is karuṇā, one of the four brahmaviharas, which he glosses as “wishing others to be free from suffering”. His couplet below says the same thing twice: compassion makes others happy, and it makes you happy too. For him, looking after others and looking after yourself are not rivals.

“If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.” — The 14th Dalai Lama

What compassion means in Buddhism

The early discourses treat compassion as something trained, not only felt. In the Vatthūpama Sutta (MN 7) a mendicant meditates “spreading a heart full of compassion to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth,” and then “to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will” (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato). Compassion stands beside loving-kindness, joy and equanimity as one of the four divine abidings. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives its content as “a wish for others to be free from suffering” and notes that most lineages of Buddhism, “including the Theravāda, value and practice” these four.

In Mahāyāna traditions compassion takes the form of a vow: “all serious Mahāyānists take the bodhisattva vow, promising to become Buddhas in order to help all beings” (Charles Goodman and Aaron Schultz), on a path organised around six perfections that end with wisdom (prajñā). Compassion also has a figure, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. The Dalai Lama’s office writes that the Dalai Lamas “are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion”, and in the Tibetan schools tonglen is a practice for training it.

What ‘if you want to be happy, practise compassion’ means

Most of us treat self-interest and concern for others as a trade-off: time and care spent on others is subtracted from ourselves. The Dalai Lama’s couplet quietly denies this. By stating the same prescription — practise compassion — as the answer to both wishes, he claims that the divide is false. The very thing that benefits others turns out to benefit you.

He is not being naïve about it. His point, developed across his writing, is that a mind absorbed in itself — its worries, grievances, and demands — is a small and anxious place to live, while a mind turned toward others’ wellbeing is naturally more open, steady, and content. Compassion, in this view, is not a sacrifice you make despite wanting to be happy; it is, as it happens, the most reliable route to it.

That is a strong claim, and he means it as something to test, not merely believe — which fits a tradition that prizes verifying teachings in your own experience.

Where ‘practise compassion’ comes from — and who said it

The line is the Dalai Lama’s own, from his essay on compassion and the purpose of life, published on his official site, dalailama.com. We attribute it to him, not to the Buddha — though it grows from the heart of Buddhist ethics. (You will often see it pinned to the book The Art of Happiness; that attribution is unverified, so we cite the essay instead.)

The Dalai Lama, who describes himself as “a simple Buddhist monk” and whom his office calls “the spiritual leader of Tibet,” teaches in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and compassion (karuṇā) is the centre of his message — the natural partner of the loving-kindness the Buddha taught. To read more about him, see our profile of the Dalai Lama.

Browse more sourced lines in our Buddhist quotes collection.