Compassion is not pity. Pity keeps distance. Compassion moves toward. The word itself means “to suffer with” — to let another’s pain touch one’s own nervous system.
Mahayana Buddhism‘s Bodhisattva vows not to enter final liberation until all beings are free — a promise rooted in Karuna, compassion for all that suffers. The paired practice is Metta, lovingkindness.
Christianity centers it as Agape — the love that does not depend on the worthiness of its object. Sufism knows it as rahma, inseparable from the divine Name itself.
Every tradition agrees: compassion without wisdom becomes sentimental; wisdom without compassion becomes cold. They must be grown together.