If you look at current news headlines, you’ll be overwhelmed with an unfathomable amount of violence and tragedy happening in the world right now.
But even in countries not afflicted by poverty, disease, and military conflict, there remains a vast, unseen field of mental suffering — suffering caused by a lack of values and meaning in people’s lives.
How do we try to counter that? “Our tendency is toward self-centeredness: to seek out pleasure and to avoid suffering,” Satyaraja says in his talk on the Free Buddhist Audio website. “But karuna meditation challenges us to reverse that tendency, to move toward suffering and engage with suffering.” This is what we’ll explore in this article.
What Is Karuna Meditation?
Meditation on compassion, karuna, is the second of four meditations included in the Buddhist brahmavihara practice, also known as the four sublime states of mind.
The first one, metta (or lovingkindness), aims to cleanse the mind of anger and resentment. “Karuna comes into being when metta meets [the] suffering [of another person],” Satyaraja explains. I’ve written a detailed guide on how to practice lovingkindness meditation and recommend you try it first before reading this article.
“Meditation exercises are just a very concentrated form of how you want to live your life,” Satyaraja continues. And karuna meditation is one example of that. It cultivates compassion for all those afflicted with suffering. “May you be free of suffering and causes of suffering,” you say again and again to yourself and others as you visualize them in the six stages of karuna bhavana. Here’s how to practice it.
How to Practice Buddhist Meditation on Compassion, Karuna
1. Cultivate Lovingkindness Toward Yourself
Lovingkindness meditation is the root of brahmavihara practice. That’s why, in the first stage of karuna meditation, you start by cultivating lovingkindness. Develop a response of friendliness and kindness toward yourself, wishing, “May I be well, may I be happy.” As you say these words, try to feel their meaning as deeply as possible. Keep attention on that friendly response.
Important note: Karuna meditation is the second of four meditations in the brahmavihara practice. Therefore, it’s vital that you learn metta meditation first. If your main goal is to concentrate on karuna meditation, try lovingkindness meditation at least once.
2. Call to Mind Someone You Know Who Is Suffering
Next, bring to mind someone you know who is suffering. They may be suffering from physical or emotional pain, going through a breakup, or grappling with the consequences of past unskillful actions.
It’s important that you take in the whole person. Don’t view them as a victim; see them as a person with their own resources and responsibility for their life. Reflect on their struggles and allow your lovingkindness to connect with their suffering. You can say, “May you be free of suffering and causes of suffering.”
3. Think of a Good Friend Who Is Suffering
When you think of a good friend, follow the same process as in the previous stage. Consider how your friend is suffering in some way and connect with them through lovingkindness in your heart. Focus on the strong wish to alleviate your friend’s pain and suffering.
4. Turn Your Attention to a Neutral Person Who Is Suffering
When you turn your attention to a neutral person, you can think of someone you know but have no strong feelings about, whether positive or negative. Again, take in the whole person and reflect on their struggles.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know any specific details of their life. What matters is that they’re just like you. They experience old age, sickness, death, disappointment, and separation from loved ones, just as you do. This universal experience creates a sense of solidarity with all beings through compassion.
5. Bring to Mind a Difficult Person Who Is Suffering
Repeat the same process when you bring to mind a difficult person or your “enemy.” When you reflect on their struggles, it takes the sting out of your enmity. If you realize someone is suffering, it’s very difficult to sustain animosity.
“If they’re really as bad as they seem, then the appropriate response is compassion rather than hatred,” Satyaraja insists. “If you see that they’re suffering, do you really want to increase their suffering? Probably not.” Then he quotes a line from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
6. Develop an Equal Response of Compassion Toward All Five People and the Whole World
In the sixth stage of karuna meditation, you bring to mind yourself and four other people, cultivating an equal response of compassion toward them all. Here, you can reflect that you, too, experience suffering, just like them. Then expand this desire to alleviate suffering to yourself, everybody in the room, and the whole world.
“And we just see that suffering, dukkha, is part of the human condition. … [It’s] like a huge cloud … hanging over the world, and you don’t have to go very far [to see it]” Satyaraja says. “You just have to look at the news … [or] people around you, and you just see there’s a lot of dukkha in the world.”
10-Minute Karuna Guided Meditation Audio
Here’s a 10-minute audio with karuna meditation script by Satyaraja, courtesy of Free Buddhist Audio.
How to Use This Recording:
- Read the steps above.
- Choose a comfortable meditation posture.
- Press “play,” close your eyes, and listen to instructions.
- Don’t worry about periods of prolonged silence. The sound of the bell will signal the start and end of each step.
What Are the Far and Near Enemies of Compassion?
In this five-minute excerpt, Satyaraja talks about the far and near enemies of compassion, such as cruelty and pity, which you need to reflect upon if you want to master karuna bhavana.
What Book Should I Read to Learn More About Buddhist Compassion Meditation?
If you want to learn more about Buddhist compassion meditation, I recommend a book titled Brahma Viharas: Divine Abodes by Jayan E. Romesh.
The Brahma Viharas are the sublime qualities: the essential nature and radiance of the enlightened heart. They are also known as the Four Immeasurables. As these qualities grow within us through diligent practice, they extend immeasurably to all living beings throughout all realms of existence.
They are the great removers of tension, great peace-makers in social conflict, and great healers of wounds suffered in the struggle for existence. These noble qualities reduce social barriers, build harmonious communities, awaken the slumbering generosity within us, and revive the joy and hope long abandoned.
Through deep contemplation and dedicated practice of The Brahma Viharas, we transform our hate, greed, and delusion. [The Brahma Viharas] should become our inseparable companions, and we should be mindful of them in our daily activities.
The Buddha tells us, “Cherish all living beings with a boundless heart, radiating kindness over the entire world.”
Final Thoughts on How to Practice Karuna Bhavana
“In the karuna bhavana, you may find, first of all, that you … don’t feel very much for other people’s suffering,” Satyaraja observes.
“Just stay with that, acknowledge that, and start looking for the seeds of some sort of response. It may take a while. But in that way, we actually get to know ourselves, and we get to know how we relate to suffering,” he concludes.
Complement karuna, the Buddhist meditation on compassion, with Brahma Viharas: Divine Abodes by Jayan E. Romesh and then revisit our articles on how to practice lovingkindness meditation, 3 best Sharon Salzberg books on lovingkindness, and 100 best quotes on kindness to improve mindfulness.
I’m a freelance writer and mindfulness advocate behind this blog. I started my meditation practice in 2014, and in 2017 I launched this website to share what I learn with others. Here are the three things you can do here:
1. Schedule a free consult if you want to learn Buddhist meditation.
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3. Hire me as a freelance writer for your blog. I can write about wellness and digital marketing (learned about it while running this website).
