Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.
Pity arises when we are sorry for someone.Compassion is when we understand and help wisely.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pity and compassion are fundamentally different; pity is merely feeling sorry for someone, while compassion involves understanding and actively assisting them.
This quote by Gautama Buddha highlights the distinction between pity and compassion. Pity comes from a place of superficial sympathy, where one feels sorrow for another's misfortune without necessarily understanding their situation. In contrast, compassion is a deeper emotional connection that includes a genuine understanding of another's suffering, leading to the desire to help in a meaningful and wise manner. This perspective encourages us to go beyond just feeling sorry for those in pain and to actively engage with their struggles to provide support and relief.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about empathy at a charity event.
More from Gautama Buddha
All quotes βA kind man who makes good use of wealth is rightly said to possess a great treasure; but the miser who hoards up his riches will have no profit.
There are having flowers in Spring, breezes in Summer, moon in Autumn, snows in Winter. If there is nothing worrying over you, it will be the best seasons at all times.
Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge. Make truth your island, make truth your refuge; there is no other refuge.
When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error.
The tongue like a sharp knife ... Kills without drawing blood.
Similar quotes
Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.
In doing your best serving others for free, a lot of eyebrows will raise and sneers will curve many a - faces. But in the end those incredulous to what you put up with to help, no longer matter. It's not between you and those snobs, but with whom you have given your hand to lift, and of course to God who Is watching and noting it in your book.
It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them.
I wanted to be a doctor at some point, and I was always bringing home strays from school: people who were too poor to pay fees or have food. My parents never rebuked me or told me that they were hard-pressed, too.
It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.
Be compassionate to everyone. Don't just search for whatever it is that annoys and frightens you-see beyond those things to the basic human being. Especially see the child in the man or woman. Even if they are destroying you, allow a moment to see how lost in their own delusion and suffering they are.