Compassion im Buddhismus

Abstract

In all forms of Buddhism, compassion (karunā) counts as a major spiritual-ethical ideal. Particularly within the various schools of Mahāyāna-Buddhisms this ideal has come to take a central position. Following a brief description of the basic principles of the Buddhist understanding of compassion, this paper outlines the further development of this concept in the writings of four classical Buddhist authors (Buddhaghosa, Śāntideva, Gampopa, Shinra) concluding with a few remarks about the role of compassion in the interreligious ecumenism of the 14th Dalai Lama.