Compassion is recognised as a fundamental human trait, a hard-wired cognitive mechanism to ensure the survival of the species. Without compassion, it’s unlikely that our most ancient ancestors could have sustained extended family units. developed them into tribes and, through collaboration, founded proto civilisations. So why is compassion important here? Evolutionary psychologists contend that collaboration underpins human societies. And it naturally follows that concern for the wellbeing of all group members was a smart strategy to sustain cohesion and allowed these groups to survive threats and challenging conditions.
There is one additional factor to introduce to complete this picture, compassion must have inevitably been nondual, supporting self and others. Only compassion extended to the whole group, including you and me, makes any sense. If I weaken myself or another group member, the loss to the group is the same. By protecting and caring for myself and other group members, the chance of individual and collective survival is likely to have been much greater.
Although this is an emerging area of scientific interest, there is ample evidence that humans get great benefits through pro-social activity and caring for others. Compassion, in particular, is seen to benefit both the person sharing compassion as well as its recipient. It seems likely then that the compassionate cognitive structures that served humans so well in the distant past are still present within us. This doesn’t mean that humans have to be compassionate but suggests compassion may be linked to our overall health, happiness and wellbeing.
So if it’s that simple, why aren’t scientists recommending compassionate meditation for everybody? Well, many renowned meditation scientists have been promoting compassion for decades. But science only reflects a relatively modern view of the human condition, and complex human traits such as compassion are still poorly understood. In addition, meditation research over the last twenty-five years has been dominated by the mindfulness revolution. And it is only now, when limitations in mindfulness research are being documented, that new, more complete understandings of meditation are being considered more widely.
If you want more details about compassion meditation in Canterbury, visit this page. If you’d like to join a free online Compassion meditation group, send us a message with ‘Compassion’ in the title.
Meditation for Health 