In 2008, religious historian Karen Armstrong received the TED Prize, an award given to visionary leaders whose work can change the world. Her wish was to create a Charter for Compassion — a global effort to restore compassion to the heart of public life. She believed that compassion, shared across all religious and ethical traditions, could serve as a foundation for repairing some of the world’s deepest wounds.

This beautiful idea sounds simple: to live with compassion, to approach others with empathy
instead of suspicion. Yet, as anyone who has tried it knows, it is definitely not easy. Compassion
is not sentimental or naive. It demands strength, courage and the willingness to see ourselves in those we might otherwise call enemies.

Compassion does not excuse cruelty or ignore injustice. It doesn’t mean we stop naming what is harmful or cease resisting what is wrong. Rather, it calls us to act from a place of shared humanity instead of hatred. Compassion helps us hold one another’s pain without becoming hardened by it. It allows us to resist oppression without becoming oppressors ourselves.

History offers many luminous examples. Gandhi taught that genuine love cannot be selective. He said that if we only love those whose behavior pleases us, our love becomes “a mercenary affair.” Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison, chose reconciliation rather than revenge when he held the power of the presidency. The Dalai Lama, despite so many years under threat in exile, has continued to preach that “one-sided victory is no longer relevant.”

Each of these leaders understood that compassion is not weakness — it is a deeper kind of wisdom that honors the reality of our interdependence. Sacred texts echo the same truth. In the Torah, we are told: “If a stranger lives with you in your land, do not molest them. You must love them as yourself — for you were once strangers in Egypt.”

Jesus, formed by this wisdom, quoted from these scriptures and urged his followers to extend love beyond the comfortable circle of those they liked: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.”

Across traditions, compassion emerges as a great spiritual equalizer — one that dissolves boundaries and exposes our shared divinity.

Practicing compassion in today’s world can feel almost impossible. How do we respond with compassion when confronted by cruelty, corruption or hate? How do we remain open-hearted when we are terrified and exhausted? There are no simple answers. But every small act of compassion — every moment we choose listening over accusation, kindness over contempt — creates a space for transformation.

The Dhammapada reminds us, “Never does hatred cease by hating in return. Only through love
can hatred come to an end.” Our individual acts of compassion will not eradicate suffering, but it can help us transcend our own hatred for the “other,” and that creates possibilities where they did not exist.

Each breath we take in compassion softens the ground for peace. It begins with us — and it is the work of a lifetime.

The Rev. Dr. Kharma R. Amos is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, uubrunswick.org.