COMPASSION

for Karen Armstrong

     Compassion does not ask you to believe,

     But feel another’s pain with empathy

     Then act in such a way as to relieve

     That anguish, just as you would wish to be.

     No faith, no doctrine, no restrictive creed,

     Just common personal experience

     That lets you recognize another’s need

     Will prompt the charity you should dispense.

     And yet belief, when rightly understood,

     At root means loving, prizing, holding dear;

     A creed is a commitment to do good

     And knowing this, what’s right to do comes clear:

         Do unto others as you’d have them do,

         If you were in their circumstance, to you.

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