Compassion and Other Creatures

Tibetan Wheel of Compassion (credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who owns a dog, a cat, or parrot realizes that these creatures have modes of behavior that mimic what we call emotions. What about compassion? That's a trait we humans tend to believe is unique to us. Buddhists speak about sentient beings as anything that expresses consciousness or self-awareness while the dalai lama says compassion is the best of deliberate actions.

A video taken by a tourist on a wildlife safari in a Kenyan nature reserve shows the definition of compassion requires expansion to other creatures than ourselves. The hard part will be to try and understand the psychological basis for actual animal behaviors and how they fit within our definition of ?sentient and compassionate beings". WHB

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