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The third positive feeling is the feeling of compassion. This plays a vital role in the development of the Ahimsa attitude for the common citizen. Unless the pain of others moves one, he cannot initiate himself into Ahimsa.
When a person suffers pain, broadly speaking, two types of feelings are born in reaction to the cause of pain. One is to strike against the individual or group that inflicts the pain; the other is to remove the cause that triggered the action that inflicted the pain. The first is born out of the natural instinct of immediate survival, which turns into anger and then vengeance. The second is born out of the capacity to reason and the farsightedness acquired through human intelligence and memory.
Starting from this initial point, the humans have refined both these feelings and the actions guided by them. The advances of the first are seen in individual and group advancements in the field of combat. The advances of the second are seen in the individual and institutional advancements in the fields of humanity, sciences, religion etc.
Compassion is the basis of all progress towards removing the causes of pain. It is one of the forces that pushes us towards sincere observation of Ahimsa. Without compassion, the principles of Ahimsa cannot come out of the volumes of canons and influence the common man, and all the talk about humanitarian endeavours and progress toward purification remain academic. Unless one is moved by the pain of others, it is almost impossible for him to be really active towards ultimate purification, where compassion transcends into pulsating bliss resonating around and from the liberated soul.
Fourth is the feeling of equanimity, which denotes a balanced state of mind. It includes, besides other subtle
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