The word compassio, from late Latin, came to Castilian as compassion. The term is used with reference to the feeling that a person has when they identify with the suffering of a third party and experience sadness and tenderness for it.
Compassion is linked to empathy: the subject is able to perceive and understand that a third party is wrong. Faced with this situation, the intention arises in him to help others so that their pain is alleviated or eliminated. That is why compassion is also related to solidarity.
It can be said that, through compassion, someone else’s suffering is shared. The religions often ask their faithful who are not left with a passive compassion, which is limited to feeling sorry for the other, but invite them to take an active position to reverse the situation by the solidarity and support.
Suppose a woman walks through her neighborhood when she sees an old man begging for alms. The woman feels compassion, approaches the man and invites him to lunch. Then he gives her money so she can buy food for dinner. As can be seen, in this case compassion resulted in an act of solidarity that helped mitigate the elderly’s problems.
Compassion can also be experienced with animals. If a young person detects that, in the top of a tree, there is a cat that meows because it cannot go down on its own, they can experience compassion. In this way he returns to his house to look for a ladder, then he goes to the tree and goes up to rescue the cat in question.
Precisely, veganism is based on compassion for animals, in addition to the idea that we all have the same rights to live in freedom, regardless of our species, race or any other property that threatens to label us. Compassion is not always resolved in an afternoon, looking for a ladder to rescue an animal in distress, but it can become a “lifestyle”, or the energy that enhances the day-to-day life of those who never stop looking. out your window to avoid harming others with your actions.
Vegans do not eat or use any animal-based products, and this includes clothing, medications, and cosmetics. This decision arises from compassion, which is often awakened by being exposed to a story of cruelty or a documentary that shows the suffering of animals in slaughterhouses, but is maintained throughout life without the need to approach these misfortunes again.
In a world in which compassion was the norm, there would be no discrimination of any kind, as no one would feel threatened by differences, but rather they would arouse interest and be able to put themselves in the shoes of others regardless of cultural issues or racial. It would no longer be necessary to celebrate the act of kindness of those who take risks to save a stranger in a catastrophe, because we would all feel that need to get involved for the common good.
Compassion is very likely to be found in all human beings, as a trait conceived to assist with natural balance. Before our species proclaimed itself the most important on the planet, it had to use its natural tools to defend itself and feed itself; surely, our more remote ancestors felt compassion more often for beings of other species than we do, since they did not have the walls of pride that sustain ideas such as that “we are the most intelligent, the only ones capable of loving,” and so on.
