For millennia, Buddhists have tried to develop the value of compassion. After millions of hours of meditation, Buddhism has come to the conclusion that compassion is the virtue that makes the human being reach his fullness.
Did you know that if you don't give alms to the beggar on the corner of your house, your moral principles are affected? Of course you will find thousands of justifications for not giving him a coin but unconsciously, not giving him a coin makes you feel more amoral.
I'm not saying it. Says a new study published in Psychological Science.
Typically, people assume that ignoring their compassionate feelings comes at no cost. However, the research authors suspected that this was not true:
Compassion is an extremely powerful emotion. It has been called the moral barometer », says one of the researchers.
The choice to "not be nice" is a common experience. "Many of us do this in everyday life," says one researcher. We refuse to give money to a homeless person, change the channel on our television when we see a news about people starving in a faraway land, and we deny our help to people in need.
This research goes to show that people who suppress their compassion for the suffering of others, puts them in a greater risk of acting immorally in the future.