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Find out more at The Charter for Compassion.Org.

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• Are you interested in ensuring that all students graduate as compassionate human beings?
• Does being compassionate bring with it a responsibility to act on the “desire to alleviate another’s suffering?”
• Would sharing this post with educators and students be a reasonable first step?

Wikipedia offers a credible comment on the word compassion.

Compassion is a human emotion prompted by the pain of others. More vigorous than empathy, the feeling commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. In ethical terms, the various expressions down the ages of the so-called Golden Rule embody by implication the principle of compassion: Do to others what you would have them do to you. [Mathew 7:12]

On February 28, 2008 Karen Armstrong won the TED Prize and she wished “for help creating, launching and propagating a Charter for Compassion.” Here is what she had to say.

Since then she and many other people with the same interest have been working to develop the charter. It was a web 2.0 read-write process for anyone interested from throughout the world to come together online to communicate their stories and ideas on compassion. Over 150,000 people contributed to the process from over 180 countries.

On February 24, 2009 a multi-faith, multi-national Council of Conscience convened in Vevey, Switzerland to compose the charter using the contributions received.

Twenty months after expressing her wish, and with a lot of help from many friends, Karen Armstrong’s wish will come true. A wish that many people now embrace as their own. On November 12, 2009 the Charter for Compassion will be unveiled.

CHARTER FOR COMPASSION TRAILER from TED Prize on Vimeo.

Update: Thursday 11.12.09, Charter for Compassion Unveiled

The Charter for Compassion

A call to bring the world together…

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.