Compassion and Amity, or “all-interwovenness”
Betty Heimann on Buddhism

After having discarded bodily suffering as an aim and also the ethical suffering underlying the Karma-theory, we have now to investigate whether or not Compassion, suffering with and for others, is a desirable end in itself. The Buddhist concepts of Karuna and Maitri are both often interpreted in this way. Again, we start with the literal translation of both these terms. Karuna (from root Kar, to do, and suffix -una tending towards) expresses the tendency to do or to help. This means "com-passion" or "sym-pathy" in the sense of an obligation towards all fellow-beings based on the assumption that all of them are essentially of the same nature as we are ourselves. Duties and rights are assigned to oneself, but also duties and rights are acknowledged for all other beings. Fraternity impels to altruistic action. Ethical suffering, active Compassion, thus may imply inconvenience for oneself, but this is a necessary consequence only of all-interwovenness. The second Buddhist term for Compassion also does not emphasize suffering, but again only implies a cosmic interconnection and obligation. We have to trace back this Buddhist term maitri (Pali metta) to ancient Rgvedic times. Maitri is derived from mitram, friend or friendship. Mitram, the friend, is significantly always used with a neuter ending. Neither masculine nor feminine personal relationship is the main stimulus for friendship. Friendship is the acknowledgment of a cosmic "uni-versal" partnership, a "con-tract", a suprasubjective "con-nection." Maitri, then, goes beyond subjective feeling of personal duhkha. Karuna and Maitri are obligations which in a way give relief from the "fiction" of isolated singleness.

heimann_main_dogma.pdf — Betty Heimann, Within the Framework of Indian Religion the Main Dogma of Buddhism, Numen, Vol. 8, Fasc. 1, (Jan., 1961), pp. 1-11; spec. p. 9.