I’m not the only one who feels that our collective impulse toward compassion could be at an all-time low. The Muhammad Ali Center Compassion Report of 2025 found that 61% of Americans believed compassion has declined, and only one-third said they felt compassion for everyone.

But here’s the thing: Compassion is good for our health, physically and emotionally. Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, the founder and spiritual director of Drepung Loseling and co-founder and executive director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory, has just published Engaged Compassion, a secular, seven-step training in developing compassion. [See our interview with him here.] In it, he cites many benefits to practicing compassion meditation, saying, among other things, it “reduces the stress hormone cortisol, lowers inflammation markers… strengthens the immune response.” Also, research participants experienced “higher levels of emotional well-being, less depression and anxiety and a greater sense of purpose and social connection.”

For the spiritually inclined, Mahayana Buddhists see compassion as the path to enlightenment. In the opening verses to Chandrakirti’s Introduction to the Middle Way, he says: “Compassion alone is accepted as the seed of the perfect harvest of Buddhahood, as water for its growth and as the ripened fruit that is a long source of enjoyment. Therefore, at the beginning, I praise compassion.”

So, while we may be experiencing a dearth of compassion in our culture, we have all the reasons we need to develop it. Call it enlightened self-interest. And as Negi’s book demonstrates, one can train in compassion to increase one's capacity for and use of it.

That said, there are still the barriers of attachment and hatred; that is, most of us are inclined to extend compassion only to those we know and love. Of that practice, Jesus asks, “So what?”

In Matthew 5:43–47, he says, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

Here, a deeper understanding of reality would help prompt one to develop more compassion. The Buddhist teacher Kadam Morten Clausen, who recently taught in Atlanta, says: “If you think of Geshe-le’s [Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is the founder of the New Kadampa Tradition] analogy where he says that we are like one cell in the body of all living beings, if you understood ‘I’m one cell… interconnected with all these other cells,’ and that the welfare of this one cell very much depends on what all the other cells are up to, you would look after the other cells.” Or, as Negi writes, “compassion arises from a deep, bodily understanding that we are intrinsically connected.”

Until one has a direct experience of the interconnectedness of all things, however, we need to have faith in the words of spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama and Gyatso. “All the happiness there is in the world arises from wishing others to be happy,” says Gyatso. “The path to enlightenment is really very simple — all we need to do is stop cherishing ourselves and learn to cherish others.”

I am pleased to announce that Progressive Medical Center, a longstanding leader in Atlanta’s functional/integrative medicine scene, established in 1998, will underwrite the Healing Ways department.

Progressive Medical Center helps patients achieve optimal health and wellness by targeting the root causes of their problems, not just their symptoms. The team follows a patient-focused approach that identifies and treats all aspects of patients’ physical, mental and emotional health. It creates customized treatments that draw from many medical specialties and heal the whole person with natural therapies.

Holistic healing, of course, is the core of our identity; we publish more articles in Healing Ways than in any other department. We averaged just under two Healing Ways articles per month in 2025.

Progressive Medical Center is one of Atlanta’s largest functional/integrative medicine practices with 19 practitioners, including naturopaths, chiropractors, a pediatrician, a dietician and a health coach. In addition, it runs Progressive Nutracare, a vitamins and supplements store right next door.

Please join me in welcoming Progressive Medical Center as a presenting partner for this magazine’s primary content, articles on holistic healing. ❧

Publisher of Natural Awakenings Atlanta since 2017, Paul Chen’s professional background includes strategic planning, marketing management and qualitative research. He practices Mahayana Buddhism and kriya yoga. Contact him at [email protected].