If we are to evolve further as a species, there are certain qualities that will need to be valued over others.

One such quality is compassion – the emotion that we feel when we witness the suffering of others.

Whereas empathy is the ability to recognise the emotions of others, compassion is the action that ensues from recognising suffering and wishing to alleviate it.

As such, it is an active quality, in that it makes us want to intervene in some way in order to reduce or prevent suffering.

This can manifest itself in the simple, yet impersonal act of giving money to charity – or it can find expression in someone giving their time and energy to another person in need of help.

However it finds expression, compassion is essential for the peaceful operation of human society.

Compassion can be viewed as the emotional embodiment of the Golden Rule  – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

All of us will have benefited at some point in our lives from the compassionate actions of another fellow human.

We therefore have a responsibility to do the same for others when we have the opportunity.

In The Art of Happiness, the Dalai Lama says:

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.

It is essential that we demand it of our leaders and teachers.

And as parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, we have a huge responsibility in teaching our young the values of compassion, kindness and altruism.

Recent studies have shown that, whilst there is a region of the brain that is dedicated to the expression of compassion, it is generally through learning (by following the example of others) that the quality itself is developed in our behaviour.

We therefore all have within us the capacity to make the world a better place. It is our responsibility to ensure that this capacity is developed and nurtured.

Learning and teaching compassion can be an act of conscious creation for a more evolved human race.